Like many college students, Jerry Greenfield worked an on-campus job to earn extra cash. Little did the Oberlin College student know that one day he and a friend would co-found a multibillion dollar company based on the product he served everyday.
"It's as if the universe knew," he said. "I had no idea I had a future in the world of ice cream."
Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, will be in Pruis Hall at 7 p.m. today to discuss "Entrepreneurial Spirit, Social Responsibility and Radical Business Philosophy." Aimee Ash, associate director of Student Life, said 600 cups of Ben & Jerry's ice cream in a variety of flavors will be given to students who attend.
The program is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by Ball State University's Excellence in Leadership and Week of Action with support of the Miller College of Business and Student Voluntary Services.
Ben Cohen, co-founder of the namesake company, first met Greenfield during gym class in junior high school. Greenfield said they joked about how they enjoyed eating and were overweight as children.
"We were the two slowest in the class," he said. "That's really when you bond [a friendship]."
Because he wanted to help people and had an affinity for math and science, Greenfield said high school teachers pushed him to go into pre-medicine to become a doctor. But, as his grades slipped in college, Greenfield got rejected from medical school twice.
"It's lucky I never got in," he said. "It was a blessing in disguise."
After his dual rejections, Greenfield got a job as a lab technician, but soon decided it was time to start something more enjoyable with an old friend. Both Cohen and Greenfield realized they were failing at all things they were trying to do in life, Greenfield said, so they decided to go into business together.
The two aced a $5 Penn State University correspondence course in ice cream making and converted an abandoned gas station into their first ice cream scoop shop in 1978 in Burlington, Vt.
Greenfield said he didn't think the business would become his career.
"I thought we'd just open up a parlor for a couple years," Greenfield said. "We picked [ice cream] for fun."
The parlor soon became known for its rich, bizarre flavors and local-community approach to business around the state of Vermont. Ben & Jerry's began as a $12,000 investment, $4,000 of which was borrowed, and in the first five years of operation sold $4 million worth of ice cream.
Since then more than 430 scoop shops have opened in the United States in addition to more than 150 stores internationally.
However, staggering sales and a reputation for unusual flavors aren't all that attracted Excellence in Leadership to invite Greenfield to speak on Tuesday.
Ash said Greenfield was selected to speak during EIL's Week of Action because of the popularity of the brand on campus and because he epitomizes what a socially responsible entrepreneur should be like.
"Ben & Jerry's is the model for a socially responsible business," she said. "[Greenfield] is a first-hand account of someone who has stayed true to his own goals in business, from opening the first shop in Burlington to its expansion as a multibillion dollar business."
Although Greenfield never pursued a medical career, helping others is an important part of his life. Ben & Jerry's is devoted to several social, environmental and economic action campaigns and alliances, including partnerships with Phish, Dave Matthews Band and saveourenvironment.org.
In the end, Greenfield said, he likes to make people smile. He developed the Ben & Jerry's Joy Gang for the workplace, instituting special days such as an Elvis Dress-up Day that involve "a lot of eating and a lot of music," he said.
Junior Matzine Sanchez, an international business major, was one of five students selected by the Miller College of Business Advisory Board and EIL to have dinner with Greenfield before the lecture.
Although Sanchez said she hasn't always been a fan of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, their mint chocolate chunk holds a place in her heart, she said. She's also said she's eager to ask Greenfield some entrepreneurial advice on how to start her career.
"I get interaction with a person at such a high level of success," Sanchez said. "It's exciting to be able to ask [Greenfield] some ethical questions."
As Jerry Greenfield's son Tyrone Greenfield prepares to go to college next fall, Jerry Greenfield said he would support him in whatever field he decides to go into.
"It's unlikely [Tyrone] would go into the ice cream business," he said. "Right now he just wants to get away from his parents. I'd be really surprised if he did."
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