Michael Crawshaw

Development of new products, managing product life cycle and looking at strategic direction for the office furniture range. Working with sourcing, marketing and sales organisations to maximise business growth.

Creating happiness at work.

I worked in the Dining Furniture Range & Product Team managing a product portfolio of nearly 1000 articles. • Delivered 3 year-on-year dining business growth of 6% and global sales of €1.4bn during a time when other furniture business areas struggled to achieve growth. • Used insights I had developed for the Dining business to find new business opportunities to deciding future development needs for the product portfolio within a wider IKEA range context. • Set and launched a new business strategy for the dining business known as the Hub of the Home recognising how dining tables were being used in domestic situations, with less focus on eating and more on other activities. • Led a shift in retail focus from individual items to dining furniture sets for easier customer choice and increased add on sales for both online and store channels. • Developed a stronger focus on B2B products and consumers. • Worked to strengthen the sustainability focus in development and communication. • Successfully lead an IKEA team and contractors building the annual range exhibition to clarify the future position and direction for dining furniture. This included presenting this work to over 600 people in smaller groups over a 3-week period. • Managed an annual marketing and communication budget of €1m. Successfully found efficiencies and cost savings to use this more effectively. • Developing 4 members of the Dining Marketing & Communication team, as well as the other 11 members of the wider team. Successfully guided the development of one of the team to a more senior position and worked the introduction of 3 new team members during my time in this role.

• In addition to my role as Marketing & Communication leader I was part of a program to develop future Product Design Developers • Project placement in Storage Platforms looking at how to integrate Workspace storage furniture needs into a common storage platform for a more efficient sustainable range and easier customer experience.

This was a 2-year assignment, based in the Ideas Team in Co-create IKEA, a test to see how deeper customer insight and cooperation could be used in product development and rolled out into new business and product development as well as product management. I worked on the following projects: • Research and workshop preparation for store food concepts in Copenhagen and Tokyo. This was a proposal ordered by IKEA Food to look at new business possibilities for retail units in central urban locations. We were asked to investigate take away food with a strong IKEA identity but was also sympathetic to local tastes. • Research and workshop with internal and external participants to see how healthier food options could be made more attractive for children. • Working on insights-based direction to attract more customers to the IKEA accessory offer with the ambition to increase physical and online visitation, make the IKEA offer appear more vital, value for money and balance the volume and share of sales in this area compared to furniture. • Designed, set up and facilitation of roadmap workshops to build an actionable future for INGKA (the retail part of IKEA) with 2 colleagues. This resulted in a strategy called 10 Jobs in 3 years. • Work for the Chinese market to find a new direction for cookware offer and Asia focused products for the IKEA Children portfolio. This involved desktop research, interviews and workshops in Shanghai with IKEA co-workers from China and other Asian markets. • Research into the IKEA table and chair business looking at consumer insight, material direction and potential retail solutions. The result was the formation of a new business area that worked with all seating and table solutions for IKEA. • Contributed to the development of a design led product development process that included the inclusion of more relevant insights and assets for stronger communication assets.

Working within in the Commercial Team and Management Team of the area dealing with the development of small storage, outdoor furniture and the IKEA Family range. • Partner to the BA Management team by contributing to the business plan through gathering and summarising consumer and market insights, as well as securing a strong integration of the consumer's voice and needs into the plan. • a partner to the BA Management team by contributing to the business plan through gathering and summarising consumer and market insights, as well as securing a strong integration of the consumer's voice and needs into the plan. Responsible for clear input to the Business Area commercial plan and communication strategies. • Responsible for the global commercial briefing of my BA through a seamless integration in all channels and media in full interaction with stakeholders in different global media and commercial matrixes as well as IKEA markets. • Part of development and launch of the IKEA SLADDA bike • A new take on how outdoor furniture should be developed focusing on different geographical segments. • Work on the communication concept for the 50 years of IVAR (IKEA shelving system) celebration. • Worked with and developed a small team of 4 communicators and 2 support staff to ensure consistent messaging and delivery and an understanding of the business direction and needs within the coming 3-year period.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad. Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings. September 2014 to April 2016. People Leader Väla Centrum Helsingborg. Responsible for recruitment, store team training and development and internal team Net Promoter. July 2013 to September 2014. Family Room Manager Väla Centrum Helsingborg. Working together with a team of Geniuses, Creatives and FRS's to deliver outstanding customer service for our visitors, offering them an industry leading experience with technical support and training.

Responsible for the Art Director, Copywriter, Graphic Design and Product Editor teams and a deputy Competence Leader. In total a team of 43. From the the incredibly creative to very practical. As well as this I have been involved in projects; to find a new working method for a year of transition in 2012, a re-organisation of the office space in Älmhult in 2012 to support this working method and in 2013 responsible for a complete re-plan of the working environment at IKEA Communications to support the new company organisation.

Working with Bedroom, Bathroom, Textiles, Home Organisation for printed material and from April 2008 Internet too. Direct responsibility for a team of 46.

Worked with the IKEA catalogue. Responsible for the team producing, covers, textile, lighting, home organisation, home decoration, children and all information pages.

Liaison with retail organisations to insure that global strategies were implemented. Initiated research into a new merchandising solution, initiated and implemented an ordering and tracking process to support local marketing activities that supported the global SULTAN mattress launch in 2005.

Working with Catalogues, Brochures and Internet to support global range strategy. Also coaching IKEA stores and Service Offices on the implementation global range strategy. Involved in the development of the VIKA table range and responsible for the naming strategy that supported a greater focus on this range.

Lead the store build for the Work IKEA department and a rebuild in 2000. At a time of falling office furniture sails found new opportunities in selling the complete IKEA range of products to business customers. Also involved in the daily operational running of the total store. I was acting Showroom manager for 6 months to cover a leave of absence.

I started during the store build-up. Working with in-store sales and merchandising as well as an external sales team. Other areas included managing a telesales team and office design and planning services.