Ingvar Kamprad， who has died aged 91， is not a household name， but the company that made him a billionaire most certainly is. Ikea， the Swedish flat-pack furniture group with 412 stores in 49 countries， bears the name that Kamprad registered in 1943， when， aged 17， he needed to set up a company in order to buy a job-lot1 of pencils. It stands for Ingvar Kamprad and Elmtaryd， Agunnaryd， after the farm and village in the southern Swedish region of Sm？land where he grew up.
　　Nearly 75 years on， sales of self-assembly pieces such as a bookshelf called Billy and basics such as the sofa called Klippan， are thought to have amassed him a fortune of $54bn. In 2006， he was placed fourth in Forbes annual list of the world’s wealthiest billionaires. His affairs are complicated， however， involving a family foundation based in Liechtenstein， and he claimed his personal wealth to be far less.
　　Growing from a small local furniture business in the 1940s to the global brand it is today， Ikea has done more to change the look of homes in many parts of the world than any other retailer. While some believe that its cheap-enough-to-be-disposable goods are an unnecessary evil in a society that should be building sustainability into consumer products， for others Ikea represents the fulfilment of the modernist dream that preached the message of calm， clean， affordable design for all.

　　With the exception of perhaps McDonald’s， Ikea has uniquely transcended barriers of class， culture and geography in the late 20th and early 21st century， flying in the face of2 received retail wisdom by selling the same products with unpronounceable Swedish names all around the world. The catalogue once had a print run of 150m copies， and some statistics claimed that more than 10% of the population of Europe had been conceived3 in an Ikea bed. In 2016， the company celebrated its own achievements by opening an Ikea museum in ？lmhult， on the site of the first store， opened in 1958.
　　Kamprad’s journey to world furniture domination was punctuated by problems. He liked to say， self-deprecatingly， that “no one has had as many fiascos as I have”.4 These included boycotts， accusations of nazism， tax avoidance and plagiarism5， and alcoholism. Yet those who worked closely with him have suggested he found it painful if things seemed to be going too well—that the struggle and the solution were part of the same continuum6. You can perhaps take the farmer’s son out of Sm？land， but in Kamprad’s case you can’t take Sm？land—a harsh， agricultural and punishing region—out of the boy. 　　Kamprad’s politics pervade the entire culture of Ikea， which is a sort of moral humanism sold through furniture. In 2011， he set up the Kamprad Family Foundation， whose mission is “to support， stimulate and reward education and scientific research in a way that supports entrepreneurship， the environment， competence， health and social progress”.
　　In 1973， in order， he said， to avoid “tax consequences”， Kamprad took his family off to Denmark， and then four years later to Switzerland. He returned to Sweden in 2014， three years after his second wife Margaretha’s death. In December 2017， the EU launched an investigation into the tax affairs of Ikea after claims that the firm had saved around €1bn in tax through its complex corporate structure.
　　In 2000， he had， in the manner of the best fairy stories， given each of his three sons from his second marriage， Peter， Jonas and Matthias， a piece of his empire to run. In 2013 he stepped down as chairman of the board and handed over to Matthias.
　　Kamprad’s modesty was legendary， driving only a？koda and a 1993 Volvo， and trawling16 flea markets for clothes. “He was so unassuming17， you’d never guess at his wealth，” said an acquaintance who visited him at home in Switzerland. “The whole family， they are just not interested. There are no fancy cars or watches even. The company is the passion. And yes， he was a friendly person.”
　　Perhaps in another life Kamprad would have made a good preacher. There was something evangelical18 about his zeal， and religious about his method. In 1976， he wrote “A Furniture Dealer’s Testament”， published as an appendix to Bertil Torekull’s Leading by Design： The Ikea Story， in 1999. It was filled with homilies19 such as “No method is more effective than the good example”， and headings such as “the Ikea spirit is a strong and living reality”. Another favourite line was that： “Only those who are asleep make no mistake.” At least Kamprad can now rest assured that his days of causing fiascos are over.
　　享年91歲的英格瓦·坎普拉德并不算是家喻户晓，但让他成为亿万富翁的公司绝对是。作为一家来自瑞典的平板包装家具集团，宜家在49个国家拥有412家分店。坎普拉德于1943年注册了宜家这个名字，时年17岁的他需要成立一家公司以便购入一批铅笔。宜家（IKEA）代表Ingvar Kamprad和Elmtaryd， Agunnaryd，后者指的是瑞典南部地区斯莫兰的农场和村庄，他在那里长大。
　　近75年来，通过销售如名为毕利（Billy）的书架等自行组装的产品和名为克利帕（Klippan）的沙发等基本款家具，他积累了540亿美元的财富。2006年，他在福布斯年度全球富豪榜中名列第四。然而，他的情况很复杂，因为涉及列支敦士登的一个家族基金会，他宣称自己的个人财富要少得多。
　　从上世纪40年代的一家本土小型家具企业成长为今天的全球品牌，宜家比其他零售商作出了更多的努力来改变世界各地住宅的面貌。虽然有些人认为其价格低廉从而可以用完就扔的商品在一个应该将可持续发展融入消费品的社会中是一种不必要的罪恶，但对于其他人而言，宜家代表了现代主义梦想的实现，这一梦想宣扬为所有人提供平静、清洁、实惠的设计。