Culture key to assembling success at Ikea in Renton

Anders Berglund wears a crisp, short-sleeved buttoned-down shirt, the words IKEA stitched over the left pocket. He's known to roam the showroom, pushing carts and straightening displays. Like most employees, he has no desk.

"I'd rather be out there," Berglund, 57, says, motioning from a table in the cafeteria to shoppers browsing, carts filled. It's the closet thing he has to an office.

"I don't do any paperwork," he says simply. "I don't need a desk."

Ikea, the Swedish furniture company that helped bring democracy to home fashion, operates nearly 240 stores in 35 countries. Of its 28 U.S. locations, the Renton store is unique among its contemporaries.

Begun in 1994 as the first owner-operated Ikea in North America, the store now holds the twin distinction of having the highest sales and lowest employee-turnover rate among the Swedish chain's U.S. sites. The store celebrates its 12th anniversary this month.

For a location whose sales have more than quintupled in the past decade — from $27 million in 1994 , to $140 million last year — the key to its accomplishments is deceptively simple.

Everyone wears the same uniform, and employees are taught to inquire within. More on both later.

Long before the Swedish furniture company landed here, promulgating clear-lacquered birch coffee tables throughout the region, Berglund joined Ikea as a controller in Denmark in 1978.

The chain had less than a dozen stores then, in Sweden, Switzerland, Amsterdam and Germany. His eventual business partner, Bjorn Bailey, was offered the job as president of the chain's Canadian operations a year later.

"They all knew he wasn't so good for numbers and details," Berglund recalls of Bailey. "That was my job description: 'Bjorn is not so good with numbers, so why don't you go along?' "

Rare offer

Berglund moved to Canada as controller, eventually serving as president there from 1986 to 1991. He was in Vienna, Austria, overseeing the chain's Eastern Bloc stores, when management offered him and Bailey an opportunity to run — and own — a U.S. store in the early 1990s.

The men chose the Seattle area because of Ikea's success in Vancouver, B.C., although the U.S. stores were not performing well as a group.

Both men invested their life savings in the store — renovating an old Boeing plant because they could not afford to build from scratch. It remains the only non-custom-built store in North America.

Berglund focused on everything inside the store, Bailey on Ikea's customer-facing image. They hoped for 15,000 visitors a week. Berglund remembers not sleeping well for the first six months. Sales were slow the first year.

A dozen years later, Berglund might lose sleep, but not for want of customers: The store draws 50,000 shoppers weekly. "Today," he says, "it doesn't look so much like a risk."

If a company's success is dictated largely by its culture, this store's ethos comes partly from an epiphany Berglund had at Ikea Canada. "I wasn't sure I was a good leader," he says. "I saw this as a way to improve myself."

Berglund tore through leadership books, learning two things: He was too hard on himself and he had trouble staying in the moment. "If you're awake," he says, "you don't miss anything."

The Renton store holds an annual managers retreat focused on what he learned about the art of leadership through self-awareness. Most companies teach managers how to fix other people, Berglund says. He prefers an inward approach.

Berglund uses the phrase "confronting with love," to teach employees how to talk to one another in a straightforward, respectful manner, about uncomfortable topics.

Open environment

When disagreements arise, he encourages employees to talk openly about them, rather than remaining frozen in a grudge. "A lot of people misunderstand communication as [relaying] information," he says. "In order for us to come together, we need a high level of honesty."

Not everyone is keen to the approach. He recalls hiring a manager from a renown local company who wasn't used to giving, or being asked for, honest feedback.

"I had been out on the sales floor and asked [this employee], 'What is the biggest problem today?" he recalls. "She got a totally frazzled look on her face."

He had to reassure her she was not in trouble; he just wanted to make sure they had enough bookcases for customers.

The store now favors promoting from within.

"There is such a fear of upsetting somebody," Berglund says. "We're trying to be nice, but we're not really very nice. By avoiding honest feedback, I don't think that's respectful."

Chris Welander, who manages the store's design center and office furniture department, said the culture is such that employees have confronted Berglund "with love."

Berglund gave a speech once at a co-worker's going-away party that some of the attendees believed to be convoluted, confusing and, well, slightly rude. A group of employees talked with Berglund about the speech.

Taken aback, he apologized to the departing co-worker. "He didn't even think twice about it," Welander recalls.

Welander said the annual retreats enable managers to identify personal patterns that block their progress. She has discovered more positive approaches to dealing with change.

The store just underwent a major remodel, which added to the chaos of running a busy business. "I've learned how to stay in that chaos long enough to learn why you're there and ready yourself to the change," Welander says, "so you don't push back your feelings."

One symbol of the store's culture: It broke rank with the chain and instituted the same uniform across all departments and levels of staff.

"Not matter how many years of experience you have, everybody is on the same level," says Danielle Barker, kitchen area manager.

"You come [here] more as a student. You're learning and growing."

The company marked its 12th anniversary with — what else — a sale. Alongside the Billy book cases and Tundra laminate flooring, shoppers could buy 12 Swedish meatballs for the price of 10.

While sales continue to grow, the owners expect to lose roughly 7 percent of sales to a Portland location opening in the spring. Based on the Renton store's sales last year, that translates to roughly $130,000 less in the till.

Second store

Within the next five to 10 years, Berglund sees a second store north of Seattle. Vancouver, B.C., a similarly sized market, has two stores.

A second location would most likely be run by the parent company. Berglund and Bailey decided in the beginning to operate one store, and one only.

For now, the partners will continue to fulfill their job description, but it might be hard to pick them out of the crowd.

"Anders — he has an area where we throw his mail," Welander says. "He wears the same uniform as us. His partner, Bjorn Bailey, he pushes cart and customers think he's the carts guy. There's no glass offices."

Monica Soto Ouchi: 206-515-5632 or msoto@seattletimes.com