At IKEA we are curious about the future and we believe that good ideas can come from anywhere. With co-createIKEA we want to explore the future together with the many people and democratise the product development at IKEA.
“We are curious about people, the society and the planet. Together with others, we want to find solutions to the everyday challenges in life and make new ideas available for more. Innovation needs to happen everywhere in IKEA, and it must be in collaboration with the outside. With co-createIKEA we will together with the many people explore the future”, says Tony Sandelius, New Business and Innovation manager at IKEA of Sweden.
IKEA will start to look into five different modules of co-createIKEA; product ideas, university collaborations, innovation labs, makerspace and startups.
“The first one, co-create product ideas, is where IKEA will invite the many people to co-create products and upcoming range. Starting January 2018, we will invite IKEA FAMILY members – market by market and after that we will open up for the world,” says Tony Sandelius, New Business and Innovation manager at IKEA of Sweden.
The other modules will be university collaboration where IKEA will collaborate with a few universities in order to find untapped potentials to explore innovative to ideas. With innovation labs IKEA will join existing communities and labs around the world with the purpose of exchanging new ideas and learnings. IKEA will set up a makerspace in the prototype shop at IKEA of Sweden. The makerspace, will be a creative area where product developers, designers, innovators, suppliers, co-createIKEA and many more can meet and work on the future product or innovations together.
With a startup program IKEA will invite startups from all over the world to find new solutions to the challenges in people’s everyday life. The first activity, IKEA Bootcamp will start September 18.
“Ten startups will be part of the first IKEA Bootcamp. We believe that the program supports the IKEA long term commitment to constantly look for new and better ways forward and to have a positive impact on people and the planet,” says Tony Sandelius, New Business and Innovation manager at IKEA of Sweden.
The startup program is powered by Rainmaking Innovation, a global cooperative of entrepreneurs with great knowledge of working with startup companies. During the program startups will get access to the prototype shop, test labs, co-workers within IKEA Range & Supply and a senior IKEA mentor.
