This bracelet is inlaid with beautiful gold and silver patterns. It feels heavy and shiny, and most Europeans will like it at first sight.

First...it has an exotic feel.

Second... the shape is very intimidating!

Anyway, I liked it at first sight. It feels heavy in my hand and doesn’t look cheap.

He was indeed a noble lord from Great Britain, extremely wealthy, and the gifts he gave them were all high-end items they had never seen before.

The middle-aged man took the jewelry and looked at it, then carefully wrapped the bracelet with the velvet handkerchief that came in the box, closed the box, and put the box away.

When he looked at Alan again this time, his eyes were pure and admiring.

There is absolutely no vigilance.

Alan gave people a sense of dignity, generosity and mystery. Although he said he was here to visit and learn, the middle-aged man was not wary of him at all.

How could this noble lord be interested in their small IKEA?

It is most likely that he came here for a normal inspection. The middle-aged man decided that, as the chairman said, he would show the best side of their company headquarters to this gentleman!

…

The imagined visit and inspection - a bunch of people following behind, wearing white shirts on the upper body, ordinary trousers on the lower body, and belts on the lower body, walking around and looking around, and chatting and shaking hands with the workers in various positions.

The actual visit and inspection - sitting in the conference room of IKEA headquarters, with the air conditioner on, drinking tea, and the reception team members sitting in a circle in front, if Alan wanted to know something, someone would stand up and explain it to him, in case Alan did not understand.

They also specially prepared pictures and projectors.

The translator next to me carefully translated each sentence in English with a slight Swedish accent.

Allen had never felt that inspection was so easy.

They really answer whatever you ask. Apart from information like the specific purchase price of each product, they are completely defenseless about everything else.

It starts from the history of IKEA's founder when he founded IKEA, and then talks about how IKEA has expanded beyond Sweden, starting from Denmark, and gradually spread to the whole of Europe in recent years.

"Sir... our chairman has planned to expand to Asia, especially East Asia. We are now planning to build the IKEA headquarters in East Asia and are currently negotiating with China."

"oh?"

Alan was happily flipping through the pictures, but when he heard this translation, he looked up suddenly.

The current chairman of IKEA is really good. His vision is much bigger than some others.

Of course...companies like IKEA are more manufacturing-oriented, and relatively low-end manufacturing at that.

When it comes to labor costs, they will inevitably have to look for cheaper employment sites.

For example, a table does not include the cost of materials.

If we only consider the labor costs, for example, it would cost 20 pounds in Sweden, but if it is transferred to China... it might be compressed to 10 pounds, or even lower.

The reason why IKEA has developed slowly, in addition to their design concept, is that they are one of the earliest companies to make assembled furniture, and also the largest one.

Nowadays, everyone buys ready-made furniture.

Finished furniture, no matter its appearance or materials, cannot avoid labor costs.

Even if you make furniture with the worst materials, it still needs people to make it, right?

The materials used for a piece of furniture may be rubbish, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the price of the furniture itself will be much cheaper.

This is really annoying.

Of course, the better the material, the more expensive the processing fee will be.

In addition to these, transportation costs are also a big expense.

For example, if you buy a three-seater sofa, most people’s cars cannot fit it.

But the cost of transporting the sofa does cost money.

All things considered, buying furniture is both troublesome and expensive for ordinary people.

But how does IKEA do it.

The furniture they make is originally intended to be low-end, with the goal of allowing everyone to buy cheap, high-quality furniture.

Whether the quality is good or not depends on the quality control, and the price is cheap...

There are many tricks involved here.

First of all, you can find some common substitute materials, and after compressing the materials, the biggest expense is labor cost.

How can we reduce labor costs and even transportation costs?

IKEA’s answer is…the wool comes from the sheep.

Since customers want cheap prices, this part of the cost can be hidden and passed on to the customers.

That is the famous assembled furniture.

This means first taking a certain style of furniture, and then designing it and then reasonably splitting it into many parts.

Then, after designing, customers can assemble it by themselves after following the instructions and spending only a little time and effort.

In this way, the labor costs are cleverly passed on to the customers.

