Ingvar Kamprad

Ingen har gjort så många misstag som jag.

Ingvar Kamprad

Lita inte på dem som tror att dom vet, för det gör dom ofta inte.

Ingvar Kamprad

Kompensera dina brister genom att anställa den som är olik dig själv.

Ingvar Kamprad

När det blir riktigt jobbigt och klockan börjar bli tre, fyra på natten kan man ta fram kallt vatten och stoppa fötterna i. Då orkar man lite till.

Ingvar Kamprad

Se till att ditt skrivbord står så nära verkligheten som möjligt. Golvet är den bästa skolan. Själv gör jag ungefär femtio fältövningar om året. Jag börjar med att träffa chaufförerna klockan sex på morgonen och frågar om de fått kaffe och bulle.

Ingvar Kamprad

Det mesta är ännu ogjort, underbara framtid!

Ingvar Kamprad

Jag säger till ekonomerna: Vad tusan är procent för något?

Ingvar Kamprad

Du är jävligt snurrig i huvudet!

Ingvar Kamprad

Gör inga muntliga avtal, lita inte bara på ett handslag utan se till att allt blir skrivet. Ett handslag, nämligen, kan ingen jurist i världen hjälpa dig ur.

Ingvar Kamprad

De snackar om cash flow och jag säger att jag inte vet vad cash flow är men jag vet vad jag har i fickan.

Ingvar Kamprad

Tidigt lärde jag mig regeln att 1 procent i minskad försäljning gör 10 procent i minskad vinst. Tänk om vi fick motvind ett par år. 15 procent underförsäljning och hela vinsten vore utraderad. Det är därför volymen betyder så mycket.

Ingvar Kamprad

Den bästa affären gjorde jag som ung affärsman då jag importerade 500 pennor för 1 kr styck från Paris. När jag sålde dem vidare fick jag ut 4,50 … Det gav en extremt bra vinst – tänk, 500 gånger 3,50 kr på ett bräde. Det gav mig blodad tand.

Ingvar Kamprad

Aftonbladet frågade en gång om det var sant att jag var emot engångsglas. Inte alls, sa jag, tycker bara de är svåra att diska.

Ingvar Kamprad

Jag frågade mig tidigt varför fattiga människor måste hålla till godo med fula saker. Var det nödvändigt att det sköna bara skulle köpas av en elit för dyra pengar?

Ingvar Kamprad

Vinst är ett underbart ord. Politiker brukar och missbrukar det ofta. Vinst ger oss resurser, punkt slut.

Ingvar Kamprad

Bara den som sover gör inga misstag. Problem är en möjlighet.

Ingvar Kamprad

Kanske finns det ingen bättre uppfostran av en småföretagare än att ha ett föredöme. Någon att härma. Själv härmade jag morfar som sålde fisk han själv fångat i Möckeln.

Ingvar Kamprad

En sjunkande vinst plockar fram massor med kilo hjärna i en organisation. Alla vet vad de har att göra. Nu gäller nya idéer.

Ingvar Kamprad

Landet behöver fler småföretagare och det är faktiskt mycket bråttom…

Ingvar Kamprad

Att göra fel är den handlingskraftiges privilegium.

Ingvar Kamprad

När det blir riktigt jobbigt och klockan börjar bli tre, fyra på natten kan man ta fram kallt vatten och stoppa fötterna i. Då orkar man lite till.

Ingvar Kamprad

Waste of resources is a mortal sin at IKEA.

Ingvar Kamprad

To do business with a clear conscience is an attitude that pays. We have to find more time for ourselves and to regain respect for the environment in which we live.

Ingvar Kamprad

Only those who are asleep make no mistakes.

Ingvar Kamprad

There are few people who have made so many fiascos in my life as I have.

Ingvar Kamprad

This is part of my life I bitterly regret. After a couple of meetings in pure Nazi style, I quit.

Ingvar Kamprad

Now I have told all I can. Can one ever get forgiveness for such stupidity?

Ingvar Kamprad

That was the biggest blunder I’ve made in my entire life, and I regret it deeply.

Ingvar Kamprad

I have said sorry, many times, but it has left an indelible mark on my conscience that continually haunts me and perhaps it’s best this way.

Ingvar Kamprad

I know that, if need be, there are those who correct my mistakes. If you only knew how many of them I’ve made, mistakes.

Ingvar Kamprad

IKEA is not completely perfect. It irritates me to death to hear it said that IKEA is the best company in the world. We are going the right way to becoming it, for sure, but we are not there yet.

