How Ben & Jerry’s fights to stay true to its 40-year-old purposeful mission

Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream brand, has developed various best practices to ensure that brand purpose consistently remains at the heart of its work.

“The primary reason why so many companies are getting their ass kicked is because they actually don't stand for something important,” argued Matthew McCarthy, CEO of Unilever’s Ben & Jerry (B&J) ice-cream brand.

“If you're not doing something that's actually good, and you're not making it really clear to the people that you serve, you may be dead … and you might not even know it.”

Since it was founded as a “scoop shop” in Burlington, Vermont four decades ago, Ben & Jerry’s has remained fully purposeful, with culture every bit as important as the quirky flavors that began with...

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