Cultural Agility: Building a Pipeline of Successful Global Professionals

CHAPTER 2

THREE CROSS-CULTURAL COMPETENCIES AFFECTING CULTURALLY AGILE RESPONSES

In 2001, the British-Dutch conglomerate Unilever bought the American Vermont-based ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s. A key asset of Ben & Jerry’s was its market niche among those customers who appreciated the premium ice cream with unusual flavor names like Karamel Sutra, Chocolate Therapy, and Imagine Whirled Peace. In the acquisition, Unilever needed to preserve this market niche, which was based in no small part on the corporate image of Ben & Jerry’s social responsibility and left-leaning social activism. With an image honed by the founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield over almost twenty years, Ben & Jerry’s worked with sustainable, Fair Trade certified ...