Do-It-Yourself becomes Do-It-For-Me with Ikea India

Don’t believe what you hear. Ikea hasn’t really come to India. It’s just sending its stuff over and putting it all in a store in Hyderabad. But the Ikea culture – the build-it-yourself, you-can-do-it lifestyle – won’t necessarily be on offer.

We all know why. Indians aren’t particularly keen on DIY and not having done it, they’re generally bad at doing it themselves. Which makes them unenthusiastic about doing it themselves again. And so on.

Anyway, in an astute bit of corporate psychological assessment, Ikea’s  Hyderabad store will be offering an army of 150 workers to assemble furniture for customers.

Which makes the concept not Do-it-yourself but Do-it-for-me.

And it makes of Ikea in India, IkIndia, an international concept that is almost swallowed up by local needs in one particular part of the world.

This makes rather good business sense, of course, if Ikea is to operate profitably in the Indian market.