A Comparison of Evan Spiegel (SNAPCHAT) and Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA) - Case Study Example

A Comparison of Evan Spiegel (SNAPCHAT) and Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA) Name Student Number Institution Course Code Instructor Date Introduction This essay outlines a comparison between Evan Spiegel of SNAPCHAT and Ingvar Kamprad of IKEA. Evan Spiegel is a young American entrepreneur aged twenty five (25) years in the technology world who came up the mobile application Snapchat where individuals interact (Snapchat 2015). He is the CEO and Co-founder of the app. On the other hand, Ingvar Kamprad is a Swedish business person aged eighty nine (89) years specialising in sale of furniture and is among the world richest people (IKEA 2007). The entrepreneurial skills of Kamprad grew as a young person through sale of matches to people living in their neighbourhood using his bicycle. This involved buying matches in bulk from Stockholm at cheaper prices and then sells them individually at subsidised prices which gave him good returns. The business skills developed and he expanded from selling matches to selling fish, decorations for Christmas tree seeds, as well as pencils and pens for writing. IKEA came into being in 1943 at his uncle’s kitchen table and a year later Kamprad diversified his business venture into selling furniture. For Evan, Snapchat came into being while still in college as a project designing solutions for managing college admissions online (Bernhard 2015). The essay critically utilises two theoretical models More-Bygrave and Cantillon system to describe Ingvar Kamprad and Evan Spiegel as established entrepreneurs respectively. Moore-Bygrave involves a process as a set of stages and events following each other, whereas Cantillon systems incorporates the act risk taking approach to make returns from income agents. Comparative Analysis of Evan Spiegel (SNAPCHAT) and Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA) Evan and Ingvar present cases of established entrepreneurs; one having been born in the early twentieth century and the second towards the end. The two case studies present individuals coming up with entrepreneurial ventures at different economic dispensations but reaching the helm of excellence in the twenty first century (Forbes 2009; LAEDC 2015). Evan is at his youthful years whereas Ingvar Kamprad is an octogenarian, both depicting established billionaires in different countries. Evan depicts the new generation of entrepreneurs involved in mobile technology utilising the increasingly growing internet and ICT (Dredge 2015). The past two decades have seen increased ICT penetration with mobile technology becoming a basic necessity in the communication of human beings. Critically evaluating Evan Spiegel start-up venture; Snapchat is a photo sharing application giving people the opportunity to send messages for fun without the use of much expression. The ingenuity exhibited in this undertaking is credited to the Spiegel together his co-founder. In context, Evan presents the new generation of established young entrepreneurs exploiting the tech savvy ideas to meet market demands with Ingvar Kamprad representing the former generation of entrepreneurs who moved from one level of start-up to another till they reached their success plateau. Ingvar Kamprad established IKEA in 1943 basically depicting the initials of his two names and family farm Elmtayard for ‘E’, as well as ‘A’ for the village Agunnaryd (Iameceo 2011). The original furniture business took off as a mail-order sales business with majority of its products being identified by numbers. The identification process gave Kamprad trouble remembering the codes for each product due to his dyslexic condition prompting him to come up with an innovative way of identifying his products. The entrepreneur took the challenge head on and rather than delegating the responsibilities to another person and avoid the role, he utilised his inability for his advantage by creating a system for organising the products turning out to be one of the most iconic aspects the IKEA business globally (Iameceo 2011). This shows a strong-willed and resilient entrepreneur who is not downplayed or discouraged by his disability, but rather comes up with a solution that is a landmark in the global furniture industry. Kamprad created a naming system for each piece of furniture like, large furniture were given names of places in Sweden, chairs and desks accorded names of men and garden furniture were named after islands of Sweden. The result was an easier system of remembering and visualising each product by Kamprad due to the fact that most of the names given to the products were familiar to him (Forbes 2009). Today, IKEA stands out as a global furniture manufacturer based on its unique product names. Ingvar’s venture into business dates back six decades ago bringing up a great sense of resilience and innovativeness in building a business conglomerate IKEA (Forbes 2009). The demeanour presented by Kamprad is one of persistence and innovativeness from an early age venturing into business practices by identifying a need in the surrounding and exploiting it maximally. Entrepreneurship is basically coming up with ideas to solve prevailing problems in the society and subsequently making returns out of the solutions (Hill and Jones 2010). Both the innovator and society benefit in a mutually inclusive capacity bringing up the greater need for increased entrepreneurial to solve problems and make profits. One common feature among the two personalities is their resilience towards achieving excellence in their undertakings. For Evans, SNAPCHAT started as a college project that later blossomed into a great entrepreneurial venture (Dredge 2015). The venture is an IT application that has made tremendous gains in the current