USC MBA Students Will Study Beyoncé's Business Empire

USC's Marshall School of Business has added "The Business of Beyoncé" to its MBA curriculum, and the course sold out faster than a Renaissance World Tour presale when registration opened this month ahead of its January launch.

The 16-week spring semester class meets Monday afternoons for nearly three hours. Professor Shaun Harper, a self-described Beyoncé superfan who designed the course, traces her career from childhood performances and Destiny's Child through solo stardom and her business ventures, aiming to prepare students for careers in entertainment, music management and branding.

Students start with an assignment called the "BeyEssay": pick a Beyoncé song and explain why. From there, they study her whiskey brand, hair-care line and entertainment company.

What does the course actually teach?

Harper anticipates criticism that MBA students should learn practical skills rather than study a pop star. His answer: "My class is not going to be just a set of conversations about Beyoncé."

Students will unpack how she converts star power into a multimillion-dollar empire and how social media shapes her brand. The course also answers a long-running complaint that business-school case studies too often highlight white men. Harper's class centers a Black female entrepreneur.

Weekly topics include child stars, girl groups and boy bands, Black artists, women in music, celebrity couples, privacy and scandal. Students will study the Pussycat Dolls, the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, the Supremes and BTS, plus readings on how Motown shaped pioneering Black artists.

One assignment traces a child performer's path to adult stardom, with Janet Jackson among suggested subjects. A week on genre-crossing covers "Cowboy Carter" — which won Beyoncé her first album of the year Grammy in 2025 — and her acting in the 2006 film "Dreamgirls."

Another puts students in the advisor's seat: write a 700-to-1,000-word business guidance document for Beyoncé, imagining it is "being delivered directly" to the star.

Who signed up?

Kendall Ferguson, 30, a second-year MBA student and president of USC's Graduate Marketing Assn., worked in human resources in London before coming to USC. After graduating next year, she hopes to do brand management for a retail or beauty company. "I'm definitely not the traditional stereotype of MBA," Ferguson said.

Ferguson, who is Black, wanted to study a Black businesswoman with a Black professor who could identify with her experiences. She has also used a Cécred braid spray — and didn't initially know it was Beyoncé's brand.

Maddie Gissler, a second-year MBA student from Naperville, Ill., previously worked at EY and wants to work in entertainment marketing or strategy. She has seen two Beyoncé concerts: the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in high school and Cowboy Carter in 2025. "One of the best things she did was when she kind of moved into acting," Gissler said.

How big is the empire on the syllabus?

Beyoncé's ventures stretch back more than two decades:

• 2005: launched House of Deréon, a now-defunct clothing line, with her mother
• 2010: founded Parkwood Entertainment, her management and production company
• 2016: co-founded the Ivy Park athleisure line
• 2024: introduced Cécred hair care and SirDavis whiskey with Moet Hennessy, later buying out Moet Hennessy's stake

Cécred shows her financing approach. Her mother, Tina Knowles, told Fortune that Beyoncé funded the company herself after prospective investors pushed for less R&D spending and more marketing.

Her 2013 surprise album release, issued on iTunes without advance promotion, became a Harvard Business School case study the next year.

Why Harper teaches it

Harper's fandom runs deep. As student body president at Albany State University, he helped book Destiny's Child for homecoming in 1997. He first saw Beyoncé perform solo at the 2003 Essence Awards. Her best business decision? "Becoming a solo artist," he said.

He expects students, many in their late 20s, to challenge his views — including whether her guarded persona is smart brand management. He thinks it is. "Beyoncé shows up when she needs to show up," he said.

In 2018, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to headline Coachella, with a set evoking a homecoming celebration at historically Black colleges. On TikTok, Harper learned she reviews concert footage frame by frame, like a football coach. "That woman's work ethic is unmatched," he said.

He's trying, through third parties, to invite Beyoncé as a guest lecturer. Her spokesperson did not respond to The Times' request for comment. For now, Harper holds onto one memory: pit tickets to the 2014 On the Run tour in Philadelphia, where Beyoncé danced over and briefly grabbed his hand. "I have never met Beyoncé. We've held hands, but we've never met," he said — and he still hopes for a proper introduction.