But it’s hard to say when promoting it to the outside world…

Later, after the planning and design of a genius, this behavior was called personally experiencing the installation of one's favorite furniture. This would give people a sense of participation and accomplishment, and this is called IKEA fun.

In other words, after this change, the labor costs that were originally passed on to customers have been transformed into something called a sense of participation.

Many people just like this, as long as the installation is not particularly difficult, they can accept it.

As for whether the delay in installing furniture will affect their ability to make money...

You won't install it after get off work?

Wouldn't this save any delay?

Does this sound reasonable?

…

With this design, the furniture no longer needs to be assembled, which saves more than half of the labor costs.

Moreover, in this way, the furniture which is made up of parts can be reduced in size and directly packed in large cardboard boxes, which will be more convenient for transportation.

Even many customers’ private cars can transport the goods.

Even if it is a large piece that cannot be transported...

That’s okay. As long as you shop in an IKEA store, they can provide professional delivery services, and even... installation.

In this way, the problems of the last few problematic customers were solved.

Therefore, the rise of IKEA has had a huge impact on Europe's traditional furniture industry.

But ordinary people are the most honest. As long as your quality is reliable and the price is cheap enough, IKEA will be very popular in the current environment.

Now, IKEA is no longer satisfied with simple expansion. They also want to find another production base to further reduce costs in order to obtain greater profits.

Alan was very interested in the plan.

It is true that IKEA sells furniture, but Allen plans to quietly copy many of IKEA's models.

For example, the furniture's appearance design, unified production base, unified transportation channels, the factory-direct store model, and IKEA's product catalog manual.

This thing is the same as the takeaway membership manual that Allen made.

They all make brochures for their products and distribute them to customers regularly.

But IKEA does not yet have an "online shopping" model as "advanced" as Allen's takeaway company.

If we take the essence of IKEA's business philosophy and model and remove the dross, and incorporate it into our own supermarkets, and add the membership and online shopping model that Allen has created.

Now everything is ready, right?

And now IKEA is preparing to expand into the Chinese market.

Allen felt that this information was crucial.

He planned to... secretly find someone in China to make things difficult for IKEA, and then... at the critical moment, stand up as a good guy, do a favor, and see if he could have a chance to get in IKEA's car.

As long as you get on IKEA's bus, you can gradually share IKEA's logistics channels.

For Allen, this can save him a lot of money, and it will also be convenient for him to expand after his supermarket is completed.

It really kills two birds with one stone!

…

In just two days, Allen gained a lot from his visit to IKEA headquarters.

He was very inspired by how the entire IKEA operates, what each department is responsible for, the little stories behind various products, etc.

During this time, Xiao Shitou took advantage of the fact that he was familiar with Alan when he delivered the gift to him, and asked for the contact information of some capable managers at IKEA headquarters.

Of course... Alan doesn't want to poach people right now, because that would... make him seem too calculating.

He planned to let his secretary talk to and build relationships with these talents he had his eyes on first, and then send a few of them to IKEA headquarters for internship and on-site learning after he returned.

Wait until all the preparations on his side are done, especially when the funds are in place, and then try to recruit people.

By then...

What’s the point of just making money at IKEA headquarters?

Following Master Allen, you can not only make money, but also gain honor. That's a title, a British title!

Using this pancake as bait, Alan doesn't believe that he won't be able to hook anyone.

Some of these management elites pursued money at the beginning, but as they got older and gained more knowledge, their pursuit of money was not so urgent. Instead, they pursued honor or status more urgently.

As for identity, is there anything that a British knight can't solve?

This identity is enough for ordinary people!

Enough for them to become true upper-class people.

A strenuous business practice - starting from scratch and building up with hard work.

An effort-saving business practice - tap into existing talent and develop by standing on the shoulders of giants!

Alan likes the feeling of getting something ready-made more and more. As long as the benefits are enough, he can save a lot of energy.

…

The formal welcome dinner did not officially begin until the fourth evening after Alan arrived in Sweden.

Alan thought he could finally experience a proper state banquet-level reception from a foreign royal family.

