IKEA

How did IKEA become the world's largest design brand, as popular as Lego, CocaCola and Nike? Still privately held, the company is renowned for its secrecy. In this candid analysis, former IKEA top director Johan Stenebo writes for the first time from inside corporation how the company transformed itself from one rural Swedish store of all sorts to a global behemoth with a turnover of over $30 billion and 700 million visitors a year purely on cash flow. Revealing IKEA's daring and unique business model warts and all, he covers the leadership of IKEA's controversial founder Ingvar Kamprad, whose right-hand man he was, and IKEA's resourceful ways of brand management using companies like Greenpeace and WWF to cover environmental issues.