Ben & Jerry's Double-Dip: Lead with Your Values and Make Money Too » (Abridged)

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc., opened their first ice cream shop in Burlington, Vermont, in 1978. Cohen is chairperson and Greenfield is vice-chairperson of the board of Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. They live in Vermont.

Picking up where they left off in “Ben & Jerry's: The Inside Scoop,” entrepreneurs Ben and Jerry continue the story of their successful ice cream company with their ideas on bettering the community through corporate activities. As they reexamine their philosophy, they realize more than ever that not only is business a means to financial success but that a "values-led business" can serve as a dominant force to change the world. In addition, the authors maintain, this type of business is more apt to attract employees and customers with similar social values, which could increase sales and profitability. The authors draw from their own experience of managing all aspects of their business, from marketing their product and selecting franchise operators to investing in socially responsible companies.

Publishers Weekly

The Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream is known for original flavors, from Double Chocolate Brownie to Rainforest Crunch, and also for the partners' belief that business in part is a vehicle for community serviceto the tune of 7.5% of annual pretax profits, in their case. Here, writing with freelancer Maran, they relate how they started out by giving away ice-cream cones and since then have mounted free movie festivals and voter registration drives, hired the homeless, given to community causes in lieu of advertising, gone partners with nonprofit civic groups on some of their 156 franchised "scoop shops," demonstrated truck refrigeration run by solar energy and promoted their first stock issue on ice-cream containers. They also come clean on certain of their shortcomings, admitting they use chlorine-bleached white paperfor more effective packagingthough it is harmful to the environment. There is gallons more in this enthralling, detailed business saga of two "values-led" entrepreneurs who were told that their methods of operation were doomed to failure but who now have a $160 million business to prove who was right. First serial to Entrepreneur; New Executive Program Book Club alternate. (May)