Students of Harvard Business School in the United States learn about CJ Olive Young's case of leading the 'K-beauty boom' through innovation and coexistence.
On the 16th, CJ Olive Young announced that a case study on its contribution to revitalizing the K-beauty industry ecosystem as a cosmetics distribution channel has been adopted as teaching material for Harvard Business School. The material was first unveiled on the 11th in a management innovation class for second-year business school students, titled 'Olive Young: Creating Beauty Innovation.'
A representative from Olive Young noted, 'About 30% of the students who participated in the class said they had experienced Olive Young, showing great interest.' They added, 'On that day, the students discussed Olive Young's core competencies and debated methods for entering the U.S. market.'
The material highlighted Olive Young's role in discovering and nurturing emerging brands while expanding the market. It mentioned how Olive Young has established itself as a channel that collaborates with partners of various sizes, introduces brands to consumers, and presents new trends, analyzing that the cosmetics ecosystem formed this way has significantly contributed to the global K-beauty trend.
It also mentioned that the role of Olive Young as a market leader is backed by CJ Chairman Lee Jae-hyun's management philosophy that 'distributors must prioritize long-term partnerships based on coexistence.'
Additionally, it identified the working style of the merchandise planners (MDs) as a key secret to Olive Young's growth as a leader in the K-beauty industry. It noted that the Olive Young MD committee, which discusses and evaluates key factors such as product differentiation points, price competitiveness, and trend potential before launching new products, significantly enhances the likelihood of product success.
As of the end of 2023, the 'omnichannel' approach, which organically connects 1,350 stores nationwide and online platforms, was also analyzed as a core competitiveness of Olive Young. It drew attention to the significant investments in logistics and information technology (IT) to strengthen the omnichannel strategy.
Moreover, it spotlighted the shift from existing brand-specific displays to trend- and category-centered displays, as well as a store operation method where employees offer assistance only when customers request it.
The material was co-authored by Professor Rebecca Karp and Research Institute Shin Lyn of Harvard Business School and will be published through 'Harvard Business Review,' the monthly management magazine owned by Harvard Business School.
Olive Young is considering ways to implement additional K-beauty-related programs in collaboration with Harvard Business School.
A representative from Olive Young said, 'It is the only category channel to be adopted in a Harvard Business School case study.' They added, 'With the mindset that the growth of small and medium-sized enterprise brands is directly linked to Olive Young's growth, we will act as a booster for the growth of K-beauty brands.'