Patel got involved with his family business, Paras Pharmaceuticals, in 1986, which marketed pain reliever Moov. The question “kya chal raha hai?” was part of a viral ad campaign for Fogg. Patel is the founder of Vini Cosmetics, the owner of, among other brands, Fogg that became the number one deodorant in sales within three years of launch. Chances are that you might not have heard of him, but you would know what I am referring to if you speak Hindi and I asked you “Kya chal raha hai?”. The second such story is of a gentleman named Darshan Patel. Today, IKEA generates more than EUR40 billion in revenues worldwide. Malcolm Gladwell writes in his bookĭavid and Goliath that an equivalent to IKEA’s move today would be Walmart setting up shop in North Korea.īut Kamprad did it, which was him being unreasonable yet again. The environment was equally difficult - the Berlin Wall was going up the Cold War was at its peak and the East and West would come to the brink of a nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was ruled by communists, did not have the infrastructure or machinery or trained workforce or legal protection that we are used to now. In the early 1960s, Poland was not an easy country to work in. IKEA faced possible ruin.ĭesperate for a solution, Kamprad decided to go across the Baltic Sea to Poland, which had cheaper labour and plenty of wood. They were angry at his low price and stopped filling his orders.

So he sold furniture that hadn’t yet been assembled but he also made it very easy for the customer to to assemble it herself.īy the mid-1950s, Kamprad ran into trouble as Swedish furniture manufacturers launched a boycott of IKEA. His first big realisation was that air transport and assembly made up much of the cost of furniture. So, Kamprad rented an old workshop to display the goods. It launched its first catalogue in 1951, but the prices were so low that people were sceptical of the quality. Starting initially by selling household goods such as pens and wallets, IKEA later started selling furniture. In 1943, he used that cash to start IKEA at the age of 17. He was dyslexic, and when he did well in school, his dad inspired him by paying him cash. He started his first business when he was five years old, buying matchbooks in bulk and retailing them. The company was founded by Ingvar Kamprad, born in the rural farmlands of Sweden.

You suddenly discover the new lamp that you didn’t know you needed, or how about that wine decanter? If you have been to one of their stores, you know how difficult it is to leave from there in any timely fashion. The first such story is that of the Swedish furniture retailer, IKEA.

But today, I shall narrate two stories that bring this statement to life. I am sure you have heard some version of this statement over the years. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man,” said the playwright George Bernard Shaw. “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.

Moov shop mirror one and all