era of technology and mobile telephony. With Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA is a retail company specialising in selling furniture stands out a global business enterprise giving customers unique and affordable products (Forbes 2009). Customer satisfaction and meeting tastes and demands dictates how successful a business venture can evolve. Further, the availability of diverse choices gives customers the capacity to make selection according to their affordability. One comparative aspect is the time that the two individuals took to establish their multi-million companies. For Evan Spiegel, the start-up project Snapchat picked up faster due to increased proliferation of internet and mobile technology (Snapchat 2015). Unlike Kamprad whose business venture has been in existence for decades and establishing a worldwide market share over time, Snapchat has infiltrated the world through internet reaching far and wide. Further, Evan Spiegel has attracted increased investments with its potential in connecting large numbers of people in the world (Bernhard 2015). Ingvar presents a business person whose venture touches the very core of human existence with respect to furniture. The items form a critical aspect in the livelihood of individuals with unique products and designs in this context giving the furniture a unique history (IKEA 2007). On the other hand, Evan Spiegel touches on human interactions with respect to communication and sharing of life experiences creating memories in a new era of technology and internet. The venture connects people in different regions interacting on a social platform based on increased enhancements of social experiences (LAEDC 2015). Spiegel presents a cheap way of people interacting and sharing memories within social media via internet. In the same context, Kamprad is unique in the furniture industry with regard to enabling people be able to purchase low-priced materials and check for less expensive quality that are available (Iameceo 2011). Analysing the two entrepreneurs, it is imperative to note that they used their inconsistencies in their initial start-ups to build multi-million dollar businesses. On one hand, Spiegel and his co-founder faced the failure of their first project and exit of their partner but they choose to move one with new innovations attracting millions of users (Young 2014). On the other hand, Kamprad goes beyond his dyslexic disability to come up with an incredible way of naming the products in his company making it a unique and global entity in the furniture industry worldwide (Iameceo 2011). For Evan Spiegel, he brings out a young entrepreneur driven by the challenges of interaction in this era of globalisation. He overcomes the challenges of lacking incorporation or followers from the first project Placeboo and together with his co-founder Murphy, they decide to move on and come up with new innovations to include in their project (Young 2014). This clearly indicates a resilient entrepreneur a trait that helps a business person to learn from their experiences and make positive outcomes even when the final results indicate a failure. The two entrepreneurs have exuded a great sense of satisfaction in their ventures and success achieved. One notable attribute in their struggle to make their business successful is the acknowledgement of the challenges encountered in their course of starting and driving their business ideas ahead (Forbes 2009; Bernhard 2015). As an entrepreneur, Kamprad asserts that happiness is not reaching the set goals, but rather being on the way to realising them. From his tender age of five, Kamprad made efforts to venture into small scale business exposing him to the business environment and opportunities for evaluating on how best to put to task his entrepreneurial skills (IKEA, 2007). On the other hand, Evan Spiegel utilised his technical skills and the reality of increased penetration of mobile telephony to come up with an app that gives people the opportunity to share memories through picture (Young 2014). This gives a platform for interaction, as well as the opportunity to pass messages through pictures taken from diverse backgrounds and environment exuding great imagery and pictorial aspect of communication. In the context, Spiegel comes out a great innovator in the twenty first century where mobile internet and social media has become part of the daily life. According to Kamprad, a company’s identity, profile, guidelines, selection and quality of products coupled with price are crucial to the success of a company (Iameceo 2011). The two entrepreneurs, Evan Spiegel and Ingvar Kamprad outline internet as a key component in the marketing and selling of brands and products in the twenty first century. Through incorporation of internet as a process of marketing, the brands are able to be spread far and wide opening up new market share (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2011). Spiegel exemplifies a creative and entrepreneurial spirit found in the region of Los Angeles where great business start-ups and technical start-ups have been initiated. The success of Snapchat as a company has come out as an undertaking helping Los Angeles to be synonymous with technology, as well as successful start-ups in the tech industry (LAEDC 2015). Through his works as the CEO and co-founder of Snapchat, Spiegel has enhanced global awareness of LA as a hotbed of innovations where high technology business can leverage a perfect environment for thriving and developing to be a successful business enterprise. Through such awareness, other tech companies and investors have come to realise the critical importance of LA as a high-tech base with sufficient workforce (LAEDC 2015). Evan Spiegel depicts a young entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley tech scene indicating smart, innovative and