David McCabe (IKEA): Ingvar was right. The worst thing is pretending you’ve done everything perfectly

In this episode of the CEO na ostří nože podcast, we talk to David McCabe, CEO of IKEA for the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, who has been with the company for more than 25 years. Alongside his CEO role, he is also chief sustainability officer for the region, which he says is an unusual combination compared to other companies.

Mistakes, according to McCabe, are deeply rooted in IKEA’s culture. They are not only allowed: making them is a privilege. Founder Ingvar Kamprad used to say that the only time we don’t make mistakes is when we’re asleep. What’s worse than a mistake, he believed, is trying to make it look as if everything you’ve done was perfect and right. Learning only comes from an open discussion about what didn’t go well. That’s why McCabe shares not only successes with colleagues, but also recent mistakes. Asked about his latest one, he jokes that maybe it’s not having an answer ready.

He considers Kamprad a genius for two reasons: the simplicity of the vision “to create a better everyday life for the many people” and values described so clearly that they outlived him. Over the company’s eighty years, McCabe says, they haven’t changed; only the way they are applied has. During Covid, when stores had to close, they helped teams adapt quickly. The key values include togetherness, cost-consciousness, constantly renewing the business and leading by example. IKEA, McCabe says, is not a hierarchical company where three people at global headquarters hand out instructions and stores simply carry them out. Many of the best ideas in stores come directly from co-workers who deal with customers every day.

Cost-consciousness doesn’t mean making cheap, low-quality goods. It means removing unnecessary costs so that prices can be lower. That’s why every product starts with a price, and only then comes a design that is also functional, durable and sustainable. McCabe recalls Kamprad putting it this way: making a table for €2,000 is easy. Making a beautiful, functional, durable table for €100 takes a great deal of entrepreneurial energy.

Values also come first in recruitment, ahead of skills and experience. Skills can be developed; values run deeper, and when they don’t match, the relationship usually doesn’t last. Anyone who fundamentally breaks with IKEA’s values, for example through discriminatory behaviour, doesn’t belong in the “IKEA family”, McCabe says. He regularly visits all eight stores in the region and talks to both co-workers and customers. Together with colleagues, he also visits customers’ homes, because in his view data can never replace a personal conversation.

What else will you learn in the podcast?

• Why making mistakes at IKEA is a privilege, not a failure

• How Ingvar Kamprad made sure his values would outlive him

• Why IKEA’s values stayed the same even during Covid

• How Swedish culture works in countries with different customs

• Why the design of every product starts with a price tag

• Why values come before experience in recruitment

According to David McCabe, IKEA’s culture rests on values described so clearly that people can apply them in any situation, whether in a crisis or in another country. And one of them applies to every company: talking openly about mistakes is worth more than pretending there weren’t any.