Ben Jerrys Homemade Inc Case Study

Any organization that operates in a given society should contribute to the development of the society in one way or another. This is considering the fact that the society has provided the organization with the resources and environment necessary to facilitate its production activities. Social contributions can be in form of support of development activities in the society such as provision of schools fees to the poor children in the region. In addition, the social contributions by an organization can aim at improving the welfare of the employees. Any form of payment to insurance companies in coverage of the employees is a form of social contribution. The employees also receive scholarships to improve their skills through studies. In addition, organizations usually contribute funds to ensure that their employees will receive their retirement benefits after they retire from work. All these are forms of social contributions by an organization.
Ben and Jerry have incurred social costs in a variety of ways. The organization has been giving out 7.5 percent of their untaxed revenue to organizations that are aimed at ensuring that the society experiences an improvement in the welfare. In addition, the taxes that Ben and Jerry Company pay to the government facilitate the provision of various services to the people which improves the welfare of the society.
All these costs affect the economic costs of Ben and Jerry Company. Since organizations aim at maximizing profits, social costs reduce the profits that the organizations earn. This is because profits are the difference between the total revenue and the total costs of an organization. Increasing the social costs of an organization increases the total economic costs hence reducing the profits of an organization.
The social costs of an organization also imply opportunity costs of an organization. This is because these costs involving use of funds that could be used in the organization to finance profitable activities in the organization. Since the social costs do not generate income to the organization, they represent an opportunity costs to the organization involved.
The good performance of Ben and Jerry is what attracted the other organizations to aim at taking over the company. The organization had its missions that it sought to achieve and it was able to do so easily. The first objective was to provide quality products to the consumers. It was able to achieve this objective in that the organization was able to produce a wide variety of natural ice cream that was of high quality. The ice creams were made of different flavors and were given different names. The results of this were that the demand for these products increased resulting to increased profits of the organization. This made many other firms to admire working with the organization.
Ben and Jerry Company also aimed at ensuring that the society benefited from its activities. The people who lived near the organization benefited from the cheap shares that were sold by the organization. With the good performance of the organization, many people were willing to invest with the organization so as to benefit from the dividends. The organization was also able to collect additional capital to fund its investment projects.
Another thing that attracted takeovers to Ben and Jerry Company is the innovative way of reducing its expenses and at the same time benefiting a local business. This was a way of being socially responsible and at the same time improving the profitability of the organization. This is when the organization worked with a pig farmer to ensure that the pigs were able to feed on the milky water that was a waste. This benefited the farmer. The society also benefited in that pollution was avoided and also the organization earned some revenue from the situation. This activity was one of its achievements that made it possible to fulfill the part of its mission statement.
Ben and Jerry Company also was able to motivate the employees to the fullest and this further facilitated the achievement of the organizational goals. The organization gave the employees the chance to fully exploit their potential and also develop their careers. This was through good wages, training and challenging jobs.’
Ben and Jerry Company was attractive to those potential takeovers since it had gained a lot of reputation in the region it operated. The society had benefited a lot from the organization and also the suppliers of raw materials to the organization and the retailers of the products manufactured from the organization were exposed to greater business opportunities. The organization also had good links to various nongovernmental organizations. These were the features that demonstrated the good performance of the organization hence creating attraction to the takeovers.
Generally, Ben and Jerry attracted takeovers in that the organization had achieved a lot and these other organization wished to be associated with the organization. Specifically, the success of the organization was through ensuring maximization of profits, satisfied employees, and high value of the organization that benefited the shareholders and satisfied members of the society.
The first defense strategy of the organization aimed at ensuring that the management maintained the control over the assets of the new organization after the takeover. The results would be that the organization would not maximize the wealth of the shareholders and instead, it would continue serving the interests of the society. Therefore the organization would perform just as before the takeover.
The other defense strategy was to ensure that part of the management of Ben and Jerry was retained after the takeover. This would mean that part of the goals that the organization pursued before would be still pursued. As a result, the wealth of the shareholders would still not be fully maximized.
All the defense mechanism aimed at ensuring that even after the takeover is implemented; the social responsibility to the society still remains. The presence of the previous management in the new organization means that they will have some control over the activities of the organization and the traditional goals of the initial organization would still be pursued.
Social responsibility to the society is usually an important factor that should be taken into consideration by any organization that has to succeed. Therefore the objectives of Ben and jerry organization cannot be ignored since it has been observed that this objective is one of the factors that have contributed to the good performance of the organization. However, it is also important to consider the objectives of the other stakeholders in the organization. The shareholders specifically aim at maximizing their wealth from their invested funds. Pursuing objectives such as those of Ben and Jerry cannot guarantee the achievement of the objectives of the shareholders.
Considering the needs of the shareholders, a takeover is important. A takeover is effective in that the company will focus more on the increased profitability of the company. This is an important step in solving the conflict that exists between the interests of the shareholders and those of the management. The shareholders have invested their funds with a major aim of receiving returns and therefore if the profitability of the organization improves, the shareholders will benefit from increased value of their shares. It is important that the progress of the organization should not be hindered by the pursuit of the mission of ensuring satisfied society.
However, the takeover process should also consider that giving back to the society has been a major objective of Ben and Jerry for a long time. This mission has played a great role in the success of the organization. Therefore the takeover should be such that it does not completely ignore giving back to the society. Evaluating the various alternatives available, it can be seen that the best takeover bid is the one that involves Unilever. This is the company that aims at maximizing shareholders wealth in addition to taking care of the welfare of the society. The unilever bid is therefore the most attractive bid and therefore it is recommendable that the organization considers this bid as compared to the others.