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In the last year and a half, corporate America has gone through a reckoning around social justice and engagement that has caused many business leaders to ask themselves: To what extent should I be taking a public stance on social issues? And how do I determine which causes will benefit the most from my corporate advocacy?
On the latest episode of "The New Rules of Business'' podcast, Chief Co-Founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan address these questions with iconic ice cream co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. Cohen and Greenfield share how they incorporate social responsibility into their legendary brand, and the advice they would give other leaders who are trying to follow suit.
"If you look at what Ben & Jerry's gets involved in, it's around justice and equality. So when the company gets involved in climate issues or environmental issues, it's with the lens and the focus on climate justice. And when Ben & Jerry's gets involved in racial issues, it's around racial justice," Greenfield says. "Ben & Jerry's tries to use its voice and its ice cream to look at things from that vantage point."
In addition to discussing their stance on social justice issues and how they've baked that mission into their day-to-day business, Cohen and Greenfield also share tips on how they've maintained a healthy working relationship as business partners and long-time friends.
"By the time we started working together, we were 26 at that point and we had been friends for a long time," Greenfield says. "We'd gone through a lot together and when we actually started the business, we were both completely overwhelmed. It was completely chaotic and there was no opportunity to disagree about anything. We were grabbing onto things as quickly as we could so as not to fall off any cliffs. So that was the nature of how we got going, and I think Ben holds stronger opinions than I do about many things. And so, if somebody has a strong opinion about it and the other guy doesn't really have much of an opinion at all, there's not really a conflict. There were very few times that there were conflicts and they were often about ice cream flavors."
Listen to the latest episode of "The New Rules of Business" to learn more about Cohen and Greenfield's success as co-founders and social justice advocates.
