I hope this will help whoever is preparing for MBA. I wrote this report for my Integrated Business Skills class at Studies in American Language at San Jose State University. I would like to thank Sarah Dreger Fattarsi for being a great teacher. You can also find the presentation at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hz_zvxnqnY. It was my first presentation in English. There is also PowerPoint Slides here.

1. ENTREPRENEUR PROJECT
BEN & JERRY’S HOMEMADE ICE CREAM COMPANY
Firat Sekerli
Integrated Skills / MBP
Sarah Dreger
October 10, 2009

2. Abstract
After I researched entrepreneurs on the Internet, I was interested in Ben & Jerry’s because the
founders of this company are childhood friends. I want to start a business with my friend, but my
parents say that friends cannot establish a company. I thought this company is good to prove my
parents how friends can be successful together.
Introduction
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield met in the seventh-grade gym class, and they worked as
direct mail sorters for Ben’s father during the summer. Ben Cohen found a job in his senior year,
and he drove an ice cream truck and sold it. After graduating from high school, they wanted to
go to college because they thought that going to college was the best way to stand on their own
legs and to escape the military. While Ben was accepted by Colgate University, Jerry was
accepted only by Oberlin even though he applied to various schools. In 1969, their ways were
separated in order to get college degrees, but they gave a promise to each other to keep in touch.
Ben could not be a serious student, and he was unsuccessful as a student. For this reason, he quit
college in 1972. He wanted to be a potter, and in order to support his pottery traineeship, he
worked in many different fields. He helped a baker, delivered Yellow Pages, mopped nights, and
cooked. He also worked at a hospital as an admission clerk. On the other hand, Jerry wanted to
become a doctor; however, he failed many times to get an admission from medical schools.
Ultimately, he gave up his plan to be a doctor, and he moved to Manhattan after he graduated
from his university. He was a lab technician in Manhattan. When he moved to Manhattan, Ben
and Jerry lived together for two years. After two years, Jerry went to Chapel Hill, North Carolina
because he wanted to live with his girlfriend, Elizabeth who is his wife. He worked as a lab
technician at UNC Hospital. However, being a lab technician was unpleasant for him. In
addition, Elizabeth ended their relationship, so there was no reason for him to stay in North
Carolina anymore, and he went back to New York. (Cohen & Greenfield, 1997)

3. How Did They Start?
When Jerry went back to New York, Ben offered him working together. They wanted to
sell bagels; however, the equipment for making bagels was $40,000. For this reason, they had to
give up selling bagels. They had a second choice which was making ice cream. They attended an
ice cream making course in Penn State University with $5 tuition. It was actually a
correspondence school via mailing. After attending the course, they decided to find a location for
the shop. They had two priorities on choosing the location. One was a large college population,
and another was a warm weather condition. They eventually chose Saratoga Springs, but while
they were collecting enough money to rent a shop, another homemade ice cream shop was
opened. For this reason, they had to change the location, and finally they decided on Burlington,
Vermont. After choosing the location, they worked on a business plan. Jerry had enough money
which was $4000 to invest; however, Ben had only the half amount of $4000. For this reason, he
wanted the rest of the money from his father. Ben’s father was happy to give money to his son
because he thought that his son was going to be a businessman. Fred Burgess, a local banker,
suggested that they needed to sell other things besides ice cream in Vermont in order to sustain
the business in the winters. They were convinced, and they put whatever they needed in the
described menu including soups, crepes, and brownies and the décor on the business plan. When
they finished writing the business plan, which demanded a $20,000 loan, increasing the total
amount of investment to $28,000 in the business, the pairs went to Merchants Bank to see Fred
Burgess. Fred liked Ben and Jerry’s ideas, intelligence, and willingness, and he wanted to give
them a chance to show themselves. After the approbation, co-founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry
Greenfield, of Ben &Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream opened their first store on Saturday, May 5,
1978. (Lager, 1994)

