The Power of Consistency
In 1933 a seven year-old boy found a new enjoyable passion in his hometown of Smaland, Sweden. The boy enjoyed talking with people in his community and had an affinity for selling matches. He started selling boxes of matches by going door to door in Smaland before slowly expanding his territory. He would leave his family’s farmhouse in the morning and would spend all day covering territory serving the fire starting needs of his new customers. Eventually he realized he could buy matches in bulk at a low cost in Stockholm and he quickly began to increase his profit margins on his matches. He also realized he could cover even more territory by riding his bike which expanded his sales with a little extra ‘hustle.’
After finding success with matches, he began to expand his product line. Now a ten year old, the boy also sold fish, seeds, decorations and eventually he found even more success selling ballpoint pens and pencils. This young entrepreneur continued to slowly build his inventory, filling shelves in his family’s barn with ballpoint pens, pencils, and matches. He even tapped into the Christmas season market by selling decorations. He was gaining momentum. He was building his business acumen.
At the age of seventeen he entered the furniture business. Realizing he was outgrowing the nickel and dime business of ballpoint pens, pencils, and matches he set his sights on a new endeavor. Inspired by his uncle’s kitchen table, he spent an entire year learning the finer points of the furniture industry. Often custom made, oversized and very expensive, the furniture in Europe in the 1940s was sold at a high price, leaving out the majority of the common public in Sweden. Most middle class workers living in tight city dwelling apartment spaces could not afford the bulky, expensive furniture of the day. High quality furniture was reserved only for the wealthy and elite.
Then came along a mail order furniture company called IKEA. The founder, Ingvar Kamprad had honed his business skills going door-to-door as a kid, now he was revolutionizing the furniture industry with his high quality furniture at a price point the majority of Sweden could afford. Once relegated to purchasing shotty tables and chairs due to a lack of affordable options, people in Sweden had now found a company who would provide top quality furniture at a price suitable for their incomes. The growth became steady for the small mail order company.
Much like his early days of selling matches and ballpoint pens, Kamprad had found his niche with mail order furniture. Consumers could select furniture from the IKEA magazine, send in payment and have the furniture delivered in boxes and assembled right in the their living room. Simple and easy for the consumer, but on the back-end Kamprad was scrambling to organize production, logistics, and marketing. Instead of biking around his territory as a child, Kamprad was now busy purchasing timber contracts, overseeing production in factories, and even driving a borrowed milk truck to personally deliver his packaged furniture.
The rise of his business was not an overnight success either. Kamprad faced many issues early on as IKEA remained a mail order company. Competitors sought to drive IKEA out of business as his product undercut the traditional furniture stores price points. At one point, manufacturing companies organized a timber blockade in Sweden as companies refused to sell their goods to IKEA in an effort to force them into bankruptcy. This caused Kamprad to look outside Sweden for materials to build his furniture which opened up other problems with the government. The Swedish government targeted Kamprad and the finances of IKEA early on, as they disliked his desire to grow the company internationally and his mass importation of materials.
Despite all of the obstacles, IKEA continued to grow. The same spirit of pedaling his bicycle to sell matches, infused his work in the growth of IKEA, slowly for decades. By the end of the 1940s IKEA continued to grow, but Kamprad was still delivering furniture in the milk truck personally - as he would for another decade. Kamprad and IKEA consistently made small progress.
His consistency for over thirty years was about to compound - and eventually combust.
After remaining a mail order business until 1958, the first IKEA store was built in Almhult, Sweden. 25 years after going door to door selling matches, Ingvar Kamprad owned his own furniture store. Five years later, the first international IKEA store was built in Norway in 1963, soon followed by a store in Denmark in 1969. By the end of the 1980s IKEA had spread all throughout Europe and had made its way to the United States. When the first IKEA store opened in Shanghai, 80,000 people visited the store.
