Our vision is to

create a better
everyday life for
the many people

Table of
contents

IKEA &
SUSTAINABILITY

MBEC Exam assignment BE-IT

1st semester 2014
This exam assignment covers the following three courses: Microeconomics,
Business Economics (Organization theory, Accounting and Project Management)
& Communication.

MBEC Exam assignment BE-IT

1st semester 2014
Hand in before 11 am (10:59 hrs) on 19 December 2014

Table of contents
Table
of
contents
Table of contents
01

Introduction

03

3
5
6
8
10
11

02

Resource and energy

independence
03 Resource
25 Responsible
sourcing and energ
independence
Resource
and energ
39 More 03
sustainable
products
25 Responsible
independence
47 More sustainable
buildings sourcin
and tra

About the IKEA Group

01 Introduction
The
assignment
Our Swedish
roots
3 About
IKEA Group
01 from
Introduction
Message
Mikaelthe
Ohlsson
5
Swedish
roots
1.1 Our
Steve
Introducing
IKEA
Message from
Howard
3
About
the
IKEA
Group
39
More
pr
6
fromroots
Mikael
Ohlsson
58 Energy and
insustainable
our supply
ch
FY12 highlights
1.2 Message
Background
Quotes
25water
Responsible
sourcin
5
Our
Swedish
47
bu
8
Message
from
Steve
Howard
IKEA Group
Sustainability
Strategy
39 More
More sustainable
sustainable pr
6
Message
from
Mikael
Ohlsson
1.3
The Case
of Sustainability
04
Better life for
58
Energy
and waterbu
in
10
highlights
47 people
More sustainable
8
Message
from Steve Howard
1.4 FY12
Assignment
A more sustainable
life at
home
11
IKEA highlights
Group
Sustainability
Strategyand communities
58 Energy and water in
10
1.5 FY12
Problem Formulation
04
Better life for peop
16 Products for
moreGroup
sustainable
life
11 aIKEA
Sustainability
Strategy68 A great place to work
and
02 A more sustainable life at home
at home
04 rights
Better
life for peop
73 Human
atcommunities
IKEA

19 Engaging
16
Products
for a more sustainable
life
68 A communities
great
place
to wor
Content
Requirements
and
02 customers
A
more
sustainable
life at home
75 The best places
to work
supplier
at home
73
at wor
IKE
85 Strong communities
16 Products for a more sustainable life
68 Human
A great rights
place to
19 Engaging
customers
bestrights
places
w
home
73 The
Human
at to
IKE
2.1 at
Requirements
for Microeconomy 75
05 Governance85
Strong
communities
19
customers for Business
75and
Theethics
best
places to w
2.2Engaging
Requirements
Economy

contents

91 How we work
85 Strong communities
2.3 Requirements for Communication
05 Governance and et
92 Sustainability
governance and ma
2.4 Data Requirements
05 Governance
91 How we work
and et

03

25
sourcing
3.1 Responsible
Formal requirements
39
sustainable
products
3.2More
Report
Requirements
47
sustainable buildings and transport
3.3More
Delivery
58 Energy and water in our supply chain

Ohlsson
Howard

ility Strategy

fe at home

Important
Information
Resource
and
energy
independence

96 Business ethics
92
97 Public policy
91 Sustainability
How we work gover
96
ethics
92 Business
Sustainability
gover
97
Public
policy
96 Business ethics
97 Public policy

04

ustainable life

3.4 Groups
3.5 Coaching
Better
life for people
3.6

Exam
and communities
68
73
75
85

05

A great place to work

Human rights at IKEA
The best places to work suppliers
Strong communities

Governance and Page

ethics2

91 How we work
92 Sustainability governance and management

ort-

a.

