Ikea's founder Ingvar Kamprad is a "dictatorial genius", the Swedish entrepreneur's former assistant writes in a shocking book.

Johan Stenebo, author of the book “Sanningen om Ikea” (“The truth about Ikea”) has worked at the Swedish furniture chain in various international top positions for more than 20 years. He’s also been the assistant and right-hand man of Ingvar Kamprad, the celebrated super-entrepreneur who founded the company in 1943 as a teenager.

However, Johan Stenebo describes Ingvar Kamprad as a dictatorial genius who has managed to create a somewhat phony image of himself as a nice and warm old man.

Behind the blue-yellow facade of the world’s largest furniture retailer odd old-fashioned values are being used, which are holding back the possibilities for women and people with different ethnic backgrounds to climb in the hierarchy, the author reveals.

“It’s time for Ikea to air out its values. They have gone sour”, Johan Stenebo said in an interview with TV4 on Monday. “This is not an exaggeration. It’s very sad and I’m worried about Ikea’s survival”.

He also slams Ingvar Kamprad’s three sons, who have top executive jobs within the family business, as “incompetent” and claims that they got their jobs because of cronyism rather than skills.

“They are incapable of working as company executives. To run a company this big takes some very special skills that these three don’t have”, he said. “They got their jobs just because they are sons of Ingvar Kamprad. There are no doubts about that”.

Ikea, an unlisted family-owned company, has some 283 branches in 36 countries. It expects sales of 21.5 billion euros (30.1 billion dollars) excluding currency effects for its fiscal year ending August 31.

Ingvar Kamprad, one of the richest men in the world, now lives in tax exile in Switzerland. The book will also debate why he refuses to unveil the size of his wealth. 

In the TV4 interview Johan Stenebo made it clear that the book is his truth about the company, not the truth. The book will be released next week and is published by Ica Bokförlag.