The consultation field project allows, on the one hand, a team of HEC Montréal MBA students to carry out a complex mandate in keeping with their professional interests and, on the other hand, an organization to benefit from the training that the students have received. Last July, a team supervised by Samuel Sponem, associate professor and holder of the CPA International Research Chair in Management Control, carried out a mandate at Mechasys, a fast growing company that has developed an innovative laser projector that displays construction plans in real scale (FramR). The Chair had the pleasure of discussing with some members of this multidisciplinary team, namely Mathieu Bradette, Siddharth Khetarpal and Victorien Thiaux.

The HEC Montréal MBA team with Anne-Lyse Miller from Mechasys. From left to right: Jovil Maximina Nazareth, Ororomu Abraham, Anne-Lyse Miller, Mathieu Bradette, Victorien Thiaux and Siddharth Khetarpal.

In the wake of a year of full-time study, students agree they were delighted to use what they learned in a more practical way, while also taking the opportunity to gain more insights into the finances of a startup company. Because their mandate was mainly to create a cost model for the FramR supply chain, namely a model that accurately identifies its revenues, costs, and profits.

Dealing with incomplete or uncertain data, finding a working method that suits everyone, complying with the initial mandate while considering significant recommendations implying the entire company, these are some of the challenges that the team with different cultural and technical backgrounds tackled, in just five weeks! Not to mention that Mechasys is a young company with a completely new business model.

Despite these challenges, being able to test the consultancy field while bringing added value to a project so useful for the client was a most motivating professional experience, according to them. In short, they have been able to meet specific requirements brilliantly: to create a flexible cost model that can be adjusted by Mechasys according to its needs, or even modified when revenue or cost lines change.

Congratulations to the whole team for this great accomplishment!