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个人作业
本篇留学生课程作业以改编安德鲁•戴维森的文章为基础，这是2009年8月11日“星期日泰晤士报”上的一篇文章。 学生须回答以下所有的问题： 问题一 想在国外市场获得成功，一个企业需要有一个成功的价值观点。你认为，宜家家居的价值观是什么? 问题二 审慎评估宜家的进入模式和进入国外市场的选择。 进入国外市场的风险和收益是什么?如何才能减轻这些风险呢? 问题三 宜家追求什么样的策略?一个全球性的战略，跨国公司的战略，国际化战略或跨国战略?这一战略的选择有意义吗?为什么呢? 问题四
宜家业务的性质和范围，你认为什么是最合适的人力资源管理战略?什么样的战略才能服务于宜家的未来?
马丁•汉森经营着世界上最大的家具零售部，是最大的家具零售商，年仅34岁。宜家在处理经济衰退问题的时候能够推动他的发展吗?
在北伦敦尼斯登站的这半学期，宜家家具超市全面爆破。儿童游乐设备踌躇不前。在咖啡厅吃午饭的时候家庭排队购餐。夫妻推着他们的购物车，比利书柜在入口处自动扶梯的地方得到充分展示。经济衰退的时候到底发生了? Individual Assignment
This assignment is based on an article aadapted from Andrew Davidson, The Sunday Times, 8th November 2009 Students are required to answer all questions: Question 1: To be successful in foreign markets, an organisation needs to have a successful value proposition. What, in your view, is Ikea’s value proposition? Question 2: Critically assess IKEA’s choice of entry modes and into foreign markets. What are the risks and benefits of entering foreign markets? How can these risks be mitigated? What has been their strategy so far in terms of product and service adaptation? What do you think it should be for the new markets they will enter? Question 3: What strategy is IKEA pursuing: a global strategy, multinational strategy, international strategy or transnational strategy? Does this strategic choice make sense? Why? Question 4:
Taking the nature and scope of IKEA’s operations, what do you think would be the most appropriate HRM strategy for IKEA’s future?
Martin Hansson runs the UK arm of the world’s biggest furniture retailer at the age of 34. Will his handling of Ikea in the recession propel him to the very top?
Sitting comfortably in Neasden: Martin Hansson is head of an operation where sales are likely to top £1.2 billion this year
It’s half-term in Neasden, north London, and the Ikea furniture superstore is full to bursting. Children hang off the play equipment. Families queue for lunch in the café. Couples jostle their shopping trolleys past the Billy bookcase display by the entrance escalators. Whatever happened to the recession?
Martin Hansson has the answer, given in his hurdy-gurdy Swedish accent. “Well, we had negative growth before Christmas but since then it has slowly picked up, and in the past four months we have seen a real sales increase.”
No wonder the Swede is smiling. Hansson has been boss of Ikea in the UK and Ireland for 13 months, overseeing an operation that could have sunk in the recession but now looks likely to top £1.2 billion sales this year. And he’s still only 34.
That his business is thriving surprises some, who decry Ikea’s single-minded pursuit of cost-saving.
But the crowds don’t lie. Hansson’s business is the fourth-largest national subsidiary (after Germany, America and France) in what is now a £19 billion turnover group. And loping round the company office above the Neasden store, Hansson looks more like a graduate intern than boss of a 9,000-employee retail chain. What is someone so young doing running something so big?
He nods. “I was worried how they’d take me on board here, but I shared where I was with everyone when I got here. I said I was a bit nervous, and that I believed I could contribute, and I believed in us as a team.”
Then he smiles boyishly. Talking about his business, Hansson has the faith of an ardent young missionary. In a fast-tracked career, he previously worked as personal assistant to the company’s legendary founder, Ingvar Kamprad. Before that, aged just 29, he ran the retailer’s Nottingham store. He is clearly marked for the very top. So when he slips into those quasi-religious tones to explain the Ikea ethos, you realise you are dealing with more than a simple retail operation. Ikea, the world’s largest furniture retailer, operates almost like a cult — its mission is to bring cheap furniture to everyone. But in the process it has also been accused of being secretive and difficult to deal with.
“We’re not hierarchical, we’re very humble, we listen. If you have a view, express it. That’s our culture,” he says. Then he gets up and spits a sachet of sucking tobacco into the waste-basket. “It’s snus,” he laughs, showing me how he keeps a wad behind his lip. You can’t get more Swedish than that.
The Ikea ground rules were laid by Kamprad, now 83, who opened the first store 51 years ago. He still appears to control the business, despite handing ownership to a not-for-profit foundation. Rated the fifth-richest man in the world by Forbes magazine, Kamprad has a reputation as a brilliant skinflint and workaholic, never happier than when shaving costs and fond of tax-sheltering schemes.
“He was here last week,” grins Hansson. “I spent Monday and Tuesday with him, up at 5am, into the loading bay in Croydon, talking to the drivers, then the whole day on the shopfloor. Back at 8pm to the hotel, then dinner, up again at 5am . . .” The UK must be Ikea’s toughest market now. Conditions have already driven high-street names such as MFI and Land of Leather out of business. The Swedish giant, with 19 stores here, is in danger of being last man standing in a downturn that has decimated home furnishing rivals.
That, conversely, brings opportunity. Retail analysts say Ikea has been smart to broaden its ranges and increase the floorspace given to kitchens, filling the gap left by MFI. It has also brought prices down further, conscious of the growing competition in homeware from Tesco, Asda and others.
In Coventry it’s experimenting with a multistorey site closer to the city centre. Its business model, dependent on volume, previously focused on sprawling, out-of-town superstores. These are now unpopular with planners, who worry about Ikea’s sheer scale and the volume of traffic.
Yet Ikea probably needs just two more stores to outstrip Argos’s lead in the furniture market and become UK No 1. That must be frustrating for Hansson, with the head office in Sweden likely to target easier markets for growth. It has operations in 36 other countries to choose from. “Yeah but you can turn that round and say that, with a bad economy, it’s easier to get land and opportunities. Anyway, there’s no rush, we’ve been 22 years in the UK, planning permission is what it is, and we may have to find new ways of doing things, like in Coventry.” Hansson says he is focusing on existing business, tightening up areas of customer experience where Ikea hasn’t scored highly: availability of stock and poor routing through stores. He acknowledges that some have found shopping at Ikea a frustrating experience — and assembling its flat-pack furniture a nightmare. “We know that — but we do now have an installation service for the kitchen, and a home delivery service, and a finance service, and we are constantly adding more to the way we operate.” |
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