Institute of Management Development and Research, Pune.

Cases in Organization Design

Case 1
Keeping Things Organic At Ben & Jerrys

Submitted By :- Submitted To :-
GROUP - 2 Prof. Vipra Tiwari
Monika Ghare (12)
Shubank Jain (14)
Ayush Khandelwal (15)
Priyanka Kumari (17)
Chetan Narkhede (24)
Abhijeet Paul (27)
Yugansh Tripathi
Executive Summary:
The case is about an ice-cream parlour i.e. Ben and Jerrys which was opened in 1978. The
goal was to make super premium ice-cream with a motive to charity, goodwill and having fun.
At the end of next 10 years company is working with 150 employees & its worth is 45$ million.
But as the organisation grew the organisational culture began to change as they were turning
from socialise company to profit making company. And losing emphases on fun charity
towards the fellow employees.
In 1978 and 1986, the company doubled its size and there were increase in the competitors
Like Chapman. In 1987-88 it was slowdown of around 40% and the company realized that
they need growth if they need to survive.
In 1985 in order to build a new factory with increase capacity the companys goes public and
sell stock primarily to Vermonters people.
The problems isnt stops here to cope up with the situation they hired a Chief operating Officer
who was MBA, as he start doing changes in the processes the pressure increased and
employees began to complain. The case depicts how structural changes impact the culture
and vision, mission of organisation.
Questions and Answers:
1. Has Ben & Jerrys been forced to grow? Explain.
Ans. Yes, Ben & Jerry been forced to grow because of the external Forces and market
condition. As when the brand introduced there is no as such competition. But as the
market changes competition increases. Few other companies Like Chapman were now
giving competition to Ben & Jerry ice-cream. So it is not possible for a socialise company
like ben & Jerry to survive in so called competitive market because it no more a monopoly
market.
4. Can Ben & Jerrys maintain their original culture and, at the same time, continue to
grow?
Ans. No, it is not possible to retain on their original culture because of the following
changes.
 Q6. If you were a management consultant what advice would you give to Ben Cohen?
Ans6. Since there were lot of organizational changes as it was growing year on year. So what
our group suggest that Ben Cohen could have implemented Kilmann's Five Tracks Model. This
model helps in scheduling and implementing the tracks. This model entails intervening in
five critical leverage points (called tracks) found in all organizations, that, when functioning
properly, cause the organization to be successful.
The five tracks are as follows:

It establishes a performance This track enhances trust,

based reward system that
sustains all improvements
by sanctioning the new
culture, the use of updated
management skills, and
cooperative team efforts
within and among all work
groups.
communication, information
sharing, and willingness to
change among members. The
conditions that must exist before
any other improvement effort
The Reward Cultural can succeed.
System Track Track

Strategy- The It provides all

Structure
Track
It develops either a
completely new or a revised
strategic plan for the firm
and aligns divisions,
departments, work groups,
jobs and all the sources with
the new strategic direction.
Management
Skills Track
management personnel
with new ways of
coping with the complex
The Team
problems and hidden
Building assumptions.
Track
It infuses the new culture and updated
management skills into each work unit-
thereby instilling organization-wide
cooperation so that complex problems
can be addressed with all the expertise
and information available.

1. The Culture Track: With regards to the case, the cultural changes in organization after
growth strategy could be first communicated before the changes were implemented.
2. The Management Skills Track: As in the case we could notice that first monthly meetings
made production line stop so that the views of the employees could be taken but after growth
it was just one way communication i.e. from management to employees. There was growing
stress on meeting goals. This could be handled by taking into consideration, the new ways of
coping with new management skills.