Ben & Jerry's Double-Dip: How to Run a Values-Led Business and Make Money, Too - Softcover

Our Points (and We Do Have Them) Are...

In the chapters that follow we'll tell stories and share tips based on what we've learned from building Ben & Jerry's into what it is today. But before we get into specifics, we'll lay out the foundation here: the five main points we hope you'll take away from reading the book.

1. Business is the most powerful force in society. Therefore business has a responsibility for the welfare of society as a whole.

In 1988, we were surprised and delighted to be named U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year. When President Reagan presented us with the award he repeated the much-quoted phrase "The business of America is business."

Maybe that used to be the case. But now that business has become the most powerful influence in society, we believe business has to accept responsibility for the welfare of that society and the people in it. Or, as we'd say, "The business of business is America."

If we go back in time and look at societal structures around the world, we see that religion was originally the most powerful entity. Then power shifted, and nation-states became the institutions of greatest power. Today the most powerful force is business. This is a very new phenomenon, occurring only within our own lifetime. You can see this reality echoed in major cities around the world: the oldest big, ornate building is a religious institution. The second-oldest big, ornate building is a governmental institution. And today, the biggest, most ornate buildings being built are commercial.

In order to maximize its social responsibility, a company needs to put its social mission right up front. Values are either a forethought or an afterthought. There's no middle ground. In order to get values in the right place -- in order to maintain the balance between your social mission and your financial mission -- they have to start out in first place.

Understanding what it means to be a values-driven company has been an ongoing process at Ben & Jerry's. When the two of us started scooping ice cream in an abandoned gas station, we hadn't given much thought to business, let alone its role in society. We envisioned ourselves having a homemade-ice cream parlor that we'd run for two or three years until we moved on to something else. Calling our business Ben & Jerry's, giving away ice cream, holding free movie festivals, doing things that were community related were just honest, true expressions of ourselves.

Later, when we decided not to sell the business, we consciously undertook an experiment: to find ways for a corporation to impact society positively. We dedicated ourselves to the creation and demonstration of a new corporate concept, of linked prosperity. The company developed a three-part mission statement that reflected our commitment to this conviction:

PRODUCT MISSION

To make, distribute, and sell the finest quality product.

SOCIAL MISSION

To operate the company in a way that actively recognizes the central role that business plays in society, by initiating innovative ways to improve the quality of life of the local, national, and international communities.

ECONOMIC MISSION

To operate the company on a sound fiscal basis of profitable growth.

Business is the strongest influence in our society. It influences elections through campaign contributions; it influences legislation through lobbying; it influences the media through ownership; and it influences our everyday interactions as consumers and employees.

All of this is done in the narrow self-interest of business, without much concern for the welfare of society as a whole. And that is the major change. The purpose of the first two most powerful forces, religion and government, was to promote the general welfare. But promoting the general welfare has never been a part of business's reason for being.

If the most powerful force in society does not look out for the general welfare, society will be destroyed.

For us there isn't any road map to follow. We've had to make it up as we've gone along. We get a lot of support and good ideas from our friends in like-minded businesses, but each of us has to figure out how to apply the principles we share to his or her individual company. Even now, one of the biggest issues at Ben & Jerry's is that we haven't been able to articulate our objectives specifically enough so that everyone in the company is fully aligned. As a friend of the company's once said, "Everyone's heading west, but 'west' is a pretty broad description." But there's reason for optimism; just this past year, our board developed a much clearer vision of Ben & Jerry's social mission.

We have a progressive, nonpartisan social agenda.

We seek peace by supporting nonviolent ways to resolve conflict.

We will look for ways to create economic opportunities for the disenfranchised.

We are committed to practicing caring capitalism.

We seek to minimize our negative impact on the environment.

We support family farming and sustainable methods of food production.

We're constantly in a process of clarification, of improving what we're doing. But we do agree on one central point: the impact of business is so far-ranging and all-encompassing that we can't shirk responsibility for societal concerns. Incorporating that responsibility into a business can make it a powerful, positive force for social change. 2. A values-led business can be a highly profitable business.

Business people have traditionally said that business can't concern itself with the needs of the broader society, because it won't be able to survive. Our experience proves that's just not true.

So do the experiences of other companies. There are plenty of companies that are thriving today -- Patagonia, Inc. (clothing); Odwalla, Inc. (juice); Tom's of Maine, Inc. (personal care products); the Body Shop International Plc. (body care products); Blue Fish Clothing; Frontier Cooperative Herbs; Working Assets Funding Service (credit cards and long distance phone service); Rhino Entertainment (music); Tommy Boy (music); Whole Foods Market; Just Desserts; Stonyfield Farm Yogurt; Aveda Corporation (personal care products); and many more. Ask their customers why they buy from those companies, and you'll probably hear as much about how much they love the company as you hear about how much they love its products. That's a reversal of the usual situation -- most consumers are buying from companies in spite of their negative feelings about corporations in general.

In our early days in business, the two of us used to be a hot ticket on the Rotary Club circuit in Vermont. They needed a speaker to lull their members to sleep as they digested their rubber chicken. We'd give our talk, they'd fall asleep. Then at the end someone would wake up, raise his hand, and say, "All this stuff you're doing for the community -- you're just doing it because it's good for business, aren't you?" And we'd say, "No. It's altruism."

When we get that question now, we say, "Altruism is the old answer. The new answer is, it is good for business. If you want to be more profitable, why don't you try it too?"

3. People can influence business -- as investors, as employees, as consumers.

Business needs capital, so it needs people to invest in it. It needs labor, so it needs people to work at it. And it needs customers to purchase its products or services. So, people can greatly influence how business conducts itself by choosing which companies to invest in, to work for, and to support with their purchasing power.

Today over $1 trillion -- almost 10 percent of all managed market investments in the United States -- are invested in socially responsible investments. According to Good Money by Dr. Ritchie P. Lowry:

The socially responsible investment movement is growing exponentially in numbers of individual and institutional investors participating, in the amount of money invested, and most importantly in the movement's ability to persuade corporations to develop a sense of social responsibility in the conduct of their businesses.

As companies discover that their stock price is influenced by how much they integrate societal benefits into their business behavior, they'll be more and more motivated to do so.

Similarly, companies are discovering that they're better able to attract and keep the best employees if they factor social concerns into how they run their businesses. Employees are more motivated -- and productivity is higher -- when they bring their hearts and souls as well as their bodies and minds to work with them.

Today most people don't make those conscious choices. They don't consider a company's social values when they choose a company to interact with. But socially responsible business and socially responsible investing are growing at a tremendous rate. At the annual awards ceremony hosted by the Council on Economic Priorities, small, medium sized, and large companies are honored for their environmental, social, and employee practices. There are surveys done by firms like Cone Communications in Boston and Roper Research in New York proving that more and more consumers are starting to factor in these concerns.

Here are some findings from a 1994 survey conducted jointly by Cone and Roper:

Seventy-eight percent of adults said they were more likely to buy a product associated with a cause they care about.

Sixty-six percent of adults said they'd likely to switch brands to support a cause they care about.

Fifty-four percent of adults said they'd pay more for a product that supports a cause they care about.

After price and quality, 33 percent of Americans consider a company's responsible business practices the most important factor in deciding whether or not to buy a brand.

The number of people who want to "vote with their wallets" is growing toward critical mass. There's a paradigm shift occurring. As one indicator, the Council on Economic Priorities' handbook Shopping for a Better World, which rates the products available in supermarkets based on their degree of...