confident business expertise. Innovation towards resolving challenges in one’s business start-up comes out as a trait depicted by Spiegel and Kamprad. Having a great and inspiring idea portrays a venture out to reach greater heights of excellence attracting investors in the business sector (Hill and Jones 2011). IKEA is a company with a unique culture fundamentally influenced by Kamprad through involvement as a leader in innovating systems that place the business enterprise on a global realm of excellence. From analysis of Kamprad’s way of working, it is evident that his outstanding leadership roles before handing over the mantle of formal leadership to an outside CEO created a foundational culture of the company (Iameceo 2011). His leadership worked effectively as a benchmark to promote the effectiveness of the company and promotes its operations reaching far and wide in the furniture industry. Start-up business ventures greatly rely on effective directions and leadership of the founder with resilience and focus to overcome prevailing challenges at the initial stages (Hill and Jones 2010). One crucial aspect of effective leadership for a business owner is creating a sense of ownership even to the workers to promote cohesiveness and enhance teamwork. Ingvar as a founder of IKEA created a company culture as a family enterprise exuding strength and character as significant factors in the development of the company’s culture (Forbes 2009). Spiegel and Kamprad as founders of Snapchat and IKEA display the presence of a dream they set out to accomplish acting zealously depicting a religious fervour in executing them to realise greater extents of success. Maintaining this trend of culture is critical in creating a path of growth and success for business undertakings (Hill and Jones 2010). Ingvar’s venture of starting with one small furnishing shop in Almhult in 1943, to stores spread worldwide making him one of the greatest entrepreneurs. The tenacity and ease of doing business comes out in not achieving or failing, but rather in rising up from challenges derailing one’s success and overcoming them to realise greater success. Spiegel and Kamprad bring out individuals showing transformational leadership skills that concerns the performance of followers, as well as developing the followers to reach their full potential. Through showing charismatic experiences; Spiegel in the customising of the mobile application to meet the needs of the market demands (Bernhard 2015) and Ingvar in making unique naming systems of the furniture, makes them come out as effective transformational leaders (Iameceo 2011). Charisma and idealised influence are two separate entities that should be accorded equal importance in a business venture to promote growth and development. Spiegel and Kamprad have depicted the importance of attributed charisma as a transformational attribute in effectively meeting ones goals and objectives. The need for charismatic leaders is evident with display of a sense of power and confidence among the leaders to promote progress (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2011). Although Kamprad left his post as CEO of IKEA and replaced by Anders Moberg in 1986, he is still active in the management of IKEA ground in the board. Theoretical Models and their Relation to the Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship involves creativity and innovation with consistence to achieve set goals and objectives in relation to solving prevailing challenges or problems in the society through business ventures. Ingvar Kamprad as an entrepreneurship directly relates to Moore-Bygrave Model which highlights a process as a set of stages and events following each other. The events involve the coming up with an idea or business conception, event triggering business operations to commence, implementation of the operations strategies and finally growth (Bygrave, 2004). Ingvar Kamprad as an entrepreneur has undergone various stages from business inception to the current success exhibited as an established business entrepreneur in the furniture industry. On the other hand, Evan Spiegel depicts an entrepreneur best described by the Cantillon’s Model. This model involves early risk taking approach with returns being set out with respect to flow of income among agents. Cantillon’s System (Source: BrownMark 2013) From the figure, the arrows indicate the flow of income. In this regard pertaining to the economic theory, the equilibrium of occurs with income flowing from the production of luxuries and necessities to the owners of land and workforce (BrownMark 2013). In context, Spiegel identifies an idea that basically involves leisure to generate income as well as bring about efficiency in communication and sharing of ideas among individuals who in this case refer to the owners of land and labour. Effective entrepreneurs gather the little resources at their disposal to pursue their ideas and dreams to become champions. Entrepreneurs have unique ways of coming up with ideas and effectively weathering challenges during the implementation of the set out business operations to build successful businesses. Virtually, all ideas start from a low point of conception and progress inherently with care breaking even and eventually becoming established entities within their area of specialty. With acceptance of new ideas in the market like Snapchat and IKEA strategically named brands, the commercial values of the products rise making the entrepreneur be celebrated and acquire a stature in the business world where their sell their idea far and wide and at high returns. Hill and Jones (2010) opine that culture is one aspect in an organisation that greatly influences working relations and impacts directly to the overall outcome. Kamprad and Spiegel have survived tough times by distinguishing himself as one of the most savvy and