By the time the dinner officially started, he already felt a little regretful.

Queen Silvia only smiled and shook hands with him when the two first met. The rest of the time, she had a gloomy face, sat there silently, didn't say a word, and stared at Gustav with cold eyes.

Gustav didn't say anything either, he just lowered his head and ate.

As for long speeches such as toasts and welcome speeches, there were none at all.

And the food...wasn't the state banquet Alan had imagined, but just ordinary Swedish home cooking.

Apart from a housekeeper who was responsible for the introduction, there was not even a servant...

This reception dinner was like... a gathering of colleagues from the company, and the atmosphere was very weird.

Next to Queen Sylvia sat a girl of about fifteen or sixteen, who stared at Alan the whole time, as if he were an alien.

Seeing this look made Alan almost unable to eat his food and he felt uncomfortable all over.

Next to this girl, there was a little carrot-head who was much younger than her. Judging from her hairstyle, she should be a girl, but she was not very old, at most about the same age as William...

The older one should be the eldest princess who "stole" the position of Crown Prince of Bertil, and there is no need to mention the younger one.

The impression given by these two people is that the older one is more quiet, but the way she looks at people is not right. Although the younger one occasionally looks at Allen, most of her attention is on the food.

As a result, during the entire dinner, Allen was the only one left who occasionally looked at Bertil or Gustav.

There was no verbal communication between the few people, which was quite awkward.

…

"Alan... I'm sorry to have embarrassed you. Uh... The queen hasn't been in a good mood these days."

After dinner, Gustav couldn't wait to signal Allen, and the two of them went for a stroll in the garden outside. Gustav explained hesitantly.

“…”

The queen's behavior today seemed to have annoyed even Alan. The key point was that Alan was very puzzled...what happened?

Even if the Swedish royal family is in danger, it wouldn't be like this for them and their spouses, right?

What happened?

Besides...King Gustav, this is too incompetent, is he dominated by his wife?

…

"It's okay, Your Majesty. Thank you very much for hosting a welcome banquet for me. This banquet... uh, it has a very family atmosphere. I like it very much."

Alan didn't know how to praise it, he could only say it was very family-friendly and casual...

"Well...it's still early. How about I take you around town? My nephew Christian will be here tomorrow. Let's take a rest after he arrives. We'll go hunting the day after tomorrow."

Gustav didn't say much on this issue, but instead explained when the second Danish prince would arrive, and invited Alan to go for a walk in the city now.

Alan looked up at the sky…it was already dark!

He didn't quite understand where to go in the city at this late hour, but since the king had invited him, then... he should just follow the host's wishes.

…

Gustav himself drove a very low-key Volvo 360SEDAN. From a distance, the car looked very similar to the old Jetta, a square little car.

Xiao Shitou followed their car with a few bodyguards.

Gustav was seen turning left and right in the city, passing through various alleys, and finally stopped in front of a store with a purple neon sign on the door.

Enchanting Rose

Alan could barely understand the name on the door. This name... was a bit unorthodox.

The wide door at the entrance was tightly closed. Two men who looked like thugs, with tattoos on their arms, stood on both sides of the door with their hands clasped together, like door gods.

"Come on... I'll show you around our nightclubs in Sweden."

"Ah? Night... nightclub...?"

As soon as King Gustav got off the car, his whole mental outlook was different. He gave people a feeling of excitement and anticipation.

But when Alan heard his words, he was slightly stunned.

You are the king, and you said you would take me into the city for a walk late at night, but in the end you brought me to a place like this?

Nightclub?

This style of painting... isn't quite right.

Hmm…

Alan suddenly recalled Queen Sylvia's sour face at the dinner, and he felt that he had found the reason why the queen was unhappy.

Could it be that this is because the king likes to go to nightclubs?

This... this... Alan was speechless. He seemed to have been to such a place except for the time a few years ago when he went to the KTV in Swansea to kill Koreans. The only other time he had been there was when he was serving in the navy and when he was docked.

For so many years, after he inherited the title, he had never been to such a place again. He didn't expect that he would come to such a place today with King Gustav.

It's just... magical.