Ikea's New Game Plan

He wears work shirts and totes his business papers in a plastic bag. He bounces around Europe checking on stores, quizzing startled sales clerks on product details, and passing out memos written on paper napkins. Although he's 71, the founder of Ikea, Sweden's $5.8 billion home-furnishings giant, has no intention of slowing down. Ingvar Kamprad, who still controls the company, wants to bring his retailing innovations and affordable furniture to customers as long as he can. "People have very thin wallets. We should take care of their interests," he says.

These days, Kamprad is brimming with a new sense of mission. Forty years after pioneering Ikea's distinctive assemble-it-yourself furniture, he has launched his company on a big expansion into new products and markets. This fall, Ikea is rolling out a major new line of children's furniture and toys. Not content with his traditional Western European base, Kamprad is opening up eight new stores--from Shanghai to Warsaw to Schaumberg, Ill. Kamprad envisions an Ikea that grabs customers in childhood and holds on to them for life.