Example

Timeline

Ingvar Kamprad

Timeline

Michael Dell

Study the biographical data of Michael Del and Ingvar Kamprad, find the information about famous businessmen and write it down as in the examples that follows the tables.

WRITING

	Born.
	Aged 12, sells stamps by catalogue.
	Enters the University of Texas at Austin.
	Drops out of university to found Dell Computer.
	Dell Computer’s first-year revenues $257.8 million.
	www.dell.com launched.
	Dell’s online sales, begun in 1996, exceed $3 million a day.
	Online sales reach $50 million.

Example

Michael Dell (1965–) was always going to be a winner. After all, how many high school students earn more than their teachers? Dell progressed from selling newspaper subscriptions to selling computers.

Yet it wasn’t the product that made him wealthy, it was the way he sold it. The Dell corporation pioneered direct selling of computers. It is also an excellent example of a company succeeding by sticking to its founding principles: build to order, keep low stocks, sell direct, understand your customer. And the Internet was a godsend for Dell. What better way of reaching the global consumer? Dell’s success with the direct selling business model has made him the youngest CEO ever of a Fortune 500 company.

	Born.
	Registers company, Ikéa.
	Advertises furniture for the first time.
	Publishes first catalogue. Revenue exceeds one million kronor ($95,000).
	Opens factory combined with furniture exhibition centre in Älmhult.
	Introduces flat packaging.
	Opens first store in Älmhult.
	Introduces self-service in stores.
	Ownership transferred to Dutch Foundation – Stichting INGKA.
	Officially retires, handing day-to-day running to Anders Moberg.
	Stichting INGKA buys Habitat chain.
	150th store opens. Turnover reaches Kr60 billion ($5.689 billion).

Kamprad is a brilliant flat-pack king of furniture. Kamprad enjoys challenging the establishment and upsetting the odds. Industrious from an early age, Kamprad took on the furniture cartel in Sweden and neatly out-manoeuvred it. In the end, as he always predicted they would, customers got what they demanded: low prices and good quality. A man who prides himself on being an ordinary person, Kamprad continued to deliver value for money to ordinary people through innovations such as flat-pack furniture and self-service. Shopping the IKEA way became a family day out, a fun experience, long before the advent of the out-of-town shopping centre. When Kamprad officially took a back seat from line management at IKEA in 1986, he had changed the nature of retailing and provided inspiration for thousands of entrepreneurs.

Дата добавления: 2014-11-16