What does it really take to scale a global business without losing control, blowing up costs, or breaking your supply chain?

In this episode of Build a Business Worth Buying, host Aaron Alpeter sits down with Holger Carlsson, who spent nearly 25 years helping shape procurement and supply chain strategy at IKEA, before leading operational resilience efforts at the United Nations.

Holger shares hard-won lessons from operating at massive scale—where small decisions ripple across thousands of suppliers, millions of products, and global markets. This conversation goes beyond theory into the real systems, constraints, and values that enable resilient, cost-efficient growth.

You’ll learn:

• How IKEA uses deliberate constraints to drive better decisions
• Why scenario planning is essential as complexity increases
• The origin of roles like IKEA’s “gatekeeper” and why they matter
• How to simplify operations without sacrificing speed or standards
• What happens when forecasts go wrong—and how strong systems recover
• How trust, incentives, and values shape long-term supplier relationships

Whether you’re a founder, operator, or supply chain leader, this episode delivers practical insights you can apply immediately to build a business that scales—and is truly worth buying.