Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream

Ben and Jerry’s

Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and the amazing success the company has experience over the years could be loosely summed up as a story that began with two friends coming together with a vision to create a company that did not adhere to the traditional corporate rules of running a business. They both had certain ideals and a socially and economic responsible opinion on how a capitalist business should be run. There are a lot of similarities in the way this company is run and operated when compared to South West Airlines. They are of course offering two different things to there customers, South West providing a service where Ben and Jerry’s are providing a product but the way that they go about there daily business in the spirit of treating people a certain way, and setting out to complete a different kind of vision then say a more traditional company would is very similar.

Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen where both born in New York in 1951. On Merrick, Long Island Jerry and Ben first met one another in junior high school. Jerry graduated from high school with a national merit scholarship and enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio to study pre-med. While studying there Jerry got his first experience working in the ice cream industry when he hired by the his schools cafeteria as an ice cream scooper. After graduating from college Jerry applied to medical school but did not accepted. He worked as a lab technician back in New York where he moved in with Jerry in a small apartment on East 10th St. In 1976 Ben and Jerry relocated to Saratoga Springs, New York. Where they both decided to pursue their dream of starting a food business together. They decided to go with ice cream and began researching the industry. They both enrolled in a five dollar correspondence course in ice cream making at Penn State and soon after they set up their first Ben & Jerry’s ice cream parlor in Burlington Vermont.(1)

Like Ben and Jerry’s South West to began with two friends coming together with a vision. Rollin King and herb Kellher where talking one evening complaining about the high fares for short airline commutes between Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston, and Rollin King said to Herb "let’s start an airline." However it was not that easy for South West Airlines to get off the ground. They had many legal battles from the major airlines companies at the time to ...

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... a dynasty on this planet has yet to live forever. There is documentation of empires and governments that have fallen, and the reason behind them failing is always, for the most part, the will of the people in action. Corporations have established themselves as the corner stones of our modern society that we live in today. New ways of thinking are the best approach to avoid making mistakes that have been made in the past. Ben and Jerry’s have been known for there unprecedented rate of giving to charitable organizations in the corporate world, a full 7.5% of its pretax profits(4) as compared to the average American corporation of one percent.(2)

Works Cited

(1) www.benandjerrys.com

(2) Article; Joel Makower Business For Social Responsibility, Beyond the bottom Line.(1994) http://www.findarticles.com/ (3) Daniel Kadlec, The New World of Corporate Giving, (May 5, 1997) www.time.com/time/magazine/1997/dom/970505/business.the_new_world.html

(4) The Ben & Jerry's Foundation, Foundation Guidelines, www.benjerry.com/foundation/index.html (5) Murray Raphel, What's the Scoop on Ben & Jerry, DIRECT MARKETING MAGAZINE (1994)

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