Day Two: Implementation Day

As one door closes, another opens. Today, the Dela Accelerator went from the strategy phase to the implementation phase. The IKEA Strategy Advisors handed over the work to the IKEA Implementation Advisors, and the work continues between them and the Social Entrepreneurs.
Day 2 Dela Summit.
Source: Dela Summit.

One part of the day that we, Kim & Linnéa, found interesting was when the participants at the Dela Summit talked about their values. As we see it, the foundation for good collaboration is to have trust. To build trust, it’s important to understand each other’s values. During the session, the atmosphere in the room was relaxed and it felt as if the participants got to know each other on a personal level. We think it made all the participants acknowledge the fact that the partnership and collaboration is more than “just” work and how important it is to remind ourselves of the importance of the personal interaction.

At lunch, all IKEA staff at the Delft Office was invited to join and to learn more about IKEA Social Entrepreneurship. It was great to see the IKEA staff here be inspired and engage in conversations with the Social Entrepreneurs.

Dela Summit

One of the Strategy Advisors, Vaishali Misra, talked about how efficient and fun the collaboration had been with her Social Entrepreneur. She thought that was mainly because of how they have complemented each other. She had contributed with her experience from working at IKEA, whereas the Social Entrepreneur has a big passion that needed to be complemented with a business perspective. Vaishali also talked about how exciting it will be to see what happens now that the Implementation Advisor takes over.

One of the Implementation advisors, Kim Tabell, who’s working in an advisory role to the Management Board and the CEO of Ingka Services, talked about how he wants to be part of achieving great impact in the community. Kim also said that his perception of a Social Entrepreneur evolved in a positive way during the day.

For us, it’s been a great day. We’ve got a lot of new experiences and one thing that stuck with us, is how you have to look at the market and the demand when starting to develop a new idea.

See you tomorrow,

Kim & Linnéa