Gigi de Groot

IKEA, the Swedish furniture giant is known for its Swedishness across the world. From Singapore to Chile to Italy and Iceland everywhere you can eat Swedish meatballs at the IKEA restaurant. Furniture across their locations have Swedish names such as “kramig” (huggable) for a panda bear toy. Those who have work experience at IKEA across the world also know that their management style is Swedish everywhere you work for them. But still a company like IKEA needs to make local adjustments as Kim Wall so clearly describes in the South China Morning Post. Most customers at IKEA Shanghai over Summer came to be able to cool down and get some fresh air so they were able to sleep. IKEA employees were more busy waking up people than selling. But allowing this and probably other typical behavior has paid off as IKEA now is the largest foreign commercial landowner in China. So it does matter to allow for local differences!