As the public continued to relate to the IKEA in store experience, Kamprad continued to refine the business, adding a better flow to the store, more modern designs for city dwelling and simple spaces, and eventually a full restaurant with their world famous Swedish meatballs. Kamprad believed consumers were more likely to purchase furniture when they were shopping on a full stomach. The experience kept customers coming back. In the same way he expanded his sales of boxes of matches, the IKEA territory began to spread as well.
By the end of 2019, over 430 IKEA stores exist worldwide. The former mail order furniture company now does business in 52 countries around the world. The product line of IKEA has a little more than matches, ballpoint pens, and pencils with over 12,000 products for sale online and in store. In 2019, IKEA sold over 44 billion dollars worth of goods globally. The company has over 211,000 employees and it all began with a seven year old on his bicycle selling matches in Sweden.
The story of Ingvar Kamprad and IKEA demonstrates a few thoughts for all leaders to consider on consistency.
1.) Big dreams start with small consistency
You don’t set out to build a multi-billion dollar company. The idea of IKEA being the end goal would have just been too overwhelming to even pursue at the start. Instead, for Kamprad, it began with selling matches - and successfully honing a craft of business and sales. Managing inventory, expanding territory, opportunity costs, and demand. All skills that were honed well before his IKEA stores expanded around the world.
Great leaders are more concerned with the habits and rhythms needed to be successful than they are with the grand visions and dreams of the distant future. A vision board is necessary - but it is useless if the process is flawed and our habits inconsistent. If you want to build a furniture empire, perhaps you start with faithfully selling boxes of matches. We tend to believe when we master ‘the little things’ we are free to focus on ‘the big things.’
For the consistent leader - there are only little things. A great leader recognizes the small, consistent choices they make along the way, will only lead to better things in the future. Small, purposeful choices with radical consistency is the formula for a great leader.
2.) Consistency is massively undervalued
Even as IKEA began to thrive, Ingvar Kamprad remained a relatively boring leader. As a millionaire and founder of one of the leading furniture companies in the world - he drove the same used car for decades. When traveling by plane to his many stores of the IKEA empire, he flew coach. Never first class or by private jet (which he could afford). Throughout the history of IKEA, Kamprad never borrowed money from lenders. He never gave up stock for a quick cash infusion. Kamprad was always the frugal business leader IKEA needed. While he certainly enjoyed wealth and the success of his business, Kamprad never strayed from his consistent fiscal discipline. He never overextended the business for the quick splash or the short term sexy idea. From selling matches to growing IKEA to over 433 stores worldwide - the consistency of IKEA remained relatively boring.
Consistency is always boring and undervalued. Whether in athletics, business, personal diets, or finances - we are pulled like a magnet to the quick fix. We always feel like there is some kind of hack out there allowing us to bypass the process. Some kind of quick diet, or financial plan to opt out of the disciplines of calorie counting or spending less than we make. The reality for great leaders is, the quick fix is only delivered in the form of decades of faithfully doing the small fundamentals that lead to success in our domain.
3.) The return on consistency is always backloaded
The faithfulness in the small business of matches and ballpoint pens in the 1930s led to a great opportunity for Kamprad ten years later. Was he a business tycoon at the age of seventeen? No. In fact he was the only delivery driver for his makeshift company. Did his life look much different than it did when he was selling matches? Maybe a little but not really. He wasn’t financially well off, he was still living at home on his parents farm. But he was able to work into a new endeavor with IKEA mail order furniture. Did the mail order business blow up and become an instant success? No - but ten years later he had his first store. Did the first store change the entire furniture industry? No - but it led to 430 stores eventually and elevated IKEA into one of the most successful businesses in the world.
Great leaders recognize successful progress is often measured not in months or years - but decades. The goal is not to arrive in a year - but in ten years. In the case of IKEA it was a dynasty - nine decades in the making. With the biggest financial gain coming in the last three decades.
The compound interest of consistent faithfulness has it’s steepest return the farther we are from the start. Great leaders aren’t waiting for ‘big-breaks.’ Instead they commit to the process of small consistent behaviors. They know small consistent behaviors have massive returns - not in the present, but in the future.
Today is always the best day to begin the long game.
Stay The Course,
JB
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