Ben and Jerry's Case Study

Case Write-up # 2: Ben & Jerry’s

Founded in a gas station in Burlington, Vermont by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Ben and Jerry’s grew from a simple idea to the market leader in super-premium ice cream in 2000. After low-budget analysis, Greenfield and Cohen decided that the best place for a homemade ice cream shop was a college campus. The problem was all the colleges in warm areas had homemade ice cream shops already, so Cohen and Greenfield made the bold decision to start their shop in Vermont. Fast-forward to 2000 and Greenfield and Cohen have proven many people wrong. Ben and Jerry’s now owns 170 stores across the United States and overseas and with strong supermarket sales, revenues totaled $237 million. Ben and Jerry’s equity was valued at $160 million. Perhaps making the financial data more impressive were the values by which Cohen and Greenfield chose to run their company. The company was extremely conscious of all stakeholders, including the community, environment, and social foundations. This was termed “caring capitalism” and was used by other companies such as Patagonia, Odwalla and Tom’s of Maine. For the last 15 years, Ben and Jerry’s have donated 7.5% of its pretax earnings to groups and foundations. Organizations such as Greenpeace International and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation received help from Ben and Jerry’s with recruiting and signing petitions. Another stakeholder Ben and Jerry’s accounted for were the customers. To reward them for their loyalty and show appreciation, stores opened up a free cone day once a year, where customers were served free ice cream. While some companies have other agendas when supporting social causes, there is no doubt that Cohen and Greenfield were supporting these groups for the right reasons. Ben and Jerry’s values could also be seen in the company’s financial decisions. The company’s three objectives were designed to work together without compromising on one for another: Product,...