Publications

January 1997
Exercise

Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Paul Stokes, VP, Health and Beauty Aids Division

By: James K. Sebenius

This case provides the confidential role information necessary for one person in a four-person negotiation simulation about a major corporate change. Specifically, it describes the role of Paul Stokes as he attempts to negotiate a new uniform corporate information... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Transformation; Information Management; Negotiation Deal; System; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

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

November 2003
Supplement

P&G Japan: The SK-II Globalization Project

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Paolo de Cesare and A.G. Lafley review the strategic and organizational challenges they face in deciding whether to make the prestigious Japanese beauty product, SK-II, a global brand. In a three-part videotaped interview, they discuss the challenges, reveal the... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Brands and Branding; Organizational Structure; Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Japan

July 2021
Case

A Close Shave at Squire

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Zoë B. Cullen, William R. Kerr, Benjamin N. Roth and Michael Norris

In 2020, just after closing a $34 million Series B financing round, Dave Salvant and Songe LaRon consider how to adjust their business, Squire Technologies, to the new realities posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their barbershop technology, including tools to run a shop... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Pandemics; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; New York (city, NY); San Francisco

January 2005 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Gretta Enterprises

Describes Gretchen ("Gretta") Monahan's founding and management of Gretta Enterprises, which has grown to five outlets--salons, day spas, and fashion boutiques--and $10 million in annual revenue in 10 years. Monahan's role as a television host on TLC's A Makeover Story... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Entrepreneurship; Leadership Style; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

Find at Harvard

October 1997
Case

L'Oreal of Paris: Bringing 'Class to Mass' with Plenitude

By: Robert J. Dolan

L'Oreal's strategy is to "trickle down" technology over time from high-end outlets like department stores to mass-markets, such as drugstores. The mass market brand Plenitude has become the market leader in France, but even eight years after introduction in the United... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Globalization; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; France; United States

20 Dec 2019
News

The 19 Musts of 2019

Process is essentially design thinking, and it’s the framework that I live by to create, pilot, test, and iterate the products and insights underlying my business.” Courtesy source Courtesy source —Aishetu Fatima Dozie (MBA 2002), founder and CEO of Bossy View Details

Keywords: podcast; Arts, Entertainment

11 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

The Paradoxical Quest to Make Food Look 'Natural' With Artificial Dyes

confectionery hadn’t (yet) been found to be poisonous. The use of certified colors didn’t become mandatory until 1938, when Congress passed the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Even so, the initial Food and Drug Act shone a light on the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

01 Feb 1998
News

Women at the Top

Broom, came from halfway around the world. The vice president of human resources for the cosmetics giant EstŽe Lauder International, Inc., she had just completed an assignment consulting on staff issues with the company's senior managers... View Details

Keywords: Marguerite Rigoglioso and Susan Young

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

27 Jun 2007
Lessons from the Classroom

Learning to Make the Move to CEO

means to live in an era of globalization in a way that is far from abstract or academic." Needless to say, there are also many moments of revelation in the classroom. In a case discussion on Mary Kay cosmetics and the company's... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

June 2020
Teaching Note

Shiseido Acquires Drunk Elephant

By: Jill Avery

On October 7, 2019, the Shiseido Group announced that it would acquire clean skincare brand Drunk Elephant for $845 million, a valuation of 8.5 times sales. Did Shiseido pay too much or too little for this brand asset? How much was the Drunk Elephant brand worth and... View Details

May 2020
Teaching Note

Shiseido: Reinvesting in Brand

By: Jill Avery

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-026. 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 that had led to a vicious cycle of declining customer support and brand value. Would... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; Marketing ROI; Brand Portfolio Strategy; Growth Strategy; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Growth and Development Strategy; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Japan; Asia

May 1981 (Revised December 1992)
Case

Chesebrough-Pond's, Inc.: Vaseline Petroleum Jelly

By: John A. Quelch

The product manager for Vaseline Petroleum Jelly has to prepare the 1978 brand budget and determine expenditure levels for advertising, trade promotion, and consumer promotion. View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Budgets and Budgeting; Product Marketing; Brands and Branding; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

September 1990 (Revised June 1994)
Supplement

Procter & Gamble Japan (D)

By: Michael Y. Yoshino

1990 update of the P&G Japanese business. View Details

Keywords: Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Japan

September 1990 (Revised November 1991)
Supplement

Procter & Gamble Japan (C)

By: Michael Y. Yoshino

Updates the (A) case. The issues facing P&G were two-fold. 1) General manager, Japan--how to keep both the business and organization growing; 2) President, international--what role should the Japanese operation play in the P&G worldwide business? View Details

Keywords: Business Offices; Business Growth and Maturation; Globalization; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizations; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Japan

July 1981 (Revised December 1984)
Case

American Distilling Co. (A)

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

Keywords: Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry