IKEA: A Big Business Social Innovator

This week we were tasked with reading about various social innovations to see how an idea can change the world. This is what I noticed.

1. REALLY AWESOME inexpensive PRODUCTS THAT CHANGE LIVES
2. A collection of curious, creative, and geeky individuals bringing seemingly crazy ideas to fruition (world travelers, physics professors, artists, engineers, computer scientists, and industrial designers)

What I found most interesting is that these ideas, products, and innovators seem to be working separate from big businesses in small, start-up, or non-profit business models. The IKEA foundation is the only big exception.

IKEA is the largest furniture distributor in the world. The IKEA foundation is "an independent charitable foundation that overseas IKEA's global philanthropy" [i]. The foundation donates to four causes: improving the lives of refugees, children's rights, emergency response and women and girls empowerment. 

In 2013, the IKEA foundation in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) debuted a easy to ship and durable refugee shelter that is more practical, safe and sustainable than UN provided fabric refugee shelters, and the structure is expected to cost under $1,000. In addition, the company invested 3.4 million euro into the project from it's inception to 2013 [ii], and IKEA foundation probably invested more in subsequent years, since the newest models include solar panels [iii].

So why did IKEA foundation choose to be apart of this project? 

IKEA has recently been known for their ethical practices. However, no other big businesses made it to our list of readings, which does not make me think IKEA's commitment towards ethical business standards is the only reason why the company decided to participate in the shelter project.

In previous entrepreneurship coursework, my professor drilled the biggest problem with big companies is that they are not innovative, and therefore, they are constantly threatened by the development of new disruptive technologies. In addition, when I google searched "big business and innovation," the first result was a Forbes article entitled "Why Big Companies Fail at Innovative" [iv].  Therefore, IKEA could of participated in the project to reverse this trend and spark innovation and creative thinking within the company. Additionally, political factors could of played a role in the UNHCR and IKEA partnership.

Whatever the reason, I am glad IKEA took on this project and I believe it's role provokes many questions about big businesses and their role in social enterprise. Is it best for new social enterprises to begin as start-up ventures like most of our examples? What would the implications be if other big businesses follow the IKEA model?