BEN AND JERRY TEAM

DEVELOPMENT
INTERVENTION
OD Group 2

OCTOBER 14, 2014

SUBMITTED TO DR NILANJAN SENGUPTA
SDMIMD

Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Mission Statement of Ben and Jerry ....................................................................................................... 2
Case Facts ............................................................................................................................................... 3
Question -1.............................................................................................................................................. 3
Open System Model................................................................................................................................ 4
Input ................................................................................................................................................. 4
Design Components ........................................................................................................................ 4
Output ......................................................................................................................................... 5
Determination of under or over organized organization ....................................................................... 5
Summary of Organisation level:.............................................................................................................. 6
Methods of Data Collection .................................................................................................................... 7
Identification ........................................................................................................................................... 8
Convention .............................................................................................................................................. 8
Organization Structure............................................................................................................................ 8
Implication .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Question - 2............................................................................................................................................. 9
Rationale for Team Building as given in case ........................................................................................ 10
Analysis of the situation by our group .................................................................................................. 10
Other Interventions .............................................................................................................................. 11
Inter-group relations: ........................................................................................................................ 12
Large-group Interventions: ........................................................................................................... 12
Learnings ............................................................................................................................................... 13
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 13
References ............................................................................................................................................ 13

Introduction
The company is started by two childhood friends, both college dropouts who were working
on odd jobs for a time. They together opened a small ice cream scoop shop with the only idea
of making really good ice cream! The two of them pride themselves on their funky fun
culture and socially responsible mission. Although they never intended to grow into a large
corporation they doubled the first few years and continued with strong profits thereafter.
As time goes by the picture of an unorganized system and deteriorating productivity emerges.
The problem is that the companys external image of funk, fun and love is out of sync with
the atmosphere inside the company. Further investigation reveals poor communication,
feuding between functions and organizational units, unclear lines of authority and
responsibility, and lack of operational control. The OD practitioner was commissioned to
work with the founders, board of directors, management and work force to undertake an OD
effort to bring people, functions, aspirations and directions together. The case offers a good
example of how OD interventions might be used to address these issues.

Mission Statement of Ben and Jerry

Ben & Jerrys is founded on and dedicated to a sustainable corporate concept. The companys
mission consists of three interrelated parts:
Product Mission- To make, distribute & sell the finest quality all natural ice cream &
euphoric concoctions with a continued commitment to incorporating wholesome, natural
ingredients and promoting business practices that respect the Earth and the Environment.

 Economic Mission- To operate the Company on a sustainable financial basis of profitable

growth, in-creasing value for our stakeholders & expanding opportunities for development
and career growth for our employees.
Social Mission - To operate the company in a way that actively recognizes the central role
that business plays in society by initiating innovative ways to improve the quality of life
locally, nationally & internationally.

Case Facts

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield head Ben & Jerrys Homemade Inc., an independent
ice cream producer.

The company has competitors like Haagen-Dazs (Pillsbury), Frusen Gladje (Krafts)
and Steves.

It started as a small ice cream scoop shop in Burlington, Vermont in the late 1978.

As the company grew to sales of $50 million, B&Js embraced what it calls a social
mission to improve the quality of life.

Sales doubled annually from 1984 to 1986 and increased nearly 50% from1987 to
1988

The company is today a super-premium market leader in Boston and New York City

Some 80 Franchisees operate scoop shops in the American markets and companys
manufacturing facility and headquarters in Burlington have Vermonts second largest
tourist attraction with over 6000000 visitors annually.

Over 350 people work at B&Js.

The company introduced Peace Pops as part of 1% for Peace Campaign

A policy linked prosperity ensures 7.5% of pre-tax profits go to good works and 5%
is returned to employees via profit sharing.

Question -1

Team building is typically used in OD to loosen up an over organized system that is too
rigid and bureaucratic. In this case, team building was aimed at providing structure to
an under organized system. In doing a diagnosis what factors are important to consider
in determining whether a company or team is over or under-organized? What are the
implications for planning an OD intervention?

