In early spring the publishing house Alpina Business Book published a book by Lennart Dahlgren, first general director of IKEA in Russia, called “IKEA loves Russia: a story of leadership, passion and perseverance.”
The stories the book tells are particularly relevant in Ukraine, where IKEA had ambitious plans, but is now pulling back because of red tape and other obstacles to unveiling a chain of stores.
In Russia, 12 IKEA stores have opened during the last decade despite the arrogance of governors and mayors, harassment and incompetence of lower officials and controversial laws.
Here are some excerpts from Dahlgren’s book, published by Forbes.ua:
“One case was associated with the name of Mrs. [Elena] Baturina, the wife of the Moscow Mayor [Yury] Luzhkov – the famous, ambitious and prosperous business lady, and the richest woman in Russia – the case was in my mind for a long time. Baturina owned construction companies and a number of other industries, in particular, plants making furniture out of plastic".
Mrs. Baturina unexpectedly took part in one of our meetings with representatives of a company we considered a potential supplier. She entered the room in the middle of conversation, and without any introduction she said that we could buy the products of one of her businesses on her terms only.
Those were unreasonable, and totally unacceptable. Then we were told that that particular disagreement played a role as a major irritant in our subsequent conversations with her husband on the [highly problematic] construction of IKEA on Kutuzovsky Avenue. I still cannot believe that it might have been true.”
In another chapter, Dahlgren recalls an attempt to arrange a meeting between IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad and then-President Vladimir Putin. Kamprad had sent a personal letter written in German to Putin, but the president reportedly passed it on to Deputy Prime Minsiter Aleksandr Zhukov. Dahgren was not giving up, though:
“Once I found myself again in the company of people, with whom I could discuss the possibility of arranging a meeting between Kamprad and Putin. One of them said in Russian that IKEA were unlikely to want to meet Putin. I asked why. I don’t know if they were being serious or just joking but their answer was this: ‘IKEA is saving on everything. And meeting Putin would cost $5-10 million on our meter, which you’d never pay.”
Russian authorities always wanted IKEA to invest into its own production facilities, wrote Dahlgren. Swedwood, IKEA’s daughter company overseeing production, researched the market and was preparing to bid for one factory at an auction:
“Soon, a confused administrator called them [Swedwood] from the auction house to say their application wasn’t accepted. Unwillingly, he told us that someone called him from the ministry and explained that a certain Russian company should win the auction. He said there was nothing he could do to change that decision and expressed his regrets.”
Source: Forbes.ua and rumafia.com/material
