March 30 – Happy Birthday, Ingvar Kamprad

nPostednon March 30, 2014

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nAnlot of entrepreneurs start pretty young.

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nThatnwas the case with Ingvar Kamprad, who was born in Sweden on this datenin 1926. When he was still a young boy, he discovered that he couldnmake a good profit by buying matches in bulk in Stockholm, and thennselling the matches in small quantities or even individually. He wentnfrom neighbor to neighbor on his bicycle, peddling his matches.

As a child, Kamprad looked ordinary.
But he had a definite gift for sales and
business!

nThennhe started to sell other things as well. Fish, Christmas treendecorations, seeds, pens and pencils.

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nAtnthis point, he was still just a kid!

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nWhennKamprad was 17 years old, he started a business whose name is annacronym for his own name plus the name of the farm and town where hengrew up: Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd.

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nYounmay have figured out that the company he started as a teenager wasnIKEA.

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nIKEAnspecializes in ready-to-assemble furniture plus appliances and homendecorations / accessories. There are 349 IKEA stores in 43 countriesn(which actually seems like an incredibly low number, given the factnthat there are four IKEAs within an hour’s drive of my house!). IKEAnsells billions of dollars worth of goods each year, and its websitencontains about twelve thousand different products!

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nKampradnhas become one of the wealthiest people in the world. n

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Didnyou know that IKEA is owned by non-profit foundations Kamprad has setnup? His INGKA Foundation is dedicated to promoting “innovations innarchitecture and interior design,” but it has partnered with UNICEFnand other organizations to provide things as varied as tsunami andnearthquake relief, schools in Liberia, and environmental projects. Itnis unofficially the world’s largest charitable organization,naccording to Wikipedia.

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IKEAnhas also entered the affordable-housing market. In other words, itsnnot just what is IN the house that IKEA is providing, it’s the housenitself. Check out IKEA’s BoKlok here.

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Didnyou know…?

nWhilen researching this post, I discovered that an IKEAs near me has an supervised play area for kids with a ball pit and a movie theater! In guess parents can drop their kids off there for free, for up to ann hour! There are also children’s play areas throughout the store (butn parents have to supervise in these) and in the IKEA restaurant.

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n (Honestly,nI didn’t even know that there was an IKEA restaurant!)

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nAnd,n get this, this IKEA host a tiny BUT FREE birthday party for then birthday kid (ages 10 or younger) and two friends, withn entertainment, soda, cake, and a birthday gift from IKEA. That’sn pretty crazy, huh?

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nInam not sure if all IKEAs have this arrangement, but I’ve discoverednthat two here in California do. So, if there is an IKEA near you,ncheck it out!

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nAlsonon this date:

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