Advanced Leadership Pathways: Laurent Adamowicz and Bon'App

Rosabeth Moss Kanter; Tessa Natanay Hamilton; Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | March 2016

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Laurent Adamowicz and Bon'App

by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Tessa Natanay Hamilton and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

Abstract

After a successful career as Chairman and CEO of Paris-based luxury food company, Fauchon, Laurent Adamowicz sought to provide a solution to a large scale complex problem. Ultimately, Adamowicz created a mobile application to provide consumers with more accessible and interpretable knowledge about the food they were eating to improve health outcomes. Adamowicz recognized that Harvard's Advanced Leadership Initiative would provide him with resources, industry connections, and interdisciplinary collaboration to make a product that could address and/or prevent the type of continued excess caloric consumption that had contributed to the American obesity crisis. Collaboration with Harvard students and other fellows motivated Adamowicz to pursue the creation and development of a best-in-class smart phone application. 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. This case may be used for courses on entrepreneurship, social enterprise, leadership, and change management.

Keywords: Leadership; Change Management; Social Entrepreneurship; Nutrition; Business and Community Relations;

Language: English

Format: Print

17 pages

Citation:

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, Tessa Natanay Hamilton, and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone. "Advanced Leadership Pathways: Laurent Adamowicz and Bon'App." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 316-035, March 2016.

Gun violence was a significant problem in America. Three Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellows Christy Wood, Russell Sternlicht, and Gareth Glaser each decided to do something about gun safety. They each used their professional and leadership experience to identify their own solutions to the issue. Wood created a set of principles for investments funds to pressure gun manufacturers and gun sellers within their portfolios to adopt safety standards. Sternlicht designed a membership-based lobbying and advocacy group in order to harness the power of mass movements to create positive change. And Glaser founded a smart-gun company whose product could help reduce certain types of deaths and injuries. Would any of these three innovations move beyond the historical gridlock on gun safety?

This is a teaching note to the original case: Gun violence was a significant problem in America. Three Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellows Christy Wood, Russell Sternlicht, and Gareth Glaser each decided to do something about gun safety. They each used their professional and leadership experience to identify their own solutions to the issue. Wood created a set of principles for investments funds to pressure gun manufacturers and gun sellers within their portfolios to adopt safety standards. Sternlicht designed a membership-based lobbying and advocacy group in order to harness the power of mass movements to create positive change. And Glaser founded a smart-gun company whose product could help reduce certain types of deaths and injuries. Would any of these three innovations move beyond the historical gridlock on gun safety?

From 2008-2010 Anand Piramal ran a series of pilots for his digital healthcare startup, Piramal e-Swasthya (PeS) to “democratize healthcare” in rural areas of India. PeS ran into difficulties so Anand Piramal had to decide whether to continue the organization and if so how. In 2010, an unexpected opportunity emerged that could have significant implications for PeS’s organizational structure and future prospects. Anand Piramal now faced several options for PeS. He needed to weigh the pros and cons of each option to make the best decision to fulfill his vision of providing quality healthcare services to “bottom-of-the-pyramid” populations. This case exemplifies the strategic decisions an entrepreneur must make to ensure that a social impact venture can be sustainable and scalable.

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Advanced Leadership Pathways: Laurent Adamowicz and Bon'App

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