Diagnosis is the process of understanding how the organisation is currently functioning and it
provides the information necessary to design change interventions.
Entry and contracting processes can result in a need to understand either a whole system or
some part, process, feature of the organisation.

Open System Model: Organisations as open system model suggest that organisations
operate within an external environment, takes specific inputs from the environment and
transforms those inputs using social and technical processes. The outputs of the
transformation process are returned to the environment and can be used as feedback to the
organisations functioning.

Input General Environment and Industry Structure. B&J has a unique marketing edge that
is difficult to imitate. B&J approaches values-led marketing by indulging in guerrilla
marketing and lot of attention is given to public relation. Values- led marketing is about
connecting social issues with the campaigns. Since marketing is such a powerful tool to give
an opinion, the promotion of the products is linked to social messages. The industry is
competitive with players like Haagen-Dazs, Frusen Gladje and the threat of new entrants is
high.
The threat of substitute is also high, if the funk and love appeal gives way to a different
market amongst the newer generations. They allude to possible issues fulfilling existing
marketing and franchise commitments due to low productivity.
Design Components - Technology, Strategy, HR Systems, Measurement Systems, Structure
and Culture. The B&J strategy revolves around differentiation. In trying to make the best ice
cream, supporting that with creative advertising, and a philanthropic attitude, the organization
must support this mission. The case provides a lot of data about issues arising in both the
structural and cultural areas.
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When being a values-led organisation the motivation among the people working in the
company is one of the great advantages because they feel that they are actually contributing
not only to bringing in money to the firm but also to making the society a better place to live
in. That is, working for a company that is values-led means that you can bring your values to
work as well whereas working in traditional companies often means that you leave your
personal believes at home. If the employees are fully aware of the social impacts they are
contributing to by working for the values-led company the commitment they will have can be
as great as the one shown by people in non-profit organisations
The negative sides with human resource management in a values-led company are the
problems it causes in bringing obscurity, confusion and, in the end, displeasure. The main
problem at Ben and Jerrys has been that the management have been unclear and therefore
caused frustration among the employees. Another problem has been that while contributing
and giving away a lot of money and resources to the community the internal benefits and
facilities have been less invested in. This also created dissatisfaction among the people in the
organisation who consider themselves to be non-prioritised and thereby it also creates
problems. The solution to these problems has been structure and giving employees more
benefits.

Output Organization Effectiveness. The organizations effectiveness is threatening current

profits and likely affecting, future profits. The deteriorating culture will adversely affect the
brand as it is dependent on the funk and love appeal. The low productivity of employees is
hindering production and the company will not be able to meet their growth needs.

Determination of under or over organized organization

Factors to consider in determining whether a company or team is over or underorganized are as follows:
In the under-organized organisation, its leaders struggle largely with efficiency: how to get
things done. Due to inadequate organizing, leaders find it difficult to pull the right "levers"
and push the right "buttons" to make the organisation work.
Telltale signs of under-organization include the following:
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1. Staff and administrators are unsure which activities they can delegate and to whom
they can delegate.
2. Members are not sure where they can best serve and "plug in."
3. A major expenditure of time and effort is required to get programs adopted and
implemented.
4. The work load is unevenly distributedsome members and leaders are overworked
while others are left out entirely.
5. Leaders are slow to discern and respond to the needs of members.
6. Members are only dimly aware of congregational goals and not well informed about
daily events.
Unlike the under-organized non-profit, the over-organized NPO can move efficiently in
getting things done. Work is smoothly delegated, job descriptions are followed, and
committees deliberate; however, leaders soon find themselves in a quandary over what
priorities, goals, and strategy. The problem comes from the key shortcoming of overorganization: inadequate organizational feedback.
Characteristics of the over-organized organization are:
1. Reliance on written, rather than face-to-face, communication.
2. Communication gaps between programs and lack of interaction between leaders
("specialization barriers").
3. Meetings are carefully orchestrated with minimal staff participation--something done
to members rather than something members do.
4. Planned programming dominates organizational life with little room for spontaneity.
5. Leaders are valued primarily for how well they perform their specialized functions
rather than for who they are.

