BSB20123-7: Reflective Analysis of IKEA's Global Sourcing Strategy

This report presents a reflection on a presentation concerning IKEA's global sourcing strategies. It evaluates the strengths of the presentation, highlighting the understanding gained regarding IKEA's distribution networks and long-term agreements. Areas for potential development, such as optimizing flat package design and exploring rail transport for reduced emissions, are considered. The reflection addresses the challenges of global sourcing, including managing diverse cultural and legal factors. Key learnings from the presentation include the importance of long-term partnerships and the effectiveness of presentations as a communication tool. The student acknowledges improvements in presentation skills and teamwork, while also recognizing areas for growth in research and analytical abilities. The reflection concludes that IKEA's success lies in its ability to offer well-designed, affordable home furnishings through efficient global sourcing practices.

Reflection

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
TASK...............................................................................................................................................4
What was good in the presentation?............................................................................................4
What could have been developed?..............................................................................................4
Do you agree / disagree with some issues? Why?.......................................................................5
Did you learn something new from the presentation? Was there something you had not
thought earlier?............................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Reflection is considered as the procedure of acknowledging own values, goals and
determinations. It is mainly done to increase an individual self-knowledge and lead to effective
learning and growth. The below report is reflection which is indulged with an approach to global
sourcing and on the basis of Ikea which is a global home furnishing brand that carries both
affordability as well as comfort across the world. The below reflection is based on description of
the presentation, what could have developed, issues and learning from the presentation.
TASK
What was good in the presentation?
In context with Ikea presentation and case study, the most efficient thing was based on
global sourcing. I found it good because I got to know about the concept associated with Ikea
strategy and its distribution networks. Through the process of global sourcing, I found that it gets
influenced by the network effects of Ikea. In context with the presentation, I analysed two main
strategies which are that Ikea always focused on production capacity and making long term
agreements. I analysed by the presentation that Ikea operates in around 31 distribution centres
and believed in low priced products. In the presentation, the good thing was that it enhanced my
knowledge because I got to know about interesting thing regarding the brand, its development
and many more. In accordance with my point of view, the most developed thing in association
with brand was its flat packages and distribution network around the globe. Besides this, the
effective thing in the presentation was the analysation of relationships between among all the
suppliers and its influence of sourcing strategies.
What could have been developed?
Ikea has been one of the developed company because it always provided home furnishing
products with best designs and the most efficient thing which I analysed was that it offered its
best designed products even at low costs. In present scenario, there are many things which could
have been developed was in relation with its flat packages. According to me, the first thing
which could be developed by the organisation is the reduction of wasted space as it would be
beneficial in transporting all the packages within the timeline. Besides this, the company could
also develop their options for product delivery. I analysed that maximum products are
transported through road but according to me, the preferred option would be by rail as it would

be beneficial for the company to reduce the usage of fuel and reducing emissions. Ikea always
focused on to make the usage of sustainable materials and it could lead to more development if
they would start making the initiative of green raw materials.
Do you agree / disagree with some issues? Why?
Global sourcing is the issue due to the diversity of factors which has to be manage by the
managers within the process of resources sourcing and product selling (McDougall and Holden
2017). The diver’s factors of the market increase the responsibility of purchase and distribution
manager, such as different languages increase the needs of learning and understanding of the
different culture and languages to make the good relationship and complete the task. Different
law of the different nation influencing the sourcing by increasing the need of changes in sourcing
plan according to that. During the preparation of PPT in context to the selected organization the
key issue was time management and lack of the research and analytical skills (Jung and K.W.
2020). Because one of the most important things in the task and assessment is completion of the
project within the right time, but this was not achieved within the time due to the lack of time
management skills. I was not good in the case study evaluation or analytical review due to which
I had faced the issues in extraction of the relevant content for the PPT. for the preparation of PPT
that is important to make the evaluation of data sources effectively and make the PPT with most
essential information, I faced the issues in that due to which I had faced complication in overall
project. But this was managed with in the effective team work (McNulty and et. al).
Did you learn something new from the presentation? Was there something you had not thought
earlier?
From the presentation of the given case study we had learned the importance of long term
relationship or partnership along with the value of volume. As this is important to have higher
production capacity rather the product quantities. From the process or completion of the PPT I
also learn that in the business or in any other field PPT is the interactive way to transfer the
information and make people understand the concept. This is the most attractive way of
conversation which is facilitating the easy or interactive feature to present the information, such
as animation, images, video or voice over (Rustambekov and Mohan, 2017).
CONCLUSION

From the above study it has been concluded that IKEA is the furnishing organization, which
offers the home furniture’s with good durability and design at low cost. This organization is
having the 31 distribution centres. its products purchase by the different country. Global
sourcing is identified as the leading challenges for the purchasing and supply managers of the
organization due to the diversity factors. Such as language issues, cultural understanding,
different laws etc. within the process of PowerPoint presentation development related to the
selected organization one of the best thing was my PPT development skills and effective team
work. We can have made it more effective with some graphic illustration. Within in the process
of PPT development the major issue was related to the time management and extraction of the
accurate information for the given data sources. This was due to the lack of research and
analytical skills. From the presentation I learn that things can be more easy to understand by the
aid of presentation as it facilitates the illustration of information in most interactive and easy to
learn formats.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
McDougall, J. and Holden, H., 2017. The silence about oral presentation skills in distance and online
education: new perspectives from an Australian university preparatory programme. Open Learning: The
Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 32(2), pp.163-176.
McNulty, C., and et. al., Effects of primary care antimicrobial stewardship outreach on antibiotic use by
general practice staff: pragmatic randomized controlled trial of the TARGET antibiotics workshop. Journal
of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 73(5), pp.1423-1432.
Rustambekov, E. and Mohan, R., 2017. Cultural immersion trip to Southeast Asia: A study of cross-
cultural intelligence. Journal of Teaching in International Business, 28(2), pp.87-103.
Jung, H.J. and Oh, K.W., 2020. Impact of home furnishing brand consumers' shopping values on
behavioral intentions of home furnishing brand products-Exploring mediating effects of perceived
experiential marketing components. Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles, 44(3), pp.539-
555.