en-

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s 20

ars
ngs
e
rted
al
.
the
ort10
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be

en-

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ars
the
e
to
al
plings
the
s so
rted
10
.
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er
enha
nthe
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ars
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s so
al

the

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on-

be

er

ha

the

to

pli-

s so

cent bulbs. LED also produces colours more faithfully and

A MORE SUSTAINABLE
LIFE AT HOME

lights can be built in, allowing unique shapes and designs for

1.1
Introducing IKEA
LED lamps that were not possible with traditional incandes-

The
furniture
mastodon
IKEA
is known throughout the world for their ready-tocan Swedish
be more pleasing
on the
eye than many
conventional
energy-saving
assemble
andbulbs.
functional designs. In 27 countries you can bring home some Swedish flavor
in Our
theLED
shape
of affordable and peculiarly named interior or literally, in the shape of meatballs.
range will continue to evolve as we invest in product
development and further improving affordability. For example,

A MORE SUSTAINABLE
LIFE AT HOME

rted

LED also opens up new design opportunities as the flexible

From
thetovision,
createLEDs
a better
everyday
life for the many people, IKEA has built a
we hope
introduceto
dimmable
and stronger
bulbs with
company
with
an
annual
revenue
of
over
28 billion euro and more than 135.000
a light output equivalent to conventional 100W bulbs.
LED also opens up new design opportunities as the flexible
employees.
Ikeas
main
channel
for
conveying
this
message is the IKEA Catalogue. In 2013
lights
can be
built 80
in, million
allowing
unique
and designs
for
IKEA sells
almost
light
bulbsshapes
each year.
We expect
the
printed
in awith
212
million
copies.
It is said that there are more copies of the
LED
lamps that was
were
not
possible
traditional
incandesourcatalogue
commitment
to LED
will
have
significant
impact
on the
IKEA
catalogue
printed
each
year
than
the bible.
cent
bulbs.
LEDmarket,
also
produces
colours
more
faithfully
and
overall
lighting
encouraging
other
companies
to folcan
be more
low our
lead. pleasing on the eye than many conventional
energy-saving bulbs.

Samantha Smith
Our LED range will continue to evolve as we invest in product
WWF Global Climate and Energy Initiative

1.2 Background quotes

development and further improving affordability. For example,

we hope to introduce dimmable LEDs and stronger bulbs with

A MORE SUSTAINABLE
LIFE AT HOME

ngs

MBEC Exam assignment BE-IT

1st semester 2014
Hand in before 11 am (10:59 hrs) on 19 December 2014

Climate
changewith
is a huge
threat, and
its mostly
Just
imagine,
684 million
visitors
to our stores every year, what a fantastic opporcaused
by
CO
emissions
from
fossil
fuels.
tunity we have
to provide solutions for To
life at home that are good for the environment
2
fight
it,
we
need
to
use
less
energy
wherever
we
IKEA
sells
almost
80
million
light
bulbs
each
year.
We
expect
and save money too. And, the unique way can.
we work across the value chain - designing,
Almost
ofup
global
electricity
consumption
comes
our
tonew
LEDdesign
will have
a and
significant
on volumes
the
LED commitment
also20%
opens
opportunities
asimpact
the
flexible
manufacturing,
transporting
selling
large
- means we can have a positive infrom
so in,
shifting
lighting
LED
technology
is
overalllighting,
lighting
market,
encouraging
other
companies
to follights
can
be built
allowing
uniqueto
shapes
and designs
for
fluence on every stage, often all the way from raw materials to final product.
a light output equivalent to conventional 100W bulbs.

a
cost-effective
waynot
to possible
get change
scale. IKEA
conlow
our
lead.
LED
lamps
that were
with at
traditional
incandesverting
its LED
lighting
to colours
LED willmore
havefaithfully
a real impact
cent bulbs.
also range
produces
and
From:
Sustainability
Report 2013, Peter Agnefjll, President & CEO, IKEA Group
in
Samantha
reducing
energy
Smith
use
in
many
households.
can be more pleasing on the eye than many conventional
http://www.ikea.com/ms/da_DK/pdf/sustainability_report/sustainability_report_2013.pdf
WWF
Global
Climate
energy-saving
bulbs. and Energy Initiative
Our LED range will continue to evolve as we invest in product

Another
thing thats
similar
between
cultures is cost consciousness. Growing up,
Climate change
is a huge
threat,
and its our
mostly
caused by CO
emissions
from
fossil
fuels.
To
whatever
money
was
coming
into
the
home
had to be shared by everyone living
2
we hope to introduce dimmable LEDs and stronger bulbs with
fight it, so
we we
need
to use
less energy
we can.
there,
had
to really
plan wherever
how we were
going to spend it. In Smland people have
a light output equivalent to conventional 100W bulbs.
Table of
Almost
20%
of
global
electricity
consumption
comes
a reputation for making things from small meanscontents
too. And you can see that heritage alive
18
from
lighting,
so80
shifting
lighting
to each
LED technology
is
IKEA
sells
almost
million
light
bulbs
year.
We
expect
today at IKEA when you look at how we think about recycling,
efficient product design and
a
cost-effective
way
to
get
change
at
scale.
IKEA
conour commitment to LED will have a significant impact on the
reaching the many people.
development and further improving affordability. For example,

verting
its lighting
range
to LED will
have
a real impact
overall lighting
market,
encouraging
other
companies
to folin
reducing
energy
use
in
many
households.
low our lead.

From: IKEA Group yearly summary FY13, Nisha Kanna, IKEA India
http://www.ikea.com/ms/da_DK/pdf/yearly_summary/ikea-group-yearly-summary-fy13.pdf
Samantha Smith
WWF Global Climate and Energy Initiative

Kamprads
frugal
habits
have trickled down to Ikeas management culClimate change
is a and
hugeSpartan
threat, and
its mostly
Table of
caused
by
CO
emissions
from
fossil
fuels.
To
ture, who have
famously tiny expense accounts.
Wasting resources is a mortal sin at
contents
2
fight
it,
we
need
to
use
less
energy
wherever
we
can.
Ikea, barks Kamprad in chapter four of his testament. It18is one of the greatest diseases
Almost
20% ofUse
global
electricity
consumption
of
mankind.
your
resources
the Ikeacomes
way. Then you will reach good results with small
from lighting, so shifting lighting to LED technology is
means.
a cost-effective way to get change at scale. IKEA converting its lighting range to LED will have a real impact
From: Great Ikea! Chapter
in reducing energy use in many households.

8: The Furniture Dealers Testament

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0oNR40OSICOS0Y5LWJmdDV5TGM/view?usp=sharing

Page 3
Table of

MBEC Exam assignment BE-IT

1st semester 2014
Hand in before 11 am (10:59 hrs) on 19 December 2014

1.3 The Case of Sustainability

Following the vision of improving the lives of the many, IKEA has a high focus on sustainability. The company is not only interested in improving the lives of people buying their furniture,
but also in improving the lives of all the people affected by the organization.
However, sustainability is a broad concept, which can be applied to many different things.
Seemingly diverse concepts such as economic growth and environmental issues fit under
this umbrella, yet they might conflict.
The focus of this assignment is how IKEA is working with Sustainability. Your task is to consider what IKEA means by this term and how they get around apparent paradoxes, such as
promoting consumerism by making cheap furniture or how printing millions of paper catalogues is sustainable.

1.4 Assignment
Your job is to analyse and discuss how Ikea is working with sustainability. You are required
to create a problem formulation and hand in your project in the form of a project report. The
focus of the report and the problem formulation must be within the subjects of the exam.
In other words, your project must be problem-oriented and cross-disciplinary covering the
three major subjects, which are Business Economics, Economics and Communication.
You should give attention to your design and formulation in the report. Further, you must
demonstrate your ability to analyse, discuss and prove your points. You must, of course, also
quote
your sources where relevant.

1.5 Problem Formulation

A cross-disciplinary demand is that you have to work out a problem formulation consisting of
three parts:
An overall question
A number of sub questions supporting the overall question
A justification of your problem formulation, that is why do you find it interesting and what
options have you chosen between

Page 4

MBEC Exam assignment BE-IT

1st semester 2014
Hand in before 11 am (10:59 hrs) on 19 December 2014

2.1 Requirements for Microeconomy

When examining the effects and reasons of working with sustainability at IKEA, you must
include theories and concepts from the microeconomic framework. Choose models and concepts you find relevant for your analysis.
One suggestion could be to look at the external costs and benefits in production and consumption, and relate this to Ikeas situation and the case of sustainability (relevant concepts
are externalities, social and private efficiency).

2.2 Requirements for Business Economy (Organization, Accounting

and Project Management)
You are required to cover the subject Business Economy in your report. However, it is up to
you to consider, which of the three topics explain the sustainability angle of IKEA best. You
can focus on one, two or all of them, but do make sure to justify your choices in your delimitation. Some suggestions could be:
Organizational culture theory in general and related to Ikea and the case of sustainability.
Relevant theoretical concepts could be cultural influences, culture as function, culture as
meaning, symbolism, subcultures, norms, values, artefacts, culture as control, identity and
culture etc.
Organization-environment relations in general and related to Ikea and the case of sustainability Relevant theoretical concepts could be stakeholder, network, internationalization, contingency theory, resource dependence theory or symbolism.
The financial consequences of having a sustainability approach to production could also be
considered in relation to Ikea and the case of sustainability.
Locate IKEAs annual reports, both the sustainability annual report and the commercial annual report. Focus upon the terms of mission, vision, value and the management letters of both
reports and compare them. Try to look into the income statement and the annual balance
sheet to identify tendencies and notable financial developments.
Discuss the way IKEA measure sustainability and discuss whether sustainability can be categorized as a capital asset the same way as we measure i. e. goodwill in the income statement and balance sheet.

Page 5

MBEC Exam assignment BE-IT

1st semester 2014
Hand in before 11 am (10:59 hrs) on 19 December 2014

2.3 Requirements for Communication

A MORE SUSTAINABLE
LIFE AT HOME

For the subject, Communication, presentation of the report and its conclusions is a key focus area. Further, you must demonstrate your ability to analyse, discuss and prove your
points.

Communication must always be dealt with in the sense that you should reflect on product
quality (design and formulation) as well as the group presentation of the project report.
However, you should also consider the communication aspect within the other subjects, such
as comparing the two management letters and discussing any conflicting messages between
the two.
Anfei You
Sales team, Kitchens,
2.4
Data Requirements
IKEA Shanghai Beicai
store

You are required to collect additional data about IKEA on your own. Aside from desk research
We switched all
we encourage
you to go into the field. You could conduct interviews, visit an IKEA warehouse
our lighting to
to collect artefacts or do participant observations.
LED, bought an inducInclude
a brief assessment of your collected data in the project. You need to consider the way
b, upgraded our refrigerator,
went
about our
your collection, as well as the validity of your sources.
d reusingyou
water
and sorting
We also stopped leaving appli-

on stand-by. I was impressed

hat a difference it made.

the project, I used to think that

vironment was a topic for govern-

and had nothing to do with me.

know that you can do something to

e the world, little by little every day.

to tell others about my experience

are it with customers in-store.

Table of
contents

Page 6

22

day life challenges are as important as economising

with resources. Our common sense values such as
MBEC Exam assignment BE-IT simplicity, cost-consciousness, humbleness and will1st semester 2014
power have been the basis for everything we do and
Hand in before 11 am (10:59 hrs) on 19 December 2014
still are. Weve made a lot out of very little for more
than 60 years now.

3.1 Formal requirements

The academic content of the report should reflect that the major emphasis of the project
lies within the field of business economics.

3.2 Report Requirements

The maximum length for the report text (excluding attachments) should not exceed the
amount of 10 pages + 5 pages per group member:
2 group members = Max. 20 pages
3 group members = Max. 25 pages
4 group members = Max. 30 pages
A page size A4 = 2400 characters (including space characters).
Each graphic element, image, tables and illustration count as 700 characters (regardless of
the size). The number of attachments should be limited. All pages must be numbered consecutively. Appendixes should be kept to a minimum.
The report must be readable with 1 line spacing and margins of at least 2 cm. Note
that titles, headings and sub conclusions eases readability. Use the report template on
Fronter.

Page 7

MBEC Exam assignment BE-IT

1st semester 2014
Hand in before 11 am (10:59 hrs) on 19 December 2014

Front page

Table of contents
Situation
Problem definition/
description
Problem formulation

Delimitation
Method
Analysis and
evaluation

Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendices

All reports must use a standard title page, which should contain
the following information:
1 Study and year
2 Title and maybe a subtitle
3 Group participants full names
4 Name of supervisor
5 Name of educational institution
6 Month and year
7 Number of characters inclusive spaces (a figure counts as 700
characters).
Headlines and any subheadings max depth 3. Its a good idea to
create an automatically generated table of contents from the start.
Use the report template.
A brief description of the situation and the company.
A description of the main issues, i.e. the problem(s) that the report
will investigate/solve.
A main question with possible sub questions within the
academic fields to be answered.
The main question should be in bold and in a text box so it is
clear that this is the formulation of the problem
What? mainly descriptive
Why? mainly analytical
How? mainly normative/evaluating
What are you not dealing with and why?
What are you including/excluding?
Briefly mention the main theories / models and the data collection
/ information planned and why/how they are used.
This is the main part of assignment and should be divided into
subsections with the conclusion or results. This is where the
analysis based on the theories and the data collection is presented in the Methods section.
Tables and figures in the text must be titled, numbered and have
clear reference to the source. The contents of tables and figures
should not stand alone. They must always be mentioned in the
text and have a short description.
Copy paste of the problem formulation and possible subquestions
followed by answers (from your analysis).
Alphabetically sorted by the authors surname or by the source.
Contain additional figures, diagrams, screen dumps etc. Do not
include independent analyses or assessments. These should be
included in the report. Programs,
prototypes, databases and the like must be uploaded as separate
files (if necessary in zipped files).

Page 8

MBEC Exam assignment BE-IT

1st semester 2014
Hand in before 11 am (10:59 hrs) on 19 December 2014

3.3 Delivery
Hand in your groups report in 3 (paper-) copies to the study administration before 11 am
(10:59 hrs) on 19 December 2014.
In addition, an electronic copy of the report must be uploaded on Fronter before 11 am
(10:59 hrs) on 19 December 2014.

3.4 Groups
The exam project work must be carried out in groups of between 2 to 4 members. As soon
as a group has been formed, a Word document must be placed in the correct Hand-in folder on Fronter, containing the names, email addresses and telephone numbers of the group
members. All students must be in a group by 12 December 2014.

3.5 Coaching
A coach will be assigned to each group, and he/she will provide help and guidance related
to the groups work process and the project. All groups will have access to subject guidance
as well as guidance related to the work process.

3.6 Exam
Following the hand in of the report, the specific date and time of oral examination will be
published on Fronter. The oral examination will consist of a 15-minute group presentation
followed by an individual examination of 15 minutes. The exam must show that the student
can:
Communicate with one or more target groups
Analyze and present a problem related to the subjects involved
Complete a project in a team.
Evaluation
The student will receive an individual grade for the overall performance covering report,
presentation and individual examination. The evaluation of the performance is based on
the degree to which it complies with the purpose and learning objectives of the subjects,
as described in the curriculum.
Exam Attempts
Students have three attempts to pass the same exam. The first re-sit will take place at
the beginning of the 2nd semester.

Page 9