Summary of Organisation level:

Level of Organization: When diagnosing a system for a planned change effort the level of
organization can have an effect on the intervention design.
In over-organized situations, various dimensions such as leadership styles, job designs,
organization structure, and policies and procedures are too rigid and overly defined for
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effective task performance. Communication between management and employees is typically

suppressed (or are one-way only), conflicts are avoided, and employees are apathetic.
In under-organized organizations there is too little constraint or regulation for effective task
performance. Leadership, structure, job design, and policy are poorly defined and fail to
control task behaviours effectively. Communication is fragmented, job responsibilities are
ambiguous, and employees energies are dissipated because they lack direction.

Methods of Data Collection: The 4 major techniques for gathering diagnostic data
are: Questionnaires, Interviews, Observations and unobtrusive measures.
In the meeting the following people were interviewed: Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the
founders of B&J. Jeff Furman- Attorney and long-time B&Js counsel, Fred Chico Lagerthe General Manager, Merritt- Businessman cum Board Member.
In the board meeting the OD Practitioner asked the members of the board to write their
individual opinion of the companys mission & vision in order to get an idea of what they
wanted from this OD Intervention. Data Gathering at the Board meeting revealed different
and even conflicting expectations for this effort from various members. The practitioner also
determined that neither Ben, nor Jerry, nor any board member, except Chico, could provide
the day-to-day leadership needed to move development through the organization. On the
contrary, the founders wanted to hand off the responsibility to Chico and his to-be-formed
management team. The practitioner was to help bring that team into being and to ensure that
they took leadership of B&Js business and social missions. It was also to help bring the work
force together. After all wrote their vision on a sheet of paper he burnt the sheets to
symbolize how energy and togetherness could transform things.

The data gathered supports the conclusion that the system is under-organized. It describes a
lack of clarity around structure, roles and teamwork, lack of common mission, direction, and
priorities and talk of people being stretched to their limit.
The implications of under organization in a planned change effort are that the initial change
efforts must be aimed at increasing organization effectiveness by clarifying leadership roles,

structuring communications, and specifying job and departmental responsibilities. Rather

than the traditional steps of planned change this mode requires modifications to that process.

Identification:

Identify the relevant people or groups that need to be involved.

In this case the consultant chose to start with Chico and his team. Other options could have
been the board, including Chico and the founders, the whole system at once or the whole
system via separate efforts at various levels. Starting with Chicos team keeps the effort
manageable and creates a strong, unified base from which to launch any subsequent efforts.

Convention: Bring the relevant people and departments together.

The consultant started with Chico and his managers in a series of teambuilding retreats. This
gave the managers an opportunity to get to know each other and build trust which allowed
them to start setting goals, direction, and priorities for the larger organization.

Organization Structure:

The change effort in an unorganized system will require that

new interactions among people and departments take place. This may mean new positions,
communication channels, plans and policies.

The 20 managers under Chico had been operating fairly independently to this point. The
teambuilding brought them together as a team, taught them management and problem solving
skill, and prepared them to run the show. They could now work together on setting direction,
solving problems and developing systems for control and follow-through. New work clusters
were formed among them and each developed their own mission statement that translated
into operating goals. In addition, managers met with their employees to get their input. A new
safety committee was formed as well.

Evaluation: The activities aimed at increasing organization should be assessed along the way
to ensure that they are producing the desired outcome.
Initially there was a disconnect between the new management team and the founders as well
as other board members. The founders worried whether the funk and fun was being lost in all
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of this business and they were against growth, feeling that it would sacrifice cohesion.
Managers demanded growth due to existing marketing and franchise commitments. A
strategic meeting between the managers and the board allowed them to get aligned and
resulted in several actions to address concerns: a joy committee for the cultural aspects, a
push for more employee participation in the foundation and a new budget committee to
formulate a one-year plan.

