IKEa is a Swedish low cost home design firm. The core competencies of this firm are that you don’t get much service but you can buy the products at a low price. In every store of IKEA are there showrooms where you can see the furniture in a real life setting before you buy the products. After you went trough the showrooms and you found something for yourself. You can pick up the products in the warehouse downstairs. This warehouse has a self-service base, so you buy immediately your products and you don’t have to order them. The products that you can pick up in the warehouse are very flat packed so they are easy to transport. The end products of IKEA are home design product as furniture, decoration and kitchens. The competencies are linked with the end products in a way that it is easy to buy the products because you don’t have to order and the product are for sale for a verily low price.
2. How did IKEA diversify?
IKEA did diversify in terms of product variety and geographically. Those components are linked to each other. IKEA first started to expand European countries and after that they expanded outside Europe. The product variety of IKEA is huge, so there are products for every taste. Although, every country has a different so IKEA has to adjust their product for the needs of the people in different countries. Because of this strategy they have a market in a lot of different countries.
3. How did IKEA expand internationally? How has the firm maintained a focus on core competencies while simultaneously adapting to local needs in host countries?
IKEA expanded internationally in 1963 by opening the first international store in Norway. IKEA was during the ‘60s and ‘70s focussed on the European market. They kept using the same products and the same operational formulas in the following years in their European expansion. This finally went wrong by expanding