Ingvar Kamprad

Now, by jimmy, I’m going to start a new life.

Ingvar Kamprad

It is our duty to expand. Those who cannot or will not join us are to be pitied…A glorious future!

Ingvar Kamprad

Time is your most important resource. You can do so much in ten minutes. Ten minutes, once gone, are gone for good.

Ingvar Kamprad

Ten minutes are not just one-sixth of your hourly pay. Ten minutes are a piece of yourself. Divide your life into ten-minute units and sacrifice as few of them as possible in meaningless activity.

Ingvar Kamprad

Most things still remain to be done.

Ingvar Kamprad

Simplicity and common sense should characterize planning and strategic direction.

Ingvar Kamprad

We discuss too much, for example. And, in doing so, we lose touch with reality. We have fantastic people who work for us, but even managers are incapable of making even the smallest decisions. It’s the directors who are Ikea’s big problem.

Ingvar Kamprad

I’m not afraid of turning 80 and I have lots of things to do. I don’t have time for dying.

Ingvar Kamprad

Do you know what was the happiest moment of my life? Last year, when the doctor who operated on my cancer told me that the operation had gone well. It left me dancing with joy. Since then I have felt young.

Ingvar Kamprad

The feeling of having finished something is an effective sleeping pill. A person who retires feeling that he has done his bit will quickly wither away. A company that feels it has reached its goal will quickly stagnate and lose its vitality.

Ingvar Kamprad

The temples of design in places like Milan or God knows where overflow with beautiful, original furniture that costs extortionate amounts of money. The vast majority of people don’t have six figure amounts in the bank and don’t live in enormous apartments…it is for just such people that I created Ikea. For everybody who wants a comfortable house in which to live well. A need that crosses all countries, races and religions.

Ingvar Kamprad

To design a desk which may cost $1,000 is easy for a furniture designer, but to design a functional and good desk which shall cost $50 can only be done by the very best.

Ingvar Kamprad

What is good for our customers is also, in the long run, good for us.

Ingvar Kamprad

The objective must be to encompass the total home environment; that is, to offer furnishings and fittings for every part of the home whether indoors or outdoors. It must reflect our way of thinking by being as simple and straightforward as we are ourselves. It must be durable and easy to live with. It must reflect an easier, more natural and unconstrained way of life.

Ingvar Kamprad

The IKEA spirit is a strong and living reality. Simplicity in our behaviour gives us strength. Simplicity and humbleness characterize us in our relations with each other, with our suppliers, and with our customers.

Ingvar Kamprad

If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example. I have to do so for all the Ikea employees.

Ingvar Kamprad

IKEA people do not drive flashy cars or stay at luxury hotels.

Ingvar Kamprad

How the hell can I ask people who work for me to travel cheaply if I am traveling in luxury? It’s a question of good leadership.

Ingvar Kamprad

I could regularly travel first class, but having money in abundance doesn’t seem like a good reason to waste it. Why should I choose first class? To be offered a glass of champagne from the air hostess? If it helped me arrive at my destination more quickly, then maybe.

Ingvar Kamprad

I could have an office all to myself, but since my collaborators don’t have one, then I too am content to have a desk in the shared room.

Ingvar Kamprad

It is better to be a bit stingy than throw money out of the window.

Ingvar Kamprad

I’m a bit tight with money, but so what? I look at the money I’m about to spend on myself and ask myself if IKEA’s customers can afford it.

Ingvar Kamprad

If you want to maximize results, it’s not enough to simply preach – you have to set a good example. I am very proud to follow the rules of our company.

Ingvar Kamprad

Everything we earn we need as a reserve. We have to still develop the Ikea group. We need many billions of Swiss francs to take on China or Russia.

Ingvar Kamprad

What else could I do at my age? Grow tomatoes in an allotment behind the house? I don’t know how to do anything apart from sell furniture. I am your classic, specialized idiot.

Ingvar Kamprad

The word impossible has been and must remain deleted from our dictionary.

Ingvar Kamprad

Simple routines have a greater impact. It is not just to cut costs that we avoid luxury hotels. We do not need fancy cars, posh titles, tailor-made uniforms, or other status symbols. We rely on our own strength and our own will!

Ingvar Kamprad

Happiness is not reaching your goal. Happiness is being on the way. It is our wonderful fate to be just at the beginning.

Ingvar Kamprad

Making mistakes is the privilege of the active. It is always the mediocre people who are negative, who spend their time proving that they were not wrong.

Ingvar Kamprad

I don’t think any of my sons are capable of running the company, at least not yet.

Ingvar Kamprad