Implication
In this case planning an intervention was needed because nobody was taking responsibility
for anything. They had no guidelines or structure to go by in their work. Ben and Jerry
wanted to make it a fun family work environment. In doing this, they lacked the means to
place authority in to effect. If things got broken nobody would man up and take responsibility
for their own actions. For instance when a freezer door was broken then neither the freezer
nor maintenance nor production managers claimed ownership of the problem or took
responsibility to see that it was fixed. If Ben and Jerry would have placed authority above
fun this could have been avoided. If they would have been boss before friend it would not
have gotten to this point.
Thereby making an OD Intervention a need of the hour for Ben & Jerry.

Question - 2
What do you think about using teambuilding as the launch for this OD effort? What other
approaches might be considered?

Team Building is typically used in OD to loosen up an over-organized system that is too rigid
and bureaucratic. In this case, team building is aimed at providing structure to an underorganized system. In doing a diagnosis, what factors are important to consider in determining
whether a company or team is over- or under-organized?
In determining whether a company or team is over- or under-organized there are strengths
and concerns that must both be considered. The strengths that need to be addressed are:

High commitment to the company and its mission

Norms of honesty and straightforwardness

Smart and articulate management

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High interest in growth and learning

Founders and general manager as role-models.

The concerns that must be addressed are:

People and systems not keeping pace with growth

lack of clear structure roles and teamwork

lack of common mission, direction, and priorities

people are stretched to the limit

Founders and general manager are both companys greatest strength and greatest
weakness.

Rationale for Team Building as given in case

The reasons cited by the OD consultant for using team building as a tool for OD intervention
are:
First it was crucial for managers to begin to think of themselves as managers and as members
of management team. Many of the managers at Ben and Jerry were truly supervisors who
worked alongside employees and focussed only on the work going on in their own area of
responsibility.
Second the managers would be assuming new responsibilities heretofore in the hands of the
founders and general manager. The OD consultant is of the opinion that it is important for
them to see how much they had in common and how much affinity they had with the
founders vision of the enterprise.
Finally managers had to collectively commit to taking on new responsibilities and learn new
methods for working together.

Analysis of the situation by our group

Team building was not the most effective way to launch an Organizational Development
effort, in the case of Ben and Jerrys. There are two critical issues that must be dealt with
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before any kind of team building should be attempted. The first issue would be creating more
of a consensus between the founders and the Board about the vision of the ideal organization
and the goals of the OD effort.
The second issue is the interpersonal conflict between Ben and Chico. The consultant may
have used Ben and Jerrys idiosyncratic personalities to his advantage in order to gloss over
the lack of agreement on the company vision between the founders and the board. The board
members were asked to write down their differing visions on paper and the consultant
performed a ritual of burning these to represent transformation and coming together of
management and the Board. This is only a metaphor, and did not have the intended effect on
either the Board or Ben and Jerry.
Both Ben and Jerry still felt a separation in values between themselves and management after
the team building retreat. This was demonstrated by the managers wearing we are weird
buttons after the team building. Rather than the ritual burning of the ideas, the consultant
would have better served the clients with an intergroup conflict resolution process. The
division over the vision of Ben and Jerrys had become dysfunctional and was creating
conflict which polarized the two groups. The groups being the free-wheeling, hippy minded
founders and the more business minded managers.

This problem was affecting the

productivity and effectiveness of the organization at large and must be dealt with and
resolved before any interventions are carried out and lower levels of the organization.
Management must buy-in to the OD effort, and if they feel that the founders are flawed in
their business strategy, it will be impossible for management to carry out their wishes for the
way they want their business to grow and prosper. The consultant has acknowledged the
problem, yet performed no real interventions to try and resolve it.

