From Vision to Action: My first 100 days as CEO

I just concluded my first hundred days in my new role, a good moment to stop and reflect. While writing this note I am in Nairobi, spending time with people who benefit from all the great work our partners are doing every day. I listen and learn to be able to adapt and act in the interest of people’s needs and the impact we need and want to achieve.

We’re all reading the heart breaking news on devastating conflicts, climate related issues and that young people are losing hope. It is clear, we have a big role to play and I feel a sense of urgency to accelerate impact and develop solutions together with people and partners, who are closest to the problems we face in this world. It is all about people, and my first hundred days have been exciting and inspiring along with some intense challenges! But I’m truly grateful for the meaningful conversations with people on the ground, and the warm welcome I’ve received from my own team, our partners and the broader community.

Being new, I have received many questions and the most common one is how I feel moving from business to philanthropy? My answer is simple. One thing that has remained constant for me is our vision, values and the moral compass that we’ve inherited from IKEA, ?that continues to be my guiding light stepping into philanthropy. Our vision, 'to create a better everyday life for the many people', has guided me throughout my 35 years of experience within IKEA and now within the Foundation I have a lot to learn to ‘pursue our mission to improve the lives of vulnerable children by enabling their families to create sustainable livelihoods, and fight and cope with climate change.

Another powerful question is how I explain in a simple way to family and friends what the IKEA Foundation does and what is it trying to achieve? We aim to be a values based, curious and connected philanthropy, working with amazing partners on the ground on two of the biggest threats facing humanity – poverty and climate change. I feel truly humbled and proud that we have reached the milestone of having paid out 2 billion euros to create impact for people and planet.

So what’s on and what’s next?

The biggest challenge right now is climate change and we are focussed on minimizing emissions. That’s why over the past 2 years we have spent 60% of our funding on climate and emissions reductions and are making good progress to reaching our ambition to spend 70% of our total funding on climate and emissions reductions. This makes us one of the largest climate funders in the world. But frankly, it is not something to be overly proud of, as only 2-3% philanthropic money is spent on climate action.

This is the context against which we agreed upon a clear approach for 2024, with the aim of living our values, accelerating and maximizing return on social and environmental impact, enabling our partners to unleash more impact, communicating and leading, using our voice and engage the larger IKEA Community.

Looking ahead at the next 100 days, as we’re taking stock of what we have achieved so far and what is required of a us as a philanthropy, it is clear that we need to focus more on continuously strengthening our collaboration, develop values based partnerships, truly understanding our partners work, and identifying and acting on better ways to maximise impact, together.

This is what a values based, curious and connected philanthropy does and this is what is required to address the complex challenges today and drive the transformations of entire systems such as food and energy. I’m confident that in the next 100 days we will deepen our understanding on how we can strengthen, and shape our long-term strategy together with our partners, to create a movement of positive change, spread optimism and hope and make sure we put people at the heart of everything we do.

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Let’s shape the future together!

If you would like to know more about the impact that we create together with our partners, please visit our website !