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Last week, Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s was in Ann Arbor at the Ross Net Impact conference to talk about social enterprise and distribute little cups of ice cream to the MBAs in attendance. Jerry discussed starting and growing a business while prioritizing social responsibility, and the difficult experience of selling to Unilever (if you’re unfamiliar, a summary). I think a number of Jerry’s points are worth repeating and relevant to DLB as we continue to think about how to grow business at our little design firm. Here’s what Jerry thinks:

Businesses should be responsible to society.
Since business is one of the most powerful forces in society, business should look out for the general welfare of society. Most firms, Jerry reminded us, operate with themselves as the major focus, which is unhealthy and even dangerous to society. In the traditional business sphere, making money is the focus, and doing good is something separate: the prevailing wisdom is that you can’t be successful and help society as well. Jerry’s belief is that there is value in integrating the two and that business strategies can - and should - be used for good.

Align your mission, metrics for success, and your values.
When Ben and Jerry initially decided to grow their business, they insisted on “growing the business in a reasonable way.” This meant that they added value to the company by doing business that was aligned with their values. At one point, they saw a need to redefine the bottom line and how to measure success, so they decided to report not just financials, but to also create a social report to maintain accountability around social and environmental performance (see recent examples here).

Do what you do well, and be yourself.
This sounds a lot like awesomeness. Instead of aiming to attain 100% market share (which isn’t normally attainable anyway) Jerry argues for “doing what you do well.” In his mind, it’s better to have a smaller number of core fanatics that are using a product/service because they believe in it rather than those who have been tricked by false advertising or false promises. Ben & Jerry’s made the decision that having customers with the same worldview and values was more important than having the most customers possible; connecting with customers who agree with what they stand for leads to a much deeper engagement with their supporters.

Jerry went on to define “true marketing,” something I like to call unmarketing. He says “true marketing is not really marketing at all”; rather, it’s putting forth your values in an attempt to meet customers’ needs. In Ben & Jerry’s case, Jerry says they were attempting to reach a segment of customers that sought businesses with responsible values because that’s what they believed in.

I’m not sure what the future looks like for Ben & Jerry’s (as we’ve discussed, it may be progressively more difficult for the company’s values to be protected in the hands of a large corporation) but Jerry’s hope is that Ben & Jerry’s won’t be just a “social conscience” for Unilever, but rather that companies will recognize that the way Ben & Jerry’s has operated – with a focus on doing good – has been successful.

More Jerry here.