Chairman Suh Kyung-bae of AmorePacific Co.

In 2015, AmorePacific came up with an in-house venture program in which a team of four company officials is tasked with producing and selling products. For one year, the team was not required to report their business performance to the company. This year, an additional budget of 500 million won has been allotted. The items produced by the team have already hit the shelves of such outlets as E-Mart and Lotte Mart. 

The sun cream brand “Outrun” was the first such brand to be created under AmorePacific’s first in-house venture program. The program, dubbed “Lean Startup,” is designed to create new brands by making the most of AmorePacific officials’ volunteer activities and creativity. 

AmorePacific Chairman Suh Kyung-bae proposed the Lin Startup program since any team that can move in a nimble manner and make new attempts could be able to create new brands. The quicker a team can produce a product correct mistakes, the more successful it can be. 

Outrun debuted after being selected as AmorePacific’s first in-house venture program in a companywide contest last year. The idea for Outrun came from a decathlonist, the husband of Ko So-jin, a member with the Marketing Brand Team. He floated the idea. Kim Sul-bin, a member with the Global Marketing Team, Kim Jung-sung, a researcher specializing in skin care, and Huh Sun-woong from the Institution Cooperation Team joined forces to bring the product to life. Their goal is to produce Korea’s “representative sun care brands” similar to Vertra of the United States and Coco Sunshine of Japan.

The team opened an office at WeWork’s Gangnam Station branch in Seoul, where concentration of venture companies are located, so that members can work in a creative environment in an open space. They do not commute. They schedule meetings and make official tours freely. The team holds official meetings through its frequent Kakao Talk conservations. They have toured such areas as Yangyang, Gangwon-do, and Busan to familiarize themselves with people involved in such sports as surfing, who buy and use Vertra products first hand. Surfers want to get strong sun care products. 

The team created the “Extreme Sun Stick” tailored to meet the needs of such athletes as surfers. The team commissioned a clinical examination involving 10 physical education college students to test that the sun cream does not wash away by sweating and is successful in blocking ultraviolet rays. The Ultra Marathon Sun Cream is the first Korean sun care product that can claim to “block ultraviolet rays for four hours.”

Each team member will be given an incentive equivalent to 20 percent of the net profit the team makes starting the second business year. He or she receives his or her regular compensation as well as bonuses. AmorePacific plans to decide whether the company will nurture the brand from its first in-house venture program when the team enters the third business year.

AmorePacific plans to let the second team of the program release products in June. Two teams were selected last December. The first venture team has the Outrun and the other eco-friendly brand “Gaon Dodam.” The second teams plan to release items under the tentatively named brands men’s grooming brand “Brow And Tips” and mask pack brand “This Tedy.”  

A view of Outrun, a Sun cream to protect the skin of athletes who train under hot sun, developed by a Lean Startup, run by a number of volunteers among the employees to come with a brand new cosmetics brand for the company. Chairman Suh initiated the in-house venture program.(Photos: AmorePacific)