The world of marketing is changing faster than ever before. And so is the world of retail. To stay in the forefront, Ingka Group, the IKEA retailer with 374 IKEA stores around the world, set out to revolutionise their approach to marketing. To help them, I.AM.SJÖSTRAND developed and guided a customised change journey that has transformed individuals and positioned the team to achieve extraordinary results. 

“With today’s challenges and the constant demand to increase effectiveness, we simply can’t do marketing the way we’ve always done it,” says Peter Wright, Attract and Activate Manager at Ingka Group. “The structure and organisation is the easy stuff. But to create real change, people need to change.”

The Change Journey, by I.AM.SJÖSTRAND, guided more than 25 Ingka participants for a year through a series of workshops, support dialogues and in-the-business learning. “It’s a unique and powerful way to develop people, competence and the business in parallel,” says Cecilia Sjöstrand, founder of I.AM.SJÖSTRAND.

Inspiring in-the-business transformation

“We believe that any change journey begins with the self,” explains Cecilia. “Rather than starting with behaviours, we take a step back and start with the self-concept of each individual. We teach people to see themselves and accept the whole reality as it is before they move forward.”

“Cecilia showed us the power of inner journey to allow the outer journey to happen,” says Peter. “We all feel more has happened in the last 12 months than in the past 5 years. The level of collaboration is now unbelievable,” says Peter.

The team at Ingka is still at the beginning of this journey together. Now the transformed individuals are exploring new and meaningful ways to collaborate as they work towards achieving extraordinary results.

“None of us knows what the future will look like,” says Cecilia. “So, we have to dare to see a potential future based on an extraordinary result. Then we have to dare to clearly describe where we are heading so people can start moving in that direction together and discover the motivation to let go of the past.”

“Truly leading people is about making it possible for them to succeed,” says Peter. “I’m thrilled and delighted. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I know it’s going to be good.”

An extraordinary approach for extraordinary results Powerful benefits of The Change Journey by I.AM.SJÖSTRAND include:

• Develops and leads the business towards an extraordinary result.
• Builds understanding of the logic of human behaviour. The result sounds simple, but it’s incredibly profound: People connect with themselves and others through an experience-based journey to reach the future extraordinary result.
• Develops a team that is strong enough to reach that future picture and provides many proven solutions and methodologies, including interest-based problem-solving skills.
• The Change Journey is deeply integrated into daily business so that people can experiment with what they learn and apply it for immediate results, on personal and professional levels.
• Keeps the transformation journey moving forward through in-the-business dialogues between workshops.

“In addition to the incredible team at Ingka, I’d like to thank my partner Maximilian Tropé who helped bring this journey to life and who provided essential insight and support,” says Cecilia.

Here’s what participants are saying about  The Change Journey by I.AM.SJÖSTRAND

“The programme completely exceeded my expectations. I was constantly surprised with new tools, new ways of understanding change, and also the opportunity of exploring this journey in a group context. IKEA has never changed so much as in the last year and I felt really supported in this journey. Individually I feel stronger than ever. Change is actually a booster for empowerment.”

Helena Gouveia Country Marketing Manager IKEA Portugal

“The programme builds long-term behavioural and organisational change. It focuses equally across the multiple dimensions needed to achieve extraordinary business growth—competence, culture, motivation, and the apparatus. Through self-development and a transferable toolkit of content and behaviours, it enables collaboration and effective performance during a time of significant transformation.”

Jessamine Avila and Peter Moore Country Marketing Manager and  Country Integrated Media Manager IKEA Australia

“It was like going to trekking in Nepal together. When the circumstances get tough you have to show your vulnerability, your real feelings. For me it was more self-awareness and more self-confidence in leading into an unknown reality. After such a trip nothing is the same anymore. Now we are a group of really committed, connected and co-operating Marketing Managers, full of energy and a ‘we can!’ spirit.”

Katarzyna Piwowarczyk Marketing Manager  IKEA Poland

“It was not a training, but rather a journey to completely new territory. With every step we were discovering something new about ourselves, us as a community and the way we can work together at our best. Now we have a community that has so much in common! Even in challenging times we are fully equipped to collaborate radically. Together we will make the impossible possible.” 

Ekaterina Danilyuk Positioning Manager Ingka Group

“I would describe the journey as both a professional and personal discovery into how I and others lead, how I connect with myself and other people all to create impactful change. Since then I have experienced a marketing community coming much closer together across the 30 countries we work in, old barriers being broken down, the embracing of a new way of radically collaborating and people leaning in and supporting each other. This seemed like a just a dream 1 year ago and now we are living the new reality!”

Aaron Mitchell Customer Engagement & Loyalty Manager Ingka Group