successful entrepreneurs in the current era of globalisation. IKEA has fared well in respect to cultural criticism majorly due to its policies that oppose greed and wastage principles (IKEA 2007). Efficiency and competence stands out as traits that have been depicted by Kamprad at IKEA making it an organisation that owners can be proud of as well as the workers and customers associated to it through buying of its brands. Time management is a core attribute in the success of business operations and the need for increased effectiveness in efficiency is inevitable (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2011). Through time management, both Evan Spiegel and Ingvar Kamprad made critical efforts to come up with timely innovations and brands that the market demands and taste. Time is a key factor in ensuring effective implementation of start-ups to reach their peaks and greater heights of excellence (Hill and Jones 2010). Both individuals have demonstrated critical attachment to time, a critical component of their business ventures in the quest to building a sterling business venture. In conclusion, it is worth noting that Evan Spiegel through Snapchat introduces a twenty first century idea of creating social events and sharing the memories. This brings up an era of risk taking approach which requires critical persistence with increased competition in the world. Photos have been utilised in the past to preserve critical important memories. With Snapchat innovation, Spiegel has brought up a new venture of utilising photos as a means of communication. With increased mobile communication use, social media outlets have enhanced sharing of memories and enhancing communication strategies. Kamprad on the other hand through IKEA has continuously offered excellent products through his ingenuity of branding systems and customer service. The idea of low-cost products by Kamprad greatly accelerated IKEA’s venture of worldwide expansion as the pursuit of multi-point competition and vertical integration to realise market power found a market that was ready and willing to embrace IKEA mind-set of low cost and unique European designed furniture. Spiegel has empowered the society through Snapchat just like Ingvar has revolutionised the furniture industry. Critical Reflective Analysis on the Learning Outcome of the Paper On critically reflecting on the case comparison of Evan Spiegel and Ingvar Kamprad, it is imperative to state that entrepreneurial comes out as a venture that requires tenacity and resilience to achieve set goals. This paper gives a clear reflection on the undertakings in the entrepreneur skills of two individuals in different industries who tried their best and beat all odds to exemplify their business ventures. Failure or disability does not depict inability to move on with one’s idea, but coming up with innovations to rectify on past failure results to tremendous outcomes in the overall business enterprise or technical innovation. Kamprad exemplifies a unique culture from his branding system of IKEA products to the way business is conducted in the company as well as unique dress code and cars (IKEA 2007). This gives a clear impression of ingenuity and uniqueness that is necessary in a competitive business field to cut a niche of success and get sufficient market share to realise great profits. Business satisfaction comes from meeting customers’ demands and tastes coupled with return orders based on the level of satisfaction of the clients. Thus, from this learning outcome, it is evident that identifying a unique and exemplary working process in ones start-ups and business implementations results to realising substantial success. This paper investigated Evan Spiegel and Ingvar Kamprad pertaining to their entrepreneurial experiences relating to challenges experienced, and achievements made. In context, both individuals display innovative, forward thinking and flexible entrepreneurs with Kamprad starting from selling matches at age five to owing a world-wide company selling furniture (Forbbes 2009) and Evan starting with a college project, failing on the first attempt but finally come up with Snapchat indicating great tenacity (Bernhard 2015). On the part of Ingvar Kamprad, he uses his dyslexic condition as a way of coming up with a unique branding system of the products which works perfectly in promoting the business venture. Further, an event during marketing of IKEA products presented an opportunity to create flat-pack products whereby products were made with flat base for transportation ease (Iameceo 2011). It worth noting that innovation does not end with start-up success, but rather continues with business operations to meet upcoming market demands, as well as customers’ tastes and preferences as shown by Snapchat’s ventures. Embracing new skills and learning practices to manoeuvre the changing dynamics in the business sector and in context the entrepreneurial sector gives an essential transferable skills strategy for survival and thriving in one’s socio-economic state and industry (Hill and Jones 2010). Reference List Bernhard, K. Jr., May 2015. Evan Spiegel wants to take Snapchat public, but are He and His Company Ready. Accessed online on November 17, 2015 from . BrownMark, C., 2013. How Entrepreneurship Theory Created Economics. Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. Vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 401-419. Bygrave, W., 2004. The Entrepreneurial process. In W. Bygrave and A. Zacharakis (Eds.). The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley& Sons. Dredge, S, June 2015. What is Snapchat? CEO Evan Spiegel explains it all to Parents. Accessed online November 18, 2015 from . Forbes, 2009. The World’s Billionaire: Ingvar Kamprad and Family. Accessed online November 16, 2015 from . 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