Monday, April 19, 2010

Group Task5: Join SWOT Group Discussions (5/04, Group 5, 6)

Group 5 will continue to share the result of their IKEA SWOT analysis next Tuesday (05/04).
Group 6 will also share their SWOT analysis result next Tuesday (05/04).

Let's get ready to join the group discussions.

The referece lists (at least 5 article links included) will certainly help.
Just click on the article links, read the articles, and be prepared to exchange ideas with the presenters!

Group 5

Group 6

Wendy

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3 comments:

  1. RonMay 4, 2010 at 7:30 AM

    Hi, I'm Ron. I think maybe you have interest in our presentation and today’s questions. I tried to find the answer and post it on blog to you as a reference.

    ~Illegal Logging in China~

    Being a large home products retailer IKEA uses around six and a half million cubic meters of wood (equal to ten thousand black forest in our school) annually in its products. In order to hold down prices, IKEA buys wood from low-cost producers in Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia, but many of these countries have few certified products. In 2005, IKEA set a goal that at least 30 percent of the wood for its products will be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council’s standard by 2009. But until 2008, only about 5 percent to 6 percent of the wood used to make its wares in China met that grade. China is IKEA's largest supplier of solid wood and Chinese factories manufacture about one-fourth of the company's products. And it almost log from illegal sources or virgin forests (natural forestry that not manage yet by human) in China, Russia, Indonesia and Myanmar.

    Taiwan has the same problem today. According to Global Forest & Trade Network of WWF, Taiwan import about a million cubic meters of wood annually which includes 1% of the world’s illegal wood trade. At the current pace of cutting, natural forests in Indonesia and Burma will be exhausted in within a decade. These forests are a wall against global warming and protect generations of people from climate change threats.


    Reference:
    Environmental Leader. (2008, December 1). IKEA Expects 30% of Its Wood to Meet FSC Standards In Near Future. Retrieved from http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/12/01/ikea-expects-30-of-its-wood-to-meet-fsc-standards-in-near-future/
    Goodman P. S., and Finn P. (2007, April 1). Forests Destroyed in China's Race to Feed Global Wood-Processing Industry. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.rainforestrelief.org/News_and_Events/News_About_the_World_s_Rainforests/Washington_Post_on_Illegal_Logging.html
    Trubins R. (2009). Introduction of GIS into IKEA's wood sourcing system: aspects of forest resource data availability and system functionality. Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre. Retrieved from http://www.essays.se/essay/76f4611fe0/

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  2. RonMay 5, 2010 at 2:36 AM

    ~Product standards of IKEA – A case of formaldehyde for its products~

    IKEA is a global business. This could make it hard to control standards and quality. For an example, Formaldehyde which is suspected of being carcinogenic (however, no scientific evidence for this) is used in IKEA products as a binder in wood-based materials such as particleboard, bentwood and plywood. It also occurs in adhesives and lacquers and in textile materials as a component in finishing treatments.

    IKEA has long worked to minimize the use of formaldehyde. Since 1986, IKEA has applied the German formaldehyde requirement for all IKEA products on all sales markets, even where no limit exists. IKEA has also introduced equivalent requirements on textiles in spite of the fact that formal requirements exist only in Japan and Finland.

    It is good news for IKEA care about his consumers’ health. But in general, IKEA does not manufacture its all products, but works through a complex network of suppliers around the world. However, some suppliers which IKEA products are made do not implement the regulations to control product qualities or working conditions. For an example, in 1992, IKEA faced a formaldehyde crisis in Germany. An investigative team found formaldehyde emissions for the Billy bookshelf, which was a globally popular product and represented many millions of dollars per year in revenue to IKEA, to be just slightly higher than the legislated requirement. The culprit was not the board itself; it was the lacquer on the bookshelves. But the impact of the coverage mattered a great deal to IKEA. This could represent a weak link in IKEA's supply chain, affecting consumer views of IKEA's products.


    ~Reference~
    IKEA. (n.d.). SWOT analysis and sustainable business planning. TheTimes100. Retrieved April 30, 2010 from http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/case-study--swot-analysis-sustainable-business-planning--110-368-5.php
    Owens H. (n.d.). IKEA - A Natural Step Case Study. THE NATURAL STEP. Retrieved April 30, 2010 from http://www.naturalstep.org/it/usa/ikea
    Zurcher J. (n.d.). ORGANIZATIONAL CASE SUMMARY - IKEA. THE NATURAL STEP. Retrieved April 30, 2010 from http://www.naturalstep.it/learn/docs/cs/case_ikea.pdf

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  3. RonMay 5, 2010 at 9:05 AM

    ~A case of management problem for IKEA~

    In 2009, IKEA was suspending further investment in Russia, apparently because of pervasive corruption and demands for bribes. Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA’s 83-year-old founder, went on Swedish radio to complain that the company had been cheated out of millions of dollars by overcharging for electricity. Actually, IKEA has been fight against the corruption of Russia.

    Days before the opening of its flagship store outside Moscow in 2000. The local utility company told them, if IKEA wanted to have electricity for its opening, it had to pay a bribe. Instead, IKEA rejected this threat and rented large diesel generators that had enough power for a shopping mall. Mikael Ohlsson, the president of IKEA, said in a statement. “Corruption is totally unacceptable for IKEA.” But it seems that IKEA had a big problem in communication and management with its Russia branch. Although IKEA had been in a long public campaign against government corruption, they found that two executives in Russia branch had agreed to a plan by a contractor to pay a bribe to an electrical company official. IKEA took this matter very seriously and had dismissed the two senior executives. But it can be seen that the scale of IKEA makes communication and management be a difficult task.


    ~Reference~
    Kramer, A. E. (2009, June 23). Ikea Plans to Halt Investment in Russia. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/business/global/24ruble.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=ikea&st=cse
    Kramer, A. E. (2009, September 11). Ikea Tries to Build Public Case Against Russian Corruption. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/business/global/12ikea.html
    Kramer, A. E. (2010, February 15). Ikea Fires 2 Officials in Russia Bribe Case. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/business/global/16ikea.html

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