Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive

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392-025 Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive

In 1985, the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation was established to fund community projects. It was financed by a 7½% pre-tax profit contribution, the highest level of charitable contribution of any U.S. public company.

The company planned to open a plant and adjacent scoop shop in Karelia, Soviet Union, to promote peace.

Ben organized 400 companies into a group called 1% for Peace, which worked toward efforts to encourage peace through understanding.

Environmental issues were taken seriously and included investment in state-of-the-art greenhouse technology for wastewater treatment at the plants and the appointment of an environmental affairs director.

Internally, the company attempted to be progressive and caring. Free employee assistance programs helped with any type of personal problem. Onsite daycare facilities were started. Employee benefits were comprehensive. The company tried to create an atmosphere where employees could be “real.” Dress was casual, even in the offices, and company meetings were celebratory bashes. The tone and style of the organization was friendly, informal, and direct, and the management philosophy was participatory. Hierarchy was viewed with suspicion and distaste. No organization chart existed, although jobs and responsibilities were generally understood. Jerry was head of the Joy Gang, whose purpose was to “spread joy” across the company.

The overwhelming majority of employees believed that the company did a good job as a socially conscious company contributing to its various communities. In the 1989 annual report, William Norris, founder and chairman emeritus of Control Data Corporation, signed the social audit, which the company conducted each year, with a statement that his “conclusion is that Ben & Jerry’s has the most thoughtful, comprehensive social concerns program of which I am aware.”

The firm’s socially conscious approach was not part of a carefully crafted commercial strategy but resulted from the personal orientation and interests of the founders. Ben commented in the March/April 1988 issue of New Age Journal:

Jerry and I never planned on going into business, so we don’t have your normal business head. We didn’t go to business school. I didn’t graduate from college. Jerry was going to pre- med when we opened up this homemade ice cream parlor pretty much on a lark. We were looking to make a livable wage, but we were not looking to get rich, and I think that’s what’s really different about us and our motivation to go into business It’s really interesting what

you can do with business when you don’t care about making a lot of money.

As the company grew, gained recognition, and succeeded financially, the need to be more explicit about the role of social activism in the company increased. A series of discussions to develop a mission statement resulted (see Exhibit 10). Arriving at the three elements of the mission—product, economic, and social, was fairly easy. Deciding the relative importance of each proved much more difficult. Some people advocated a focus on the economic mission of profit, shareholder value, and employee rewards. This, they argued, was the heart and foundation of any company. Others, led by Ben, argued for an emphasis on the social mission. This, they argued, was the spirit that drove the firm and the main reason for their support for it. Eventually, the board agreed to assign equal importance to each element of the mission and to highlight their interdependence. This theme was reinforced by Ben in a statement in the 1989 annual report: