Ben & Jerry's CEO Jochanan Senf Talks Business Model

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

Danny (0:07)

We welcome our Bloomberg TV and radio audiences worldwide. Bloomberg Green kicking off during Climate Week here in New York. Joining us now is Ben & Jerry's CEO Jochanan Senf, and he will be participating in a panel discussion this afternoon with the CEO of IKEA. Jochanan, thank you so much for joining. It's great to have you here. And look, it's such an interesting time to be a corporation with like this ethos of concern about the world, about things like climate and racial inequality in a world that feels increasingly divided, be it by social media, be it otherwise. And also, by the way, is increasingly deeply distrusting of corporate America.

What does that mean for you to operate in such a divided climate?

Jochanan Senf (0:49)

So Danny, what a great question, by the way.

I started this job about a year ago and I worked for Ben & Jerry's before. And one of the reasons why I love this job, because we are a values-based company. And if you're values-based and values-led, and really articulate it as well in a three-part mission product, making it in the nicest possible way.

A social mission which comes through our, the things we stand for and how we source. And then it all sits in a business model. And that model actually really, really works. And we're doing the job. And even when the times change, you know, what we are proving and showing again and again, is that we can be out there and actually connect to communities, have a point of view. And it works for our business as well, because we grew in quarter to 9.2%. So the business works really well. And at the same time, we're out there to actually, you know, support democracy, you know, in the upbeat to the midterms.

Danny (1:43)

There are a lot of external pressures. And this government and this administration being one of them, a lot of companies quietly dismantled their ESG and DEI programs. Because of that pressure, are you not facing some of the same constraints from government, from otherwise? Because you're not only doing this, but you are quite loud about it as well.

Jochanan Senf (2:00)

Danny, it's baked into our model. It's part of who we are. So we would change this now. That would be strange now. That would be, you know, a thing that people would say like, I wouldn't recognize Ben & Jerry's.

So we do our thing. We're out there. We have our opinions. We go out there and support. We work with partners. And we do the job as well in our value chain. So it's an integral part of our whole business model that doesn't change.

Danny (2:24)

So part of this ethos, again, is this idea you're approaching 50 years. You know, you come from this small background, but Jochanan, along with that, there has been this real intense pushback, shall we say, from the founders themselves, from Ben & Jerry's. Things like concern about dismantling the independent board. And I know there's some various things in there, for example, like concerns about toxic behavior that we could get into, but that maybe Unilever forced out your processor, for example.

The response to claims, what do you respond to people that say, look, you're trying to sanitize what was the core of Ben & Jerry's, and that's amplified by what we're hearing from Ben & Jerry himself, for example.

Jochanan Senf (3:04)

So now, first and foremost, I think you're really nice to highlight. We're going to be 50 years in 2028 So we've got 50 years of history of fairly lead business.

And it's always been, you know, with a little bit of our, you know, here and there discussion, and it's been challenging at times, which is part of who we are and how we do our things as well.

You know, I'm not ignorant to a co-founder being out there. He's a great activist campaigner. He's always done that. So he's been part of our history as well, trying to push us, raise the bar. And at the same time, we run this three-part mission business, very focused on output, very focused on the campaigns right now. So we've just launched the Flavor Razz Up, which is all about bringing people out to vote, the suppressed voters, the minority voters, the voters that are coming for the first time as well. That's our focus now for the midterms, because if you vote, democracy works and it really unlocks community and people power as well. So that's our main focus in all of this.

Danny (4:04)

And for those who haven't been paying attention, and there has been quite a big news of it, I think that the tension does seem to be activism around what's happening in Gaza. And I wonder how you think about the various topics that you choose, the issues that you choose to pursue, as you mentioned, climate and voter rights. When many of those people who care about that also care, for example, about what's happening in Gaza, how do you sort of delineate which causes that you will be going after and ones that aren't in focus for you?