Ben cohen and jerry greenfield biography examples
•
Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield
Co-founders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc.
Founded: 1978
"Business has a responsibility to give back to the community."-Ben Cohen
Whoever coined the phrase "nice guys finish last" obviously never met Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. By making humanitarianism and philanthropy integral parts of their business ethic, they found a way to combine profitability with social responsibility, created a progressive new approach to employee management, and built one of the largest ice cream empires in the world.
Bored with their lives and wanting to do something that would be "fun," boyhood friends Cohen and Greenfield decided to start a food business in 1977. At first they considered making bagels. But when the necessary equipment turned out to cost more than they could afford, they settled for ice cream instead. There was only one problem-neither of them knew anything about the business. So they signed up for a $5 correspondence course in ice cream
•
Ben & Jerry
Both born in Brooklyn, New York, Bennett Cohen (born 1951) and Jerry Greenfield (born 1951) were lifelong friends who would go on to establish one of the most successful American ice cream brands of all time-Ben & Jerry's Homemade.
Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield established Ben & Jerry's Homemade, a popular American ice cream brand. Yet Ben & Jerry's Homemade evolved into more than just a company producing such premium offerings as Holy Cannoli! and New York Super Fudge Chunk-its founders who had inadvertently become business moguls realized they were indeed swimming in shark-infested waters. Cohen and Greenfield's struggle to adapt their own Sixties-era personal values-the ideas of tolerance, of giving back to the community, and respect for the individual-has not been an easy one at times for the reluctant executives, but one that has consistently landed their company on lists of the most employee-friendly work-places in the United States.
Th
•
Ben & Jerry’s is set to be spun off from Unilever. Here’s how the company’s founding duo built an ice cream empire from an old gas station.
Subscribe Newsletters
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? .
- Unilever said Tuesday that it will spin off its ice cream brands, including Ben & Jerry's.
- It's the latest change for Ben & Jerry's, which was founded by two childhood friends from Long Island.
- Here's the story of Ben & Jerry's, from a gas station in Vermont to global distribution.
Consumer goods giant Unilever seems ready to unload its ice cream business. That includes Ben & Jerry's, a brand known for its creatively named flavors – and for taking sides politically.
While many companies keep away from social issues, Ben & Jerry's has made weighing in part of its strategy. After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, for example, the brand rel