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Olive Young's growth focus of Harvard Business School case study

Published: 16 Feb. 2025, 17:09 Updated: 18 Feb. 2025, 11:37

KIM JU-YEON
[email protected]

Harvard Business School's campus in Boston [HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL]

CJ Olive Young’s retail business model and growth in the Korean cosmetics market was discussed as a case study at Harvard Business School, demonstrating the firm’s trailblazing presence in the sector, the beauty and health retailer said Sunday.

The case study, titled “Olive Young: Formulating Beauty Innovation,” was part of the lesson material used in an Innovation at Scale class for second-year MBA students on Feb. 11, according to CJ.

Olive Young’s role in finding and fostering new brands — effectively serving as an “incubator” for Korean beauty — was a focal point of the case study, CJ said. The retailer’s partnerships with manufacturers of varying sizes and its role in introducing new trends, not just brands, was noted to have contributed to driving the global popularity of Korean cosmetics and the way in which consumers buy products.

The firm’s merchandiser’s working methods, omnichannel retail and customer experience were identified as the retailer’s three standout strategies in the industry in the class material provided by Profs. Rebecca Karp and Shu Lin.

The case study will later be published in the Harvard Business Review, the school’s monthly magazine, according to CJ.

“There was a lot of interest [in the firm] with around 30 percent of students in the class saying they had experienced Olive Young,” a company spokesperson said in a press release.

“We will boost indie and small- and mid-sized Korean beauty brands’ growth in the global market with the philosophy that the small- and mid-sized brands’ growth is equal to Olive Young’s,” the spokesperson added.

Olive Young is also looking into ways to partner with Harvard Business School for a study program on Korean beauty, the firm said.

BY KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]