Ben Jerry's Double Dip

Commercial success need not come at the cost of human value. Just ask Ben and Jerry, whose first ice cream shop in an abandoned Vermont gas station grew into a $160 million business. Yet Ben & Jerry continue to use the power of business to change the world. With its seemingly wacky antics, controversial social and political stands, and iconoclastic corporate policies, the company that’s come to embody socially responsible business has drawn the scepticism of business analysts, the criticism of media cynics – and the amazement- and ultimately, the respect- of the business world and the people in it. As Ben and Jerry explain in DOUBLE-DIP, they haven’t always known exactly what they were doing, but they’ve always known why they were doing it. There’s a method to their madness; that method is what they call ‘values-led business.’ BEN & JERRY’S DOUBLE-DIP explains what values-led business is, why it’s the best model for business today, and how anyone who owns, works for, invests in, or shops with a company can help make it a socially responsible business.

Author Biography

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc., opened their first ice cream shop in Vermont in 1978. Today, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade is a $160 million company and contributes 7.5% of its pre-tax earnings to charity.