Introduction to Business: IKEA, Brexit, CSR, and Teamwork Analysis

This report provides an in-depth analysis of IKEA's business operations, focusing on key issues, the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and the effects of Brexit. It examines challenges faced by IKEA, such as market entry strategies, and applies Fayol's management theory to address these issues. The report emphasizes the benefits of linking CSR to business strategies, highlighting how IKEA integrates CSR into its operations, including sustainable practices and community support. It also discusses the impacts of Brexit on IKEA, including increased import costs and price adjustments. Furthermore, the report reflects on the author's team experiences, outlining the benefits and challenges of teamwork and offering suggestions for effective collaboration. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, reinforcing the importance of effective leadership, strategic CSR integration, and the impact of external factors like Brexit on business performance.

Introduction To Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1. Key issue organization is facing and relevant management theory........................................1
2. Importance of linking Corporate Social Responsibility to strategy........................................1
3. Impacts of Brexit on the chosen business organization..........................................................2
4. Reflection on the own experiences of working as team..........................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Leaders and managers focus on developing and implementing strategies and policies that
can lead to bring great and positive impacts on the performance level of employees and on
overall company. IKEA is a Swedish founded multinational company that operates across
worldwide. The company operates its business activities in UK and runs Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) projects as well (Arnold, 2017). The report will describe about on key
issue which the company is facing with reference to relevant management theory. Importance of
linking the CSR with the business strategies and the effects of Brexit on the chosen company will
be discussed. Further in the report reflection on own experiences will be done in the context of
working as a team and various benefits and challenges as well.
MAIN BODY
1. Key issue organization is facing and relevant management theory.
IKEA maintains 20 stores across UK and provides employment to approx 10900 people.
There are various critical issue which are being faced by the IKEA (Cosmo and Yang, 2017).
One of the great challenge faced by IKEA is that when it entered into new civilization market
that is America. The company failed to hold appropriate and proper selling researches. IKEA
focuses on self-service footing whereas, Americans do not utilize these sorts of services.
This lead to create problems for the IKEA and it can be resolved by the Fayol's
management theory. According to this management theory and its Division of work principle,
IKEA can resolve this problem (Principles of Management by Henri Fayol, 2019). This principle
suggests that employees who are specialized in different areas should be distinguished according
to their knowledge-based areas. The Division of work principles and Fayol's management theory
suggests that specialization leads to promote employee's and workplace efficiency and it also
increases the productivity and profitability.
2. Importance of linking Corporate Social Responsibility to strategy.
Every business organization needs to focus on linking the CSR to business strategy. This
can be done by helping environment, empowering women, trying for reducing the poverty rate
and many more (Why Is Social Responsibility Important to a Business, 2019). This is important
as it leads to bring great benefits and advantages, such as:
 Improving the brand image and reputation,
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 Effectively engaging customers,
 Reducing turnover rate and retaining employees,
 Gaining competitive advantage,
 Benefiting society and supporting future generations (Dhingra and et.al., 2016).
IKEA also focuses on implementation of CSR to its business strategy. The CSR activities
and efforts of IKEA are focused on supporting the local communities, educating and
empowering the workers and it also addresses issues related to gender equality and minorities in
the company. The company also focuses on reducing energy consumption and deriving energy
through various alternative sources so that it can provide benefit to the future generations and
society. For example, one of the product of IKEA i.e. Skapro Chair is made of 100% recycled
plastic. There are approx 70000 solar panels being installed within the owned buildings by IKEA
(IKEA Corporate Social Responsibility, 2017). Cotton which is being used by company comes
from the sustainable sources.
3. Impacts of Brexit on the chosen business organization.
Britain voted for leaving the European Union, and after this pound rate fell to the lowest
after the declaration of results. UK is considered as the best country for starting the business but
it changed because of the effects of Brexit (Edwards, 2018).
The positive impact of Brexit unveiled by IKEA can be described by its update on the
UK performance is, it experienced rise in total sales by 6% to £1.8 billion in the year 2017 (Ikea
is increasing its prices - and it's because of Brexit, 2017).
The impacts of Brexit include devaluation in the rates of pounds which led to bring great
challenges for the business organizations. There are various impacts of Brexit on the IKEA. The
company imports wide range of products from the overseas markets and due to Brexit effect,
import and export costs got increased. For example, Swedish retailer company IKEA after being
confronted by the increased import costs of 13.7%, led to increase the product prices by 3.6%.
4. Reflection on the own experiences of working as team.
While preparing and delivering the presentation and working as a team, I experienced
that working in a team can bring lots of benefits and challenges as well (Hagberg, 2018). I can
say that while working as a team, people can share their views, ideas and knowledge with others
and learn new things from them as well. This helps in promoting the diverse thinking and by
working as team we were able to be creative and insightful. We were able for drawing on various
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backgrounds in terms of experience, expertise and cultural factors as well. The another benefit of
working as a team can be described as it allows more efficiency as more work could be done is
less time. This is because in a team, members share task and activities and focus on capitalizing
various strengths of the team members.
But, there are various challenges while working as a team, as there were some members
in a team who just sit back and other member were doing the work. This situation also led to
create conflicts among team members which also affected the mood of other members of team.
Working a team also requires making effective decisions which takes long time and delays
occurs.
The challenges of working as a team can be overcome by making proper decisions for
conducting meeting. In that all members need to share their view and thoughts regarding the
work and activities of presentation (Uzuegbu. and Nnadozie, 2015). In the meeting, proper task
should be divided equally among all the team members. This will further reduce the chances of
delays and conflicts.
CONCLUSION
The managers and leaders play a great and important role in the working of business
activities and operations. The business organizations focus on liking the business strategies with
the Corporate Social Responsibilities so that it can lead to bring great benefits for the business as
well as for society and future generations. There are both positive and negative impacts of Brexit
on the IKEA company. While working as a team, there are various benefits on can gain and
challenges as well.
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References
Books and Journal
Arnold, M. F., 2017. Competitive advantage from CSR programmes. In Innovative CSR (pp.
102-130). Routledge.
Cosmo, D. E. and Yang, K., 2017. A Further Strategic Move to Sustainability—A Case Study on
IKEA. Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability. 12(2).
Dhingra, S. and et.al., 2016. The impact of Brexit on foreign investment in the UK. BREXIT
2016. 24. p.2.
Edwards, R., 2018. An Elaboration of the Administrative Theory of the 14 Principles of
Management by Henri Fayol. International Journal for Empirical Education and
Research. 1(1). pp.41-51.
Hagberg, H., 2018. “A woman endures; she can do everything” The empowerment of Jordanian
and Syrian women in the IKEA and Jordan River Foundation social entrepreneurship
initiative.
Uzuegbu, C. P. and Nnadozie, C. O., 2015. Henry Fayol’s 14 Principles of Management:
Implications for Libraries and Information Centres. Journal of Information Science
Theory and Practice. 3(2). pp.58-72.
Online
Why Is Social Responsibility Important to a Business?. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/041015/why-social-responsibility-important-
business.asp>
IKEA Corporate Social Responsibility. 2017. [Online]. Available through: <https://research-
methodology.net/ikea-corporate-social-responsibility/>
Ikea is increasing its prices - and it's because of Brexit. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/whats-on/shopping/ikea-increasing-prices-its-because-
13900724>
Principles of Management by Henri Fayol. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.managementstudyhq.com/henri-fayol-principles-of-management.html>
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