4. How Did the Company Grow?
After the shop was opened, Ben and Jerry promoted a buy one get one free cone offer.
With that way, there was a long line each day in front of the shop. Ben and Jerry wanted to be a
host for a free film festival because they wanted to connect with the community. They were
getting well-known in Vermont. On the first anniversary of the shop, they wanted to celebrate it,
and they gave free ice cream to all consumers. “They truly believed that the joy was in the
journey, and were determined to seize upon every opportunity to have fun that came their way.
Ben and Jerry came to describe their business as being “funky,” which to them meant honest, not
frills, handmade, and homemade.” (Lager, 1994, p. 36) Beside those reasons, there were two
other important reasons why the company grew quickly and became popular. The first reason
was creative flavors. Jerry was creating new flavors, so they did not need to hire someone to
invent new flavors. Giving special names, such as New York Super Fudge Chunk, Cherry
Garcia, Chunky Monkey, Rainforest Crunch and Economic Crunch to each flavor attracted
consumers, and the sales by 1987 increased to $32 million (Richards, n.d. retrieved 09/23/2009).
According to Rob Michalak, Ben & Jerry’s director of social mission and public elation,
consumers made a connection between the flavors and their stories. Thereby, the emotional
relationship appeared between the flavors and the consumers (Seireeni, 2008). The second reason
was social and environmental responsibilities. Ben & Jerry’s manager of natural resources,
Andrea Asch, believes that consumers value the social and environmental mission. The
company’s mission includes several aims, (Richards, n.d. retrieved 09/23/2009) such as:
Recycled materials were used to make an original scoop shop
Created a Green Team, to educate the employees of the company about environment
Using solar panels on the company’s buses

5. Challenges behind the Success
Although the company grew fast, in the middle of 1980s, there was an issue about
distribution rights which led a lawsuit against Haagen-Dazs’ parent named the Pillsbury
Company. Afterwards, Ben and Jerry realized that they had to find someone who had the ability
of management to sustain the business and to be competitive with others in the market. Robert
Holland, a veteran of McKinsey & Co., was selected in 1995 as CEO. Nonetheless, there was a
concern about the company’s simple hierarchy and special culture because Ben and Jerry had
strict rules on the company’s management pay scale ratio. In addition, the company had to
change the policy on making ice cream. Notwithstanding the company became popular with its
eccentric flavors, the plain vanilla was the most popular flavor in the U.S. For that reason, the
company announced “Smooth, No Chunks!” to customers. Moreover, the competition was
growing because of other companies, such as Haagen-Dazs and Dreyer’s in the market. When
Ben & Jerry’s outsourced some of its products to Dreyer’s to attract the Western customers, the
company had to worry about its independence. (Richards, n.d. Retrieved 09/23/2009)
Conclusion
The most important thing that businesses should concern about is loyalty, and there is a
strong connection between Ben & Jerry’s and its consumers. The consumers always give credits
to a company that dedicates itself to becoming a social and environmental company. That is one
of the main goals of Ben & Jerry’s. In addition, the company has already had its portion in the
market. Besides loyalty, institutionalization is another important factor. The company is
managed professionally. There are many departments that focus only their specific tasks.
Moreover, the company is able to fulfill the expectations of customers by keeping up with the
technology. Overall, I think that Ben & Jerry’s will be successful for these reasons in the future.

6. References
1. Cohen, B., & Greenfield, J. (1997). Ben & Jerry’s Double- Dip. New York: Simon &
Schuster.
2. Lager, F. (1994). Ben & Jerry’s: The Inside Scoop. New York: Crown Publishers.
3. Richards, D. (n.d). Ben & Jerry’s – The Man Behind the Ice Cream. [Online article].
Retrieved September 23, 2009 from the World Wide Web:
http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/famousentrepreneurs/p/benandjerrys.htm
4. Seireeni, R. (2008). The Gort Cloud. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing.