I was moved to learn about the passing away of IKEA’s founder Ingvar Kamprad yesterday, aged 91. He was born in 1926 in Småland in southern Sweden and raised on ‘Elmtaryd’, a farm near the small village of Agunnaryd, that’s how the company also got its name IK (Ingvar Kamprad) E (Elmtaryd) A (Agunnaryd). Ingvar displayed an entrepreneurial spirit at a tender age and founded IKEA in 1943 when he was only 17, initially selling pens, wallets, picture frames, table runners, watches, jewellery and nylon stockings at reduced prices and eventually moving to retailing furniture in 1948. I once wrote about the design of a table from their catalogue which supported wireless charging which I thought integrated seamlessly with the present generation’s ubiquitous goals.
Ingvar’s journey is exhilarating, to say the least. He started his company around a rural place where people worked hard and made the most of their meagre earnings & resources. This prompted him to live and experience a simple life and develop products that supported the needs of the common individuals while keeping the costs low and focussing on good quality with frugal innovation. He often used himself as an example and to be able to feel what his customers would desire and justify the design decisions, which to me, is the greatest illustration of design-thinking.