In retrospect, Ben & Jerry’s burst of creative brilliance seems obvious, but perhaps that is what brilliance is: the willingness to do what others are not. Have we not all had grand ideas—be they in the realm of science, art or ice cream—that future generations would herald, if we only had the courage to follow through? What wonders might our children ascribe to us if we could only put some action behind our ideas? Just look at Ben & Jerry’s. How easy would it have been to say, “Oh, a solid core of fudge, caramel or raspberry jam running down the middle of our ice cream! Someone should do that.” But, no. Ben & Jerry’s is not a company given to resting on their laurels, assuming innovation will happen naturally. Instead, they had an idea and did something with it and now, here we are, nice as you please: Core Flavors, the first major development in ice cream innovation since someone decided to try plopping a scoop of it into a waffle cone. Let’s all learn something from Ben & Jerry’s, gang: there is no substitute for action. Not now. Not ever …
