Ben And Jerry-two Hippies Prove That Good Guys Can Finish First

In 1977, two ex-hippie high school buddies named Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield put together $12,000 to start an ice cream parlor. Their initial choice was bagels, but the machinery was too expensive. Part of their training was a $5 Penn State correspondence course in ice cream making: They received straight A’s because the test was open book. They chose Burlington,Vermont, as the second-best place to start their ice cream venture, after finding that their first choice—Saratoga Springs, New York—already had an ice cream parlor. They moved into a renovated gas station in 1978 and marked their one-year anniversary with a “free scoop day,” a tradition that continues nationwide todayThe company grew at a rate exceeding 100 percent per year, and in 1985, the founders established the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation to contribute to community-oriented projects, to be funded with 7.5 percent of the company’s annual pretax profits. Ben & Jerry’s wild flavors caught on with the public. Cherry Garcia, named after the Grateful Dead member, became a big hit. After the stock market crash in 1987, Ben & Jerry’s vans pulled up to Wall Street to serve free scoops of “That’s Life” and “Economic Crunch.” Ben & Jerry’s began to be held up as a standard for good corporate behavior. Besides the institutionalized profit portion that went to charity, the company codified the salary spread between CEO and the lowest paid worker and regularly supported a variety of social causes. The company introduced Rainforest Crunch ice cream to encourage sustainable growth and preservation in the rainforest regions. One of their brownie factories employed only disadvantaged workers, and when Vermont dairy farmers got pummeled by volatile prices, the company donated a half-million dollars to the family farmers who supplied the milk for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
     In 1988, President Reagan named Ben and Jerry Small Business Persons of the Year in a White House ceremony. Jerry put on the only suit he owned for the occasion. In 1993, sales hit $140 million, and the company ran an essay contest to find an outside CEO. First place would get the job. Second place received a lifetime supply of ice cream. In the late 1990s, sales topped $200 million, and a Harris Interactive poll showed Ben & Jerry’s as the number five most reputable company in the United States, with a number one ranking in the “social responsibility” category. After Ben & Jerry’s sales hit $237 million in 1999, Unilever made an offer to buy the company. Although Ben Cohen opposed the sale, Jerry and the company’s board agreed, and the deal was done. Many fans of the company were appalled, but final terms created a separate board of directors, a commitment to continue all social programs, and a promise to continue eco-friendly packaging initiatives.
     As many expected, however, some of the social programs have quietly disappeared in the years since, including the 7.5 percent of profits going to charity.With the founders no longer holding the reins and the company now just a division of one of the world’s biggest conglomerates, time will tell how much of the original sense of purpose will survive. Here again, a company propelled by purpose appears to have lost its direction. Ben & Jerry’s and H-P are two companies you would think are as different as night and day.However, both share a host of commonalities: a strong mythology, dynamic founders, wellestablished reputations, and a devoted customer base. Yet, all of these commonalities can be traced back to the single most important trait they shared: a strong sense of purpose established at the very beginning, in a garage filled with little more than dreams and desire. For any business interested in reaching another level, purpose is the place to start. In fact, I would submit this could be said about any human endeavor. Think back on any remarkable organizational achievement, whether it is in history or in your own personal life, and a sense of purpose is always the first step. John Kennedy said, “We’re going to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade,” and suddenly NASA had its purpose.My mother and her friends decided they were going to save a historic church in Fernandina Beach, Florida,and within two years, garnered a state grant of over half a million dollars.
     As you look at the business you have today or the one you plan to start tomorrow, remember that establishing and honing your sense of purpose is the first key rung in your ladder to growth..

A Uniform Business

In the 1980s, I became president of that small apron manufacturer. The aprons we produced were not the type people buy at retail stores to wear in their kitchens, but the kind you see employees wearing in bars, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, and the like. These garments have a dual purpose: pr...

The Potato Chip Story

When I was a younger man, I worked as an account executive and then a senior account executive at advertising agency Foote Cone & Belding’s main office in Chicago. One of my accounts was Frito-Lay, so I learned more than I ever wanted to know about potato chips. One of the first things I learned w...

Mad Method

I began my career in the rough-and-tumble world of a large Chicago advertising agency. There, when asked to develop an advertising campaign, we usually divided the planning process into three distinct phases. The first phase was characterized by the large amount of time (months, in many cases) every...

An Attachment To Team

When I left the advertising business, I took the reins of a small uniform apparel company. I literally went from Michigan Avenue to Main Street, U.S.A., and I carried my small bag of tricks with me. You can probably imagine the looks on the faces of my veteran crew of sewing machine operators when I...

How To Transfer Your Pension