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  • September 2013
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Laurent Adamowicz and Bon'App

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Juliane Calingo Schwetz and Patricia Bissett Higgins
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
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Abstract

After a successful career as Chairman and CEO of Paris-based luxury food company Fauchon, Laurent Adamowicz sought to reduce obesity and improve health outcomes. Adamowicz created a mobile application to provide consumers with more accessible and interpretable knowledge about the food they were eating so they could make better decisions. Despite Adamowicz’s focus on promoting healthful and informed eating habits, many choices still lay ahead of him in deciding how to develop a platform and database, the type of business model that would best support his goals, and the types of collaboration and marketing techniques that would get his idea off the ground.

Since 2010, Laurent Adamowicz evolved his concept for a mechanism that acted as a "nutritionist in your pocket" into Bon'App, a fully formed nutrition database and nutritional educational platform. After multiple iterations of the app design and revenue model, Bon'App began to see encouraging results with an increased user base and usage. Adamowicz's venture was accepted into a prominent Boston-based accelerator, attracted outside capital, added team members and attracted its first paying corporate client. Despite the progress made Adamowicz knew that his start-up remained in a fragile state. He wondered if he would be able to maintain the flexibility needed to capitalize on new opportunities while staying true to his mission to create a new standard for nutritional information.

Keywords

Management; Startup; Leadership; Leadership Style; Leadership Skills; Nutrition Database; Nutritionist In Your Pocket; Nutritional Educational Platform; Shazam Of Food; Weight Loss; Iphone; Android; Applications; App Development; Nutrition Labeling; Nutritional Information; Obesity; Epidemic; Applications and Software; Nutrition; Business Startups; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology Industry; Health Industry; Boston; Massachusetts

Citation

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, Juliane Calingo Schwetz, and Patricia Bissett Higgins. "Advanced Leadership Pathways: Laurent Adamowicz and Bon'App." Harvard Business School Case 314-028, September 2013.
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About The Author

Rosabeth M. Kanter

General Management
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Related Work

    • March 2016
    • Faculty Research

    Advanced Leadership Pathways: Laurent Adamowicz and Bon'App

    By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Tessa Natanay Hamilton and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone
Related Work
  • Advanced Leadership Pathways: Laurent Adamowicz and Bon'App By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Tessa Natanay Hamilton and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone
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