Dana Barrett, entrepreneur, tech executive, TV and radio host, knows quite a bit about business. In her podcast Bizography, she delves into the strange and true origins of iconic companies. “Some of their stories are inspiring,” Dana says, “some get my blood boiling, and some are just plain weird.” In this episode, she goes for something universally beloved and inspiring: the story of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Since 1978, they’ve made delicious flavors, as well as millions of dollars, by not only creating a great product but also through their sense of social responsibility. They were visionary do-gooders long before corporate social enterprise was as important to consumers and investors as it is today. But the story of Ben and Jerry starts with failure.
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield met in seventh grade, when they were doing badly in gym class. They stayed friends through high school and college, and while Jerry graduated from Oberlin College, Ben tried his hand at pottery, which didn’t go well. Jerry was rejected from forty medical schools and Ben was just getting by with odd jobs when they finally decided to go into business for themselves. Dana says, “I kind of love that Ben and Jerry were just these two guys who...felt like they weren't really doing well on their own, so what if they got together and tried to do something fun and be their own bosses?”
Ice cream didn’t occur to them right away; they originally wanted to start a bagel company, but realized that an ice cream company would be cheaper. “By the way, they didn't know how to make ice cream. It's not like they made ice cream every summer at camp or anything. They had no idea,” Dana says. They learned how to make ice cream from a $5 correspondence course, pooled their money, and asked the bank for a loan. “First of all, you could not get a bank loan for a business like that today,” Dana asserts. “‘I would like to start an ice cream store. I took a $5 correspondence course. We have...no experience, no business acumen to speak of’...the bank would laugh you right out the door.” Fortunately, times were different; they did get a small loan and started their first shop in Vermont in 1978.
In addition to their novel way of starting a business, Ben and Jerry also had a unique way of running it. “Clearly, Ben and Jerry didn't actually start the business as a social enterprise, partly because that term didn't even exist at the time,” Dana points out. “Giving back and doing good was just built into who they were as people, and so it just became part of the business.” Starting with their employees: they had an early rule that no one, including themselves, could make more than five times what the lowest-earning employee made. That means that when Ben retired in 1994, he was only making $81,000 as the CEO, and workers start out at nearly twice the minimum wage. They also allow employees to take home three pints of ice cream a day. “Here's what's so cool about that,” Dana says, “nobody is going to take home three pints a day...but nobody is going to steal from them...Whenever you want it, you know you can have it, so you don't have to steal it. It sets up a culture of trust and general purpose goodwill...This idea that we want you to share the wealth of the company.”
They extended similar goodwill and generosity to their customers, too, starting their famous “free cone day” on the anniversary of their opening: customers get free ice cream all day, and are allowed to get in line as many times as they want. The way they treated their customers and handled complaints created brand loyalty unlike any other company. And when they finally sold the company for $326 million to Unilever, they made sure that generosity was part of the agreement. “Their terms included maintaining forever, forever, their mission of giving back,” Dana tells us. “There’s … a board of directors that's independent of Unilever that runs Ben & Jerry's and has responsibility for their social mission, their brand integrity and their product quality. That will go on as long as the brand exists...they found a way to leave this legacy even long after they're gone from the company.”
Find out lots of fun facts about Ben and Jerry, like Ben’s anosmia, the fun flavor that got them in trouble with Christian moms everywhere, their CEO essay contest, their activism, the name they originally considered for the business, and so much more in this episode of Bizography.
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