Author(s): Johan Stenebo

Business

Johan Stenebo was for 20 years one of the leading directors of IKEA while it turned itself into the world's largest flatpack furniture retailer with 700 million visitors a year. During these years, he was the personal assistant to Ingvar Kamprad, the billionaire founder and owner of IKEA, set up its Leeds store that broke profit records, was global director of key furniture areas, and latterly CEO of investment company IKEA Greentech. In this authoritative book, he writes frankly about Kamprad's inspirational leadership of the company built in his image from a provincial store in Sweden, as well as Kamprad's Nazi links, IKEA's low wage bill, exceptional profits, complex Stasi-like business culture with spies, and resourceful ways of using the media and companies like Greenpeace and WWF to cover environmental issues. No company director has ever written a more open book about the company's extraordinary success and failures (and he is likely the last).