The former chief executive of IKEA and internationally respected business consultant Josephine Rydberg-Dumont has visisted Dundee to share the secrets of her retail success.
She gave a public lecture at Dundee University, drawing on her experiences on building a design culture in an event hosted by Design in Action, an Arts and Humanities Research Council initiative based at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.
As business leader with 24 years’ experience in senior roles with the IKEA Group of Sweden, she took responsibility for range and product development, purchasing and supply.
She was instrumental in taking an organisation employing 13,000 people world-wide from sales of 7 to 20 billion euros.
Her success was built on her commitment to design-thinking and her belief in achieving simplicity as a mark of quality.
University deputy director Michael Marra said: “IKEA is one of the world’s most recognisable brands and so there are few people more qualified to talk about the relevance of design.”
