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In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen

HIGHLIGHTS: Jesper Brodin - CEO of IKEA

In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen

Norges Bank Investment Management

In Good Company, Business, Norges Bank, Nicolai Tangen

4.8 • 186 Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We've curated a special 10-minute version of the podcast for those in a hurry.  

 

Here you can listen to the full episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/jesper-brodin-inside-ikea-democratic-design-and/id1614211565?i=1000711105155&l=nb


Ever wondered how those iconic blue and yellow stores became a regular stop for shoppers around the world? In this episode, Nicolai Tangen sits down with Jesper Brodin, CEO of Ingka Group – the largest IKEA retailer, to unpack how the company is reinventing itself for the future. They explore IKEA's democratic design philosophy, the company's sustainability initiatives, and how the business is adapting with new city-center stores. Jesper shares insights from working alongside founder Ingvar Kamprad and reveals his leadership approach of encouraging risk-taking through his "banana card" system. With nearly 900 million store visitors annually, IKEA continues to revolutionize home furnishing. Tune in for a fascinating glimpse behind the flat-packed furniture empire!



In Good Company is hosted by Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management. New full episodes every Wednesday, and don't miss our Highlight episodes every Friday.

 

The production team for this episode includes Isabelle Karlsson and PLAN-B's Niklas Figenschau Johansen, Sebastian Langvik-Hansen and Pål Huuse. Background research was conducted by Une Solheim.

 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hi, everybody. Tune in to this short version of the podcast, which we do every Friday for the long version.

0:06.4

Tune in on Wednesdays.

0:09.0

Hi, everybody. I'm Nicola Tangan, the CEO of the Norwegian Southern Wealth Fund.

0:12.7

And today I'm really thrilled to welcome Jesper Broodine, the CEO of IKEA.

0:17.9

Now, IKEA, as you know, runs this iconic blue and yellow stores that have transformed

0:23.8

perhaps your living room, but for sure, hopes worldwide, and they brought a slice of Scandinavian

0:29.4

design to almost 900 million visitors every year. Wow, that's quite something. Well, that's quite

0:35.3

something. Thank you for the opportunity, Nikolai, to be part of this incredible podcast.

0:40.3

And thank you for doing the commercial for IKEA, so I don't have to.

0:44.9

Yes, I would love just to go visiting a store with you.

0:48.5

So can we just put on our customer hat and let's go into an IKEA store?

0:53.8

So we enter the door.

0:55.7

What is the first thing we see?

0:57.4

Actually, it's interesting.

0:58.7

Since I had the pleasure to work very close to Inva Campra, a founder for many years,

1:04.5

walking a store with him, I realized that there is nothing left to chance, so to say.

1:10.6

So the first thing you will actually experience

1:12.7

coming to IKEA is a person. In a time of AI and digital revolution, it could be quite

1:19.2

interesting that we believe that nothing can replace that human first impression when somebody

1:25.3

greets you and that somebody will also hand you a bag which

1:29.8

was ingvers of course inside that if we hand out bags and you will begin your shopping even sooner

1:35.3

so that is both a friendly gesture and a smart commercial trick from ikea i Now, affordable design for everybody.

...

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