IKEA Global Sourcing Challenge

IKEA Global Sourcing Challenge: Case Study
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IKEA Global Sourcing Challenge
Background of the study
IKEA Company has been in the furniture business in Sweden since 1986 under the ownership of Ingvar Kamprad. For 70 years, the company has been growing steadily with deep-rooted business cultural values and beliefs at its course of operation. In 1951, the company was fully specialized in interior equipment whereby the management established a display store in Flmhult. The store allowed several customers to access the company’s products for sale. During this period, IKEA company faced several challenges regarding supplier management due to stiff competition from trade cartels opposing the IKEA trading. These cartels threatened the IKEA Company from participating in trade fairs forcing the Ingvar Kamprad to look up for new suppliers outside the parent country. At this point, IKEA Company taught its new suppliers on its processes and provided machinery for furniture making. Among the states Ikea invests in new supplier comprises of Poland, Norway, Switzerland, Pakistan, and India (Bartlett, Dessain, Sjöman & Harvard Business School, 2006).
Problem Statement
In the 1990s, IKEA was among the top largest corporation in the world specialized in furniture. During this period, the corporation identified paramount issues concerning the social and environmental problems at the course of their operation. One of the outstanding issues that came to the attention of the company was child labor in 1994 associated with their suppliers in Pakistan and India.

The company was among the talk-list related to child labor among their suppliers in India and Pakistan.
Case Analysis
The company caught unaware of the supplier’s unethical practices was one of the challenges that faced at the course of import of materials such as weaving looms. The new manager, Marianne Barner, was met with a great challenge to cut off one of the major supplier Indian rugs from their materials. It is one of the social issues the organization needs to look at before getting an association with other stakeholders (Bartlett, Dessain, Sjöman & Harvard Business School, 2006). The corporate social responsibility is one of the essential self-regulatory frameworks aimed at enhancing social accountability (Jeffrey, Rosenberg & McCabe, 2018). Marianne as a new manager had to apologize on the child labor issue associated with their suppliers in India and Pakistan and cut of these suppliers. The CSR course of action should enhance better business relationship with the society among other stakeholders. Marianne further contacted UNICEF Swedish save Children on the issues and advised on the course of action to end child labor in India. In 1995, Marianne traveled to India to address the issues in person to their suppliers on the violations of child rights under the United Nations conventions (Bartlett, Dessain, Sjöman & Harvard Business School, 2006). In conclusion, corporate social responsibility presenthe ts accountabilities of the problems facing society (Jeffrey, Rosenberg & McCabe, 2018).

References
Bartlett, C. A., Dessain, V., Sjöman, A., & Harvard Business School. (2006). IKEA’s global sourcing challenge: Indian rugs and child labor (A). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
Jeffrey, S., Rosenberg, S., & McCabe, B. (2018). Corporate social responsibility behaviors and corporate reputation. Social Responsibility Journal. doi: 10.1108/srj-11-2017-0255