Malmö
Skomakaregatan 2211 34 Malmö
Sweden+46 735 124 970hello@kruso.se
IKEA
Business consulting – but it’s not.
When IKEA set out to engage people with sustainable energy, they were looking for an efficient way to kickstart the new project.
After assembling a small internal team, they analyzed market opportunities and decided to focus on solar panels.
But to move forward, they needed to speed up their business processes and digital workflows.
New business areas for large organizations
Large organizations often face delays when launching new business areas and products. It’s not that they are inefficient, but the involvement of many stakeholders, decision-makers, and approval processes can slow things down. This was the case for IKEA.
When Kruso joined the project, the overall direction was already set, but the process needed to move faster. We quickly added 5–10 people to IKEA’s internal team, including product owners, scrum masters, business developers, architects, project managers, and developers. Together, we were able to speed up the development of digital solutions and web app prototypes in a very short time.
Traditional business consulting is super expensive, and all you end up with is a bunch of PowerPoints that make the board happy. We do it differently. We don’t just talk about it – we actually do it.
Ongoing development: Building a well-rounded team
The project team evolved into three key components:
Product Experts: Specialists with deep knowledge of the sustainable energy product; solar panels.
Digital Experts: Kruso’s team, who could innovate, test, and develop digital solutions and platforms.
Business Experts: Experts with a solid understanding of IKEA’s business and internal processes.
With this structure in place, the project began to gain more attention within IKEA, which is crucial in large organizations when trying to push a big project forward.
Innovation, prototyping, and development
With the new team, we were able to accelerate the project significantly. We developed several digital prototypes to support the new product category. The main goal was to create a communication platform to share knowledge about solar panels with IKEA’s customers.
IKEA’s move into selling solar panels came with new challenges. Unlike buying furniture, which is familiar to their customers, purchasing solar panels is more complex. It involves decisions about energy efficiency, installation, and regulations, which can be daunting. We needed to simplify the process, making it as easy as buying a piece of furniture from IKEA.
Offboarding for long-term success
Over time, we helped IKEA expand their team and guided them in hiring the right people. Instead of just handing over the project, we onboarded the new team members, helping them build internal capacity. The team grew from 5 to 20 people, and we gradually began offboarding ourselves, ensuring IKEA could fully manage the project on their own in the future.
By taking a hands-on, collaborative approach, we were able to help IKEA move quickly, innovate, and ultimately, build a sustainable, scalable solution that they can own and drive forward themselves.
