Internship interview

I went to my interview at IKEA today and met the store manager Gordon Gustavsson. What an inspiring man, he really managed to give IKEA in Funabashi a real touch of Sweden and the feeling of the brand and at the same time adjust to the Japanese costumer. There are some differences between IKEA in Sweden and IKEA in Japan and it was fun to walk around and discover them. For example the measure system in Japan is different so they have adjusted both some furniture’s and the show rooms. And everywhere around me peopled measured furniture’s, I guess their small homes needs a perfect fit. This IKEA had a pretty unique thing, their own daycare for their employees. The biggest difference was of course seeing people trying to eat meatballs and potatoes with chopsticks.

IKEAs slogan “Home is the most important place in the world” is hard to implement in a country where work is the most important place. But they succeed with that challenge in my opinion, though there is still room for development in that area. I would like to see IKEA revolutionize the Japanese’s way of thinking when it comes to work and implement a healthier attitude.