The Managing Director of IKEA Switzerland, Simona Scarpaleggia, has been shaping Swiss marketing for years like no one else. Through her excellent, innovative and clever marketing strategy, she succeeds time and again in creating best cases for practice as well as for science.

The Italian has been working for Ikea for 19 years. She first held various management positions in her home country as a human resources manager and store manager before rising to become Managing Director of Ikea Switzerland in 2010. The market leader in the Swiss furniture industry has nine furniture stores, around 3,000 employees and an annual turnover of over one billion Swiss francs.

However, the 57-year-old has drawn attention to herself not only in her role as managing director, but also as a promoter of women. In 2013, she initiated the association “Advance – Women in Swiss Business” with the aim of increasing the proportion of women in top management bodies to 20 percent by 2020, i.e. fivefold. In addition to Ikea, the Italian has brought many other Swiss companies on board, including ABB, Swiss Re, Nestlé, Swiss Post, Swisscom and Credit Suisse.

In IKEA Switzerland, the gender ratio as well as pay equality has evened out under Scarpaleggia. This makes Scarpaleggia a role model not only for many Swiss companies, but also for the entire IKEA Group, which has set itself the goal of achieving Scarpaleggia’s targets by 2020.

Now Scarpaleggias has summarized and reflected on her 36 years of professional experience in a book to show her male colleagues why it pays to promote women.