Ball State University students and ice cream chilled in a packed Pruis Hall to hear Ben & Jerry's co-founder Jerry Greenfield speak about his company's beginnings and its philanthropic mission.
Greenfield's message to students was businesses should have a spiritual side and shouldn't just exist to make profits.
"It was really interesting how they had the whole spiritual aspect to it and how he integrated business, his morals and charity," freshman Bridget Sheehan said.
On entering the auditorium, audience members picked cups of ice cream to eat before the presentation. They chose from a variety of flavors, including vanilla, chocolate-chip cookie dough, Cherry Garcia and Chocolate Fudge Brownie. He said it was rare to serve ice cream before a presentation instead of afterwards and it showed how "progressive" Ball State was.
Before Greenfield began his presentation, he said Ben & Jerry's had recently been bought by a Unilever, private company. Ironically, the company had also bought Slim-Fast the same day.
Greenfield then talked about his history with co-founder Ben Cohen, whom he met when they were 13 years old. They bonded because they were slow in gym class, Greenfield said.
After finishing high school, Greenfield said he applied to about 20 medical schools two times each and was rejected every time. Cohen college-hopped instead. Cohen applied to the Skidmore College University Without Walls, a university where students weren't required to go to class, Greenfield said. That didn't fit him either, though, so Cohen held a number of jobs, including driving a taxi and helping at a bakery, Greenfield said.
Greenfield and Cohen eventually decided to open an ice cream parlor since they both liked ice cream, Greenfield said. They took an ice cream-making class at Penn State and aced it, he said.
After cross-matching possible locations with warm climates with those close to college campuses, they decided to open an ice cream parlor in Vermont because there was less competition, Greenfield said.
The two didn't have any business experience, so to get a loan from the bank they used a friend's business plan.
"In every place it said 'slice of pizza,' we crossed it out and put 'ice cream cone,'" Greenfield said.
They renovated a gas station and sold ice cream even in the winter when temperatures were minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
To bring in more revenue during winter, they distributed their ice cream to local stores, Greenfield said. However, when Ben & Jerry's gained popularity, Pillsbury, who owns H+â-ñagen-Dazs, threatened to stop working with their joint distributor if the distributor didn't stop working with Ben & Jerry's, he said.
Greenfield and Cohen started a "What's the Doughboy Afraid Of?" campaign and printed an 800-number on the ice cream containers to lobby support for Ben & Jerry's to fight corporate giants. Pillsbury backed down after the issue got too much publicity, Greenfield said.
When Ben & Jerry's became more financially sound, Greenfield and Cohen decided they wanted the company to help the community.
"If we want to grow our business we want to do it in a way that's consistent with our values," Greenfield said. "If business CEO's are generally good, why are they blind to social problems?"
They were the first company to offer stock only to Vermont citizens so everyone, not just investors, could share in the company's success.
Greenfield and Cohen decided too many CEOs measure success on profitability. Ben & Jerry's had a two-part bottom line - they would measure success not only by how much profit they made but also by how much they gave back to the community, Greenfield said.
"It was good to know a lot of charity comes from Ben & Jerry's," freshman Austin Gerber said.
The company buys products, such as brownies for the Chocolate Fudge Brownie flavor, from businesses that are socially beneficial. The brownies come from a bakery that helps people with substance abuse and poverty problems. This way of doing business gains customers and keeps employees, Greenfield said.
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