vi. A brief introduction of how the business started.
Ingvar Feodor Kamprad was born on March 30, 1926 in south Sweden and he grew up in a farm near a small village called Agunnayrd. His grandfather had moved from Germany to Sweden many years before, making Invar a second generation Swede of German descent. Growing up on a farm was not easy for young Ingvar, and some sources even say that he had much trouble waking up early to milk the cows with his father. His parents were worried about the boy’s attitude and his father believed that he would never make anything of himself. Then one day he got an alarm clock for his birthday.
Apparently this very practical gift changed his young life. He decided to turn over a new leaf and started by setting the alarm at 5:30 and removing the off button from the clock. At only 10 years old, he started to develop a small business, selling matches to his neighbors. He learned that he could buy them in bulk, then sell them individually at low prices and still gain a pretty good profit. While other children his age were struggling with mathematics in school, Ingvar was already thinking in business terms. As things were going well for him, he decided to expand his business and start also selling seeds, fish, Christmas decorations, pens and pencils.
Not only did Invar do good with his business, but he also did great in school, determining his father to give him a cash reward for his efforts when he was only seventeen. He took the money and used it to establish his own company, which he called IKEA. Most teenagers would have spent the cash in an entirely different way, but Ingvar was more mature than that.
