Adapting business behaviour
As word spreads fast around the world, business leaders now fear the consequences of
unethical actions by their staff or being accused of an ethical practice. This is why Ben & Jerry’s
must adapt the business behaviour just like Unilever, their parent organisation. Unilever has a
statement to show that they are prepared to adapt their behaviour to avoid accusations of
wrongdoings, which follows:“We are committed to managing our social and environmental
impacts responsibly, to working in partnership with our stakeholders, to addressing social and
environmental challenges and to contributing to sustainable development.” This change would
contribute to make Ben & Jerry’s more ethical by showing the public their concerns with
environmental factors and social factors, this will enable to reduce the pressure that they get
and get the consumers on their side.
Responding to ethical pressures
The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes of business, are a response to the
growing pressures placed on managements to take account of ethical concerns. In fact several
large companies like Nike, Inc. and Gap are beginning to exert pressure on their own trading
partners to follow socially responsible policies. Ben & Jerry’s are a global leader of CSR
because of the help of unilever, All of the ingredients the company uses are fairly traded and
free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Its dairy farmers follow strict environmental
standards that get stricter every year, with Ben & Jerry's helping the farmers cover the cost of
meeting these standards. The movement for marriage equality, which Ben & Jerry's helped
start, now seems unstoppable in the US. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-
business/ben-jerrys-maverick-ideas-mainstream-business-values
Implementing ethical practices
Some household names, like Walkers Crisp and McDonald’s, have begun to implement an
ethical stance on issues that affect us all. For example, Walkers are working with consumer’s
health in mind whilst manufacturing, also McDonald’s fast food chains increasingly work to offer
healthy options to their customers. Ben & Jerry's had a less than savory reputation among some
franchisees who own Ben & Jerry’s stores. There were lots of complaints made and these
complaints from the franchisees include shipments that weigh less than they are supposed to,
big box stores buy at wholesale prices that undercut ice cream stores. Also, Ben & Jerry's does
not acceptably promote or market franchises thus making it hard for the franchisee to make
money. Franchisees also complained that the marketing material that persuaded them into
buying and owning a Ben & Jerry's store was not entirely accurate. Most annoying for these
franchisees were estimates about the amount of gross sales, in which these sales figures were
created at high profile stores such as airports and casinos.
Ben & Jerry's could have improved this by being more truthful regarding the sales figures that
these franchises are likely to make, this has previously led to unhappiness from franchisees as
they have spent lots of money on these stores only to be let down and not make as much
money as they expected to make, Ben & Jerry's could also help to promote these franchisees