1. QUESTION 1: IKEA is very Sweden-centric; that is, they like doing it the Swedish way, from the names of the furniture to the management of the company. Sweden is a neutral country so maybe this is the way to go for a global company, but, really, is it smart to be too centric to a specific country when you are a global corporation?
2. IKEA is also very "IKEA-centric." For example, the IKEA store itself will be laid out as a maze that requires customers to walk through every department before they reach the checkout stations. This forced path can seem constraining to their customers who naturally are more free spirited than the IKEA management model. Can this spell trouble in the near future or is the IKEA way a sustainable business model?
3. QUESTION 3: Strategically, having more than 1,000 suppliers results in a complex task of managing those suppliers, ensuring the quality of the products, and maintaining the IKEA brand. While we will address global supply chains later on, from a global strategy standpoint how would you manage IKEA's global suppliers?