Other Interventions

Among the interventions that might be considered here are:

Organization Confrontation Meeting: This change method mobilizes organization members
to identify problems, set action targets, and begin working on problems. In this case, it would
probably represent a series of meetings between two or more feuding groups. However, the
case data suggests that the organization is not ready for this type of intervention. The lack of

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clarity about the strategy and the role of the senior managers in change suggests that there is
little guidance to provide the groups who might be trying to resolve their conflicts.

Inter-group relations: These interventions are designed to improve interactions among

different groups or departments in organizations. The microcosm group intervention involves
a small group of people whose backgrounds closely match the organizational problems being
addressed. The inter-group conflict model typically involves a consultant helping two groups
understand the causes of their conflict and choose appropriate solutions. The issues facing
this company seem more along the lines of alignment, focus, and leadership rather than a true
conflict. This could have been used to address issues amongst the founders and board
members but wouldnt have addressed the under-organized problem.
Large-group Interventions: These interventions involve getting a broad variety of
stakeholders into a large meeting to clarify important values, to develop new ways of
working, to articulate a new vision for the organization or to solve pressing organizational
problems. This seems like a viable option especially after team building with the top
management team. Attempting this intervention before the team building has the same
problems as the confrontation meetingtheres no sense of strategy at the top and the large
group might have difficulty getting traction on ideas that are generated.
The practitioner chose teambuilding with the management team which could be fully
discussed here. OD is not an exact science that can be put into concise prescriptive. Ben &
Jerrys was experiencing an organization wide issue. The practitioners point of view was that
the board was not prepared to deal with its own issues and become united to provide the
leadership that the rest of the organization needed. So the starting point became the managers.
They had to become a team before any other level of the organization could be addressed.
The outdoor techniques used in this case can be effective teambuilding activities. They get a
team outside of their work environment and by design are able to highlight interpersonal,
communication and decision making processes.
Another option could have been an intervention with the board and founders and to confront
them on their lack of leadership and their inability to deal with their own issues.

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Learnings
Now that the management team has formed and they have aligned themselves with the board
and the founders, there is a good opportunity to get the rest of the workforce aligned to and
engaged in the newly clarified goals. Getting the system organized around a common mission
and goals provides bedrock for them to work on bigger issues. They may need to work on
their processes, teamwork at lower levels, communication channels, etc.

The innovative nature of the company and commitment level of the employees suggests a
readiness for a large group intervention to take them to the next level.

Conclusion
The Ben & Jerry is today the super-premium market leader and distributes its products in
various grocery stores across the country. B&Js embraced with the social mission to improve
the quality of life on every aspect, not only of employees but also locally, nationally and
internationally, and to do so in an innovative and upbeat way.
As the OD practitioner enquired the key managers and staff at B&Js that showed various
areas of strength and concerns for the company. After interviewing various stakeholders the
OD practitioner got the pulse of strength which let many managers to leave successful jobs in
other companies and join B&Js because of its funky atmosphere, freewheeling style and
socially responsible orientation. There was an environment of participatory style of
management with people those charged with higher level of responsibility in comparison to
their experience handling the responsibility. The main concerns for the company was underorganised for handling the challenges posed by rapid growth in the market place and
workforce and it is quite clear from the interviewees that there was absence of clear goals and
agreed to priorities, problem of communication and co-ordination, half-finished tasks and
cede of new initiatives in many cases. (Anders Borgh, june 2005)
Team building can improve group performance particularly on tasks that are complex,
unstructured and interdependent. So, the OD practitioner recommended the team building
intervention at B&Js based on the rationale that it was crucial for managers to pretend as
members of management team, delegation of new responsibility to manager which was
previously used to be in the hand of founders and general manager and finally it would help
in getting committed and working collaboratively. Team building is basically directed
towards improving group effectiveness in which members of team work together. The
members of team have either common organizational aims or work activities. The general
process of team building is trying to equip a team to handle its ongoing problem solving.

References
Anders Borgh, A. M. (june 2005). Values-led business - A study of the Ben and Jerrys concept and its
applicability.

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