Balls to convention at IKEA

Lessons have been learned and today convention dictates that an overseas operation must be radically adapted to the local market. There is now recognition that property markets, customers' tastes, management styles, and supply chains are all going to differ when compared with the home market and must all therefore be taken into account when setting up shop overseas.

However, as in everything, there are always exceptions. Take IKEA. It operates in 24 countries around the globe and in each of these markets it pretty much operates exactly the same model. It has a global product range of around 9,500 items and a mere two per cent of these are likely to be adapted for the local market. It also distributes the same catalogue in all these countries - apart from the different languages.

Its stores also look the same in each country and its in-store cafes all serve the same food. So you are just as likely to find shoppers in fish-addicted Japan tucking into the company's famous meatballs as you are in Edmonton and in its store in Malmo, in IKEA's home country of Sweden. Incidentally it sells two billion of the balls each year.

The difference between IKEA and other retailers is that this two-fingers-to-convention attitude seems fundamental to its business and this is undoubtedly why it, unlike other merchants, seems to have been able to break the mould and be phenomenally successful with a rigid global model rather than falling flat on its face. For everybody else the message is: don't try this outside the home market kids.