Publications

07 Jan 2025
Blog Post

Revolutionizing Wellness: Kate Twist (MBA 2008) Shapes the Future of Consumer Health Brands

exists at the intersection of the healthcare and beauty industries, educating consumers on the modern way to take care of their skin. It's designed to be a more inviting and accessible experience for minimally invasive cosmetic... View Details

12 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Entrepreneurship and Multinationals Drive Globalization

In a new book on the origins and impacts of globalization, Harvard Business School's Geoffrey Jones focuses on the role played by a vital but often ignored actor in this conversation: business entrepreneurs and the multinational enterprises they create. "There has... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics; Beauty & Cosmetics; Beauty & Cosmetics; Beauty & Cosmetics

April 2021
Supplement

Exercise for Revlon: Surviving Covid-19

By: Kristin Mugford and Sarah Gulick

Exercise for Revlon: Surviving Covid-19 View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Liquidity; Bonds; Corporate Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States

September 1990 (Revised January 1992)
Case

Procter & Gamble Japan (A)

By: Michael Y. Yoshino

Ten years after entering Japan, P&G had accumulated over $250 million in operating losses on declining annual sales of $120 million by 1983. The decision facing the president of P&G International: exit, retrench or rebuild the operation? Ironically, the initial entry... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Change Management; Profit; Market Entry and Exit; Market Participation; Sales; Competition; Technology; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Japan

February 2025
Teaching Note

Influencer-Led Brand Building: Hairitage and the McKnights

By: William R. Kerr and James Palano

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 825-066. Mindy McKnight started in 2009 as an early influencer on social media whose videos of creative hairstyles for girls launched her family on an entrepreneurship journey. The McKnights transitioned from YouTube ad revenue to brand... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Social Media; Entrepreneurship; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Power and Influence; Expansion; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

September 2020
Teaching Note

First Aid Beauty

By: Karen G. Mills and Annie Dang

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 319-082. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Term Sheets; Decision Choices And Conditions; Preferred Shares; Common Stock; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

September 2013 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Living Proof: Are We a Technology Company or a Beauty Company?

By: Willy Shih

Jon Flint came up with the idea of a science-based beauty company while talking with his hairdresser about the problems with typical hair and skin care products. Together with a small team that included Professor Robert Langer of MIT, he committed to assemble a team... View Details

July–August 2012
Article

The Growth Opportunity That Lies Next Door

By: G. Jones

This article uses the case of Natura, the largest Brazilian beauty company and one of the world's top twenty beauty companies, to explore how the logic of globalization is changing for corporations from emerging countries as growth opportunities in those countries... View Details

Keywords: Brazil; Marketing; Green Marketing; Environment; Globalization; Developing Countries and Economies; Geographic Location; Growth and Development Strategy; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Latin America; Europe

Find at Harvard

November 2010 (Revised December 2011)
Supplement

Oriflame S.A. (C)

By: David F. Hawkins and Karol Misztal

Notes from Oriflame's 2009 annual report relevant to the assessment of the monetary impact of Oriflame's FX risk management actions. View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; International Accounting; Currency Exchange Rate; Annual Reports; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Risk Management; Standards; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

April 1991 (Revised March 2017)
Teaching Note

Mary Kay Cosmetics: Sales Force Incentives (A) and (B)

By: Robert Simons

Teaching Note for (9-190-103) and (9-190-122). View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Salesforce Management; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

August 2010 (Revised February 2012)
Supplement

Cosmeticos de Espana, S.A. (B)

By: David F. Hawkins

Second case in the Cosmeticos de Espana case series. What should management's accounting response be to a devaluation of the Bolivar? View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Decision Choices and Conditions; Inflation and Deflation; Currency Exchange Rate; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Spain; Venezuela

August 2010 (Revised February 2012)
Case

Cosmeticos de Espana, S.A. (A)

By: David F. Hawkins

Management must decide which exchange rate to use to consolidate the company's Venezuelan subsidiary. View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Business Subsidiaries; Inflation and Deflation; Currency Exchange Rate; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Spain; Venezuela

July 2007 (Revised January 2008)
Supplement

Andrea Jung: Empowering Avon Women (B)

By: William W. George

Keywords: Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

September 1988
Supplement

Bella Beauty Products, Inc. (D)

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Keywords: Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

Find at Harvard

September 1988 (Revised April 1991)
Case

Bella Beauty Products, Inc. (C)

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Keywords: Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

Find at Harvard

October 1982 (Revised August 1999)
Case

Johnson Wax: Enhance (A)

Johnson Wax has produced a new hair conditioner for problem hair. Before committing themselves to test market, they analyze the new product using a field based, pretest-market procedure called ASSESSOR. The testing reveals product positioning, advertising, and... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Analysis; Marketing Communications; Advertising; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

24 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Want People to Save More? Send a Text

experience planted a seed for Pomeranz's future research: how to promote financial savings among "microentrepreneurs" such as food cart owners, street vendors, and cosmetics saleswomen, whose income is low and often fluctuates.... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

December 2018 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Shiseido: Reinvesting in Brand

By: Jill Avery and Nobuo Sato

Shiseido was in the midst of a six year corporate turnaround, trying to reverse the effects of decades of under-investment in R&D and marketing which had led to a cycle of declining customer support and brand value. Would the CEO’s VISION 2020 plan, centered on four... View Details

March 2004 (Revised November 2012)
Teaching Note

P&G Japan: The SK-II Globalization Project (TN)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Traces changes in P&G's international strategy and structure, culminating in Organization 2005, a reorganization that places strategic emphasis on product innovation rather than geographic expansion and shifts power from local subsidiary to global business management.... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Trade; Globalization; Global Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Business or Company Management; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Hong Kong; Japan; Taiwan; Europe