Ingvar Kamprad

I look at the money I'm about to spend on myself and ask if IKEA's customers could afford it.

I've paid an awful lot of lawyers to protect what I've built. I can only hope the money was well spent.

My theory was that good furniture could be priced so that the man with the flat wallet would be attracted to it, would make a place for it in his spending, and could afford it.

We don't need flashy cars, impressive titles, uniforms, or other status symbols. We rely on our strength and our will!

The company will never go to the market. We want to keep strict self-financing.

I'm not afraid of turning 80 and I have lots of things to do. I don't have time for dying.

People say I am cheap, and I don't mind if they do.

Our idea is to serve everybody, including people with little money.

If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example. I have to do so for all the Ikea employees.

Everything we earn we need as a reserve.

I am very proud to follow the rules of our company.

I see my task as serving the majority of people. The question is, how do you find out what they want, how best to serve them? My answer is to stay close to ordinary people because, at heart, I am one of them.

We have to still develop the Ikea group. We need many billions of Swiss francs to take on China or Russia.

An optimised tax structure gives us the possibility of flexibility in using our assets that have already been taxed in one market. They can be used in new markets for further business development without the additional burden of double taxation.

When the first million came in, I felt, 'My God, now I'm really independent.' That was a fantastic experience.

Normally, I try to get my haircut when I'm in a developing country. Last time, it was in Vietnam.

I feel many responsibilities - to our customers, to our employees, to the environment, to the world at large. But I don't want to feel responsible to investors, to outsiders with financial concerns that may differ from those of the welfare of IKEA.

We have always looked at taxes as a cost, just as any other cost that comes with doing business.

We ought to have more women in various management positions, because women are the ones who decide almost everything in the home.

If we want to be cost-conscious, we should do it, not just talk about how cost-conscious we are.