What Changed Gourmondo When Alissa Leinonen Entered Corporate Dining?

Alissa Leinonen tells What Fuels You that Gourmondo never had one giant order that transformed the company. The shift was entering new markets. In 2006 she wanted corporate dining, the campus cafeterias run by large employers. Gourmondo was about a 1 million dollars company, and the contract she won was another 1 million dollars of business, enough to double the firm overnight. They had never done that work. She says they overpromised and did not understand the people actually eating there, many of them in shipping and receiving, who wanted inexpensive, familiar food. The menu she brought, including crab cakes, was the wrong offer. She calls that market a profound change in the company.