“The fear of failure is the enemy of development”

The Founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, died this week. I have never met him. Still I have learned a lot from him.

MOT has adopted the way Ingvar Kamprad and IKEA is thinking about “Concept”. From the book “The adventure Ingvar Kamprad” (freely translated):

“Nothing in the IKEA sphere is subject to disagreement and at the same time so much fellowship, so much gathering creative power and at the same time creative uneasiness, as what is called the IKEA concept. Also there is nothing the founder guard with such delicate fatherly concern as the warehouses’ ability to execute the concept. There is nothing more vulnerable to deviate from and nothing that is more important sticking to. This magical concept is like at key card that is lent to the warehouse on a franchise premise, both outside and within the IKEA sphere. The concept is the sum of all the master chef’s recipes. The frame is sacred, but within it we let the freedom and inventiveness explode. We are a concept company, Ingvar Kamprad says with determination over and over again. If we stick to the concept we will never die.”

Here are a few grains of gold by Ingvar Kamprad:

“Nobody can guarantee a company or a concept of eternal life, but no one can accuse me of not having tried to.”

“Only those who are asleep make no mistakes. Making mistakes is the privilege of the active ones.”

“The fear of failure is the enemy of development.”

“IKEA is not completely perfect. It irritates me to hear it said that IKEA is the best company in the world. We are going the right way to becoming it but we are not there yet.”