What did you leave in your inbox at your last job?
Our client logged into his ex-employee’s inbox to recover a file. What he found exposed a bullying manager, an unowned domain, and a marketing stack he no longer controlled.
By KB
When I joined IKEA, it wasn’t just for the job title or the iconic blue and yellow brand, (even though I’m Swedish), it was because I believed in the company’s vision: ‘To create a better everyday life for the many people’.
Not the privileged few.
Not the trend-driven elite.
But the many people — ordinary people, real people, people trying to live well on the resources they have.
That ethos resonated deeply with me, and what I came to learn during my time as CMO of IKEA in Australia, the experience shaped my entire view of what good business can look like.
At IKEA, profitability was never the end goal, it was the enabler.
The founder, Ingvar Kamprad, used to say: ‘Profit gives us resources’. And without those resources, we couldn’t invest in the planet, in people, or in innovation.
It was my first real experience of the Triple Bottom Line in action: People, Planet, Profit—equally weighted, intrinsically linked, and constantly in tension.
The key was not to balance them perfectly, but to never forget any one of them.
This wasn’t theoretical. It was present in everything from product development and supply chain choices to internal leadership development and cultural renewal.
When I worked with Ingvar Kamprad’s sons to help shape the evolving culture and values of IKEA, I saw firsthand what it means to embed sustainability, resourcefulness and social responsibility into the very DNA of a business.
One of the IKEA values that continues to inspire me is this: Caring for people and planet.
In retail, whether you like to think about it or not, operations and products have an impact on the planet.
One of the IKEA business leaders said to me: sometimes, we are part of the problem—but we have decided to also be part of the solution.
That mindset is bold, humble, and courageous. It recognises the scale of the IKEA global footprint and chooses accountability over perfection.
The source of solutions can often be found in our own values — in our care for people, in our urge to avoid waste, and in our desire to create more from less.
At every level of the business, there was a relentless focus on creating more from less—cutting waste, designing products to save energy and water at home, and continuously improving working conditions throughout the entire value chain.
From supply partners to in-store co-workers, everyone mattered.
We supported human rights, prioritised child welfare, and chose progress over perfection—knowing the work is never finished, and that’s okay.
Each year, I travelled to Sweden for the global range and business plan presentation, meeting the designers and product teams who brought the IKEA democratic design philosophy to life.
One year, we were introduced to a beautiful hand-woven rug sourced from Indonesia.
The majority of the people weaving these rugs were illiterate, unable to read the instructions traditionally provided in Swedish or English.
So, instead, they created a song. The weaving pattern was passed down musically — each line of the song guiding where to place a colour, a dot, or a long block of pattern.
So they created a song. The weaving pattern was passed down musically — each line of the song guiding where to place a colour, a dot, or a long block of pattern.
The head of global rugs told this story with tears in his eyes.
“When I visited the factory,” he said, “they were all sitting together, singing the song of the rug.”
That was the moment he truly understood what it meant to know your supply chain — not as a spreadsheet, but as people, voices, and culture.
I asked him to include a QR code on the rug label so customers could hear the song in their homes.
I’m not sure it ever happened — but I still hope it might.
Imagine sitting down at your dinner table and being able to play the story of the rug beneath your feet.
That’s what business can be.
When I first stepped into the role of CMO in Australia, there was a disconnect.
Globally, IKEA was known as a leader in human rights, sustainability, and forward-thinking design.
But in Australia, it was often seen as a faceless flatpack warehouse — a maze to navigate with a trolley and an allen key.
We didn’t fix that with an ad campaign. We started with the culture.
We listened.
We brought people in.
We worked across departments, with store managers, frontline co-workers, and IKEA Family members.
We reconnected with the IKEA values — grounded in humanism, humility, fairness, and common sense — and we started living them, loudly and proudly.
The transformation took a year, but it stuck. Because it was never about rebranding — it was about realigning.
At Write Way Up, we now help businesses do what IKEA taught me to do — align people, planet, and profit into a future-proof way of working.
It’s not about ‘going green’ or being a values-driven business for show.
It’s about understanding that the most resilient, profitable businesses are the ones that put human needs, environmental context, and long-term thinking at the heart of their strategy.
Because the truth is, we’re all writing the next chapter of business. And we believe the only way is the Write Way Up.
As Growth Management Mentor at Write Way Up, I help other businesses do the same — building structure, clarity and resilience through our Profit on Purpose program and tailored Growth Management Mentoring services.
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