Gillis Lundgren
Gillis Lundgren was a Swedish furniture designer and IKEA's fourth employee, joining in 1953, who is credited with the flat-pack idea and designed the Billy bookcase.
What they did and why it matters
Lundgren's moment of removing the legs from a table so it would fit in a car became the origin story of flat-pack furniture, which changed the logistics of bulky goods. Flat-packing let IKEA ship and store furniture in dense, stackable cartons and let customers carry it home. His Billy bookcase, first produced in 1979, became one of the best-selling furniture items. Brands selling bulky products online face oversize surcharges and dimensional weight charges, and redesigning for compact shipping is still one of the most effective ways to cut those costs.