Shailesh Rokaya

BBA L3 SC

Ben and Jerry Case study

1.

Ans: Business is an entity that has motive to earn profit by providing goods and services and is
designed to satisfy customer needs. Mainly there are four types of business forms and they are
Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, Corporation and Limited Liability Company. [ CITATION RIF15 \l
1033 ]

In this case, Ben and Jerry have Partnership form of business. It is partnership form of business
because it is owned by two people i.e. Ben Cohen and jerry Greenfield. Like they had spent
their maximum time together, they already had the good relationship due to which they can
perform their work very co-operatively. In this business form, Relationship among the partners
plays vital role in order to achieve the targeted organizational goal. This type of organization is
run by the skills of partners and their shared visions. Different skills of different partners can be
used to have a fruitful result like Ben have separate talent like creative, risk-taking, bonding,
etc. And jerry has his own talents like diplomatic and calm behavior. Because of good
relationship among the partners, Jerry used to correct the mistakes done by Ben and attract the
customer with his attractive behavior. One partner can learn the behavior from another partner
like ben had learned many behaviors from Jerry. Because of good relationship with Jerry, Ben
mentioned that he is adorable and cute now. And in the book “Zero to One”, it was mentioned
that sharing of same visions among the partners is important in an organization rather than
only strengths in order to solve the problems related to business organization. We can say that,
if Ben and Jerry didn’t have good relationship between them from the beginning, they wouldn’t
have remained good friends for nearly about four decades. It was that relationship which leads
this small company to become the major global brand.

2.

Ans: “Social mission” this word itself talks about the social activities. It is the process of
providing services and benefits to the society and environment in various ways. With the help
of social missions, company can communicate with the customers, employees and stake
holders. Customers feel valuable when the company performs social activities related to those
customers. Social missions inspire marketing and provide countless marketing options and
advertising strategies because social missions are done to show the company’s responsibility
towards the society and the individuals of the society and it is beneficial for both company as
well as society. When communities are provided with good facilities and individuals are
encouraged and empowered through the social initiatives, they can create a wave effect of
positive change.[ CITATION Wha19 \l 1033 ]. CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is the example
of Social mission.

Ben and Jerry have a social mission because all three goals are related to the customer needs
and customer satisfaction. They are not focusing on a particular goal because they want to
achieve all three goals and fulfill their social responsibility. Social mission and CSR activities
mainly focus on the charitable works that is done for the welfare of the society. Likewise, Ben
and Jerry used to donate their certain percentage of the profit to the organization that is
related to charity. After having fame and some money, most of the companies try to dominate
the small companies. But Ben and Jerry went through that situation, so they tried to help the
small companies rather to dominate them. It helps not only the society, it also help small
business by working with them and by relying on them for some materials that is used in the
production process.

No, the firm’s social mission doesn’t conflict with its economic benefit because Ben and Jerry
have performed various social responsibilities for the sake of individual of society as well as
whole society. Because of such activities customers were attracted to their products which help
them to have a good image in front of the customers. Their name was recognizable by the
customers due to which the demand of ice cream was increasing. Because of high demand on
their product, they were able to reach their targeted economic gain. While doing the social
responsibilities, they got all the things which will help to have economic benefit and accordingly
they gained profit without any interference on the social mission.

3.

Ans: Merger and acquisition are completely two different terms. Merger means when the two
companies combine to get the particular common goal. Acquisition means when one company
take over the another company. Similarly, Ben and Jerry were acquired by Unilever after 20
years. They were acquired because their profit was slowing down and their stock was falling
from almost $34 in 1993 to $17 in 1999.[ CITATION Pau12 \l 1033 ].They wants to expand the
brand but was in great loss due to which they lack capital to expand. Ben and Jerry
disappointed the investors after they went to public in year 1984 and the share value was
hovered to $17 before Unilever provide them $43.0625 per share.

Ben and Jerry have got lots of benefits after being acquired by Unilever. Their share value was
increased to $ 43.0625. Their employees were protected and their social mission was preserved
by Unilever. Unilever agreed to provide opportunities to small business and provide funds to
the same charity to which Ben and Jerry used to provide money with additional $5 million. This
helps to improve the performance of Ben and Jerry in that particular area.

Similarly, Ben and Jerry have to face some challenges as they were not independent. They have
to depend on Unilever to make decisions. In November 2000, Yves Couette was appointed as a
new CEO but Cohen claims that appointed CEO was not eligible for that particular position
because newly appointed CEO has not get needed experienced. Unilever mentioned that Yves
has got all the factors to be CEO. Cohen was upset that Unilever didn’t allowed $5 million to
help small business as promised with social agenda.[ CITATION Har11 \l 1033 ]

Bibliography
Wharton University of PENNSYLVANIA. (2019, December 18). Retrieved July 19, 2020, from
https://www.online.wharton.upenn.edu

Baird, H. (2011). Managing Social Responsibility and Growth at Ben and Jerry's. New Mexico:
Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative, University of New Mexico.

Caligiuri, P. (2012, August 14). Fast company. Retrieved July 20, 2020, from fastcompany:
www.fastcompany.com

LLC, R. P. (2015, November 5). Retrieved July 19, 2020, from rifkindpatric:
https://www.rifkindpatrick.com/Blog/2015/November/The-4-Major-Business-
Organization-Forms.aspx