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Myers, Hulks, and Wiggins: Organizational Change:

Perspectives on Theory and Practice

Integrative Case Study 2: Ben and Jerrys: evolution of an ice cream company
1. Which external trends do you think help us understand why Ben and Jerrys has
grown so rapidly? Use the PESTLE framework to stimulate your thinking.
Indicative answers:
As they try and identify trends using PESTLE, students may want to reflect on which
of these trends seem to have real explanatory power and which seem to have far
more tenuous links. They may find that with some of the dimensions it is hard to find
a link at all. They may wish to reflect on the implications of this for using the
framework - are any difficulties they experience in using it because they do not know
enough about the company / industry? Or are some elements of PESTLE just not
relevant in this case? Or is it helpful to have all of the dimensions because it forces
them to think about possible trends and causes of growth in a more comprehensive
way?
Political growing trend towards social activism which Ben and Jerrys taps into; in
their marketing Ben and Jerrys explicitly make links to political hot topics or events
such as re-naming of a flavour Yes Pecan on Obamas election and creating the
worlds biggest Baked Alaska on the steps of Capitol Hill on Earth Day. However, it
could be argued this is not in itself a political trend, rather a manifestation of Ben and
Jerrys unique brand positioning of taking a political stance.
Economic - i) growing trend of globalization and dominance of global brands: with
the acquisition by Unilever, Ben and Jerrys became a global brand; ii) increase in
mergers and acquisitions leading to industry concentration Unilevers acquisition of
Ben and Jerrys further strengthened their market dominance in ice cream; iii) there
is also a trend towards challenger brands which are more innovative than the
mainstream brands in a sector: given their whacky marketing and anti-establishment

Oxford University Press, 2012. All rights reserved.


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Myers, Hulks, and Wiggins: Organizational Change:


Perspectives on Theory and Practice
positioning Ben and Jerrys could be seen as a challenger brand although it could
also be argued that they are now so well known themselves, do they merit the label
challenger brand? Students may also want to consider the extent to which these
trends caused the growth of Ben and Jerrys or their growth illustrates certain trends.
Social: decline in sitting down to eat three meals a day and increase in grazing:
snacking on ice-cream could be described as grazing; trend towards healthier eating
and use of natural flavours: Ben and Jerrys could claim to be on the healthier end of
ice-cream with their natural flavours; increasing importance of CSR, as discussed in
the chapter: CSR core to Ben and Jerrys as an organization.
Technological: there have been advances in ice cream technology, including how to
include large chucky ingredients and make ice-cream lower fat whilst still having the
right texture and mouthfeel. However, such knowledge is unlikely to be prevalent
amongst people other than those in the industry. Students may wish to consider the
implications of this for using frameworks such as PESTLE. It could also be argued
that Ben and Jerrys grew because of their own proprietary technology rather than
growing because of industry technology trends. If this is the case, it could be argued
that the concept of internal resources may be more appropriate to understand their
growth.
Legal: An obscure law meant that Ben and Jerrys could restrict sale of stock to
Vermont residents. However, whilst a legal factor, this hardly merits inclusion as part
of a legal trend. A perhaps more interesting legal dimension was the behaviour of
their far bigger competitor, Haagen-Dazs who tried to limit distribution and Ben and
Jerrys legal response. This, it could be argued, is part of a continuing trend towards
large players trying to squeeze out smaller players and the need for legal protection
of smaller firms.

Oxford University Press, 2012. All rights reserved.


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Myers, Hulks, and Wiggins: Organizational Change:


Perspectives on Theory and Practice
Environmental: It could be argued that hotter Summers means greater ice cream
consumption but again students may want to consider how relevant or how tenuous
this link is.

2. What other factors do you think may have been important?


Indicative answers:
This could be discussed in terms of the benefits and distinctiveness of the product
itself i.e. Ben and Jerrys make excellent tasting and innovative ice-cream; the
creativity and flair of the marketing activities; the personality and passion of the
founders; the links with local communities. Again, students may wish to relate other
factors to the task and contextual environment (Morgan, 1986).
3. Greiner talks of periods of evolution and revolution. How helpful is his model in
understanding both the growth and the challenges the company has faced?
Indicative answers:
Phase 1, with its description of technically inventive and entrepreneurially orientated
founders seems to fit well with what we are told about the start of Ben and Jerrys.
The journalist quoted from Fortune (1999) also suggests that there was indeed a
crisis of leadership at the company. However, the company had been in existence for
17 years before the two founders looked for an external CEO. This may raise
questions of how the company grew so large without the crisis of leadership
becoming more apparent or detrimental to its growth. It could be argued that we are
just not told enough information in the case study to answer the question. If so, does
this suggest that the model is more useful as a framework for helping those
intimately involved in a company to identify their own challenges to growth?

Oxford University Press, 2012. All rights reserved.


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Myers, Hulks, and Wiggins: Organizational Change:


Perspectives on Theory and Practice
4. a. What resources do you think might have been key to Ben and Jerrys
growth?
b. What resources do you think made Ben and Jerrys an attractive acquisition
for Unilever?
c. Conversely, what resources did Unilever have which made it attractive for Ben
and Jerrys to sell?
Indicative answers:
a) Students may want to consider factors such as the passion and personalities
of the founders; the creativity of product development; the creativity of
marketing; the relationships with distributors and subsequently Vermont
shareholders.
b) All the factors in a) probably made Ben and Jerrys an attractive acquisition
target for Unilever but students may wish to consider additional factors. For
instance, its distinctive positioning in the ice cream market complemented
Unilevers own more mass market appeal or perhaps Unilevers bought them
in part to prevent competitors from growing their market share.
c) The resources Unilever had were leaders who understood the ice-cream
market; strong track record in leveraging brands globally; management and
financial resources to grow the business; a belief in the power of brands; a
commitment to CSR.

Oxford University Press, 2012. All rights reserved.


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