IMHO: Beyond flat-packs: What IKEA’s arrival means for purpose-driven governance

In December, IKEA will finally open its first New Zealand store in Auckland. I’m old enough to remember the opening of IKEA’s first UK store in 1987 – but I don’t recall it generating quite this level of excitement. For many, IKEA’s arrival promises affordable Scandinavian design and meatballs. For me, it represents something deeper – the arrival of a company that has demonstrated over decades what can be achieved by challenging the status quo, leading with values and being single-mindedly purpose-driven.

Behind the blue-and-yellow logo stands Ingka Group, the largest IKEA franchisee and the operator of nearly all IKEA stores worldwide. While the IKEA trademark and concept are owned by Inter IKEA Systems B.V., Ingka Group is responsible for global retail operations, investment activities and the company’s world-leading approach to business governance. It’s a governance model that focuses people and sustainability around a widely understood core purpose and combines it with distributed accountability – and it works.

Ingka Group has shown that commercial success and positive societal impact are not opposing forces; its integration lies at the very heart of IKEA’s success. Its stated purpose – to create a better everyday life for the many people – is not a slogan but an organising idea. It shapes everything from how products are designed and priced to how materials are sourced, employees are treated, stores are powered and decisions are made in the boardroom.

Happily, Ingka is prepared to share and foster greater understanding of its success and the potential of being purpose-driven. First published in 2017, Ingka Group released its latest People & Planet Consumer Insights & Trends Report – a global study conducted with Canadian research partner GlobeScan – in October this year. Together their work tracks and captures the pulse of public expectations of business around the world. New Zealand directors should pay attention to the numbers. They might also pause to ask a simple question – why does a company that sells furniture publish such a report?

Despite the divisions fuelled by short-termist populist politicians, the squeeze of rising costs and the chaos of click-bait misinformation, something essential endures: people still care about one another, they fear for the climate, they dislike injustice and they long for a future – and a world – that is fair for everyone.

• • 64% worry about climate change and almost half feel personally affected.
  • 82% want companies to pay living wages and 36% say they boycott brands that fail to treat workers fairly.
  • Seven in 10 consumers want clearer communication from businesses about the environmental and social impact of their products.
  • Younger generations are leading, pioneering circular habits such as buying second-hand, renting and repairing.

This is not a consumer-trends report – it’s a governance signal and a wake-up call 
for boards. New Zealand stands at its own inflection point. Productivity is slipping, inequality is widening and, like elsewhere in the Western world, trust in both business and government is eroding. Yet there is also a deep-seated belief among Kiwis that we can, and should, do better – that values matter and that what unites us is far greater and more powerful than what divides us.

IKEA’s success offers three key lessons in the power of purpose as an organising idea – one that unites an entire enterprise, delivers measurable outcomes and drives long-term sustainable success:

1. Make purpose the organising idea
   Purpose only delivers when it sits at the heart of strategy and operations – not as an add-on or aspiration. From flat-pack logistics to renewable energy and circular design, IKEA has built its entire system around one clear idea. Everything else flows from that core purpose.
2. Align purpose with real-world value
   The Ingka/GlobeScan report shows that saving money remains the top motivator for sustainable behaviour. IKEA’s genius lies in linking purpose with affordability – proving that what’s good for people and planet can also be good for profit. Boards that align purpose with everyday value creation turn ideals into enduring commercial success.
3. Govern for the long term
   IKEA’s purpose endures because its governance model demands it. Ingka Group’s structure – a foundation with a long-term ownership mandate – protects purpose from short-term pressures and political fashion. Boards that design governance around purpose, not quarterly results, create the conditions for consistency, innovation and trust.

When the doors open in December, IKEA will undoubtedly attract large crowds eager to experience its mix of design, efficiency and Scandinavian charm. But the bigger story is what those crowds are recognising and rewarding through spending their hard-earned cash. Simply put, that is an approach to business superbly executed every day at scale, across the world by a company that has embedded purpose into the core of its governance, operations and culture – and prospered as a result.

Neil Gaught FRSA is an award-winning author, internationally recognised purpose thought-leader, conceiver of the Single Organising Idea (SOI®) and an expert contributor to ISO 37011, the international purpose-governance standard due for publication in 2026.