Interview with Meja - Consulting firm

Our interview with Pierre Erra, co-founder of the consulting firm Meja

"Hello Pierre, start by introducing us to your company:

Hello, my name is Pierre Erra and I am the co-founder of the digital transformation consulting firm: meja. Our job is to support our clients in the implementation of transformation projects that affect digital and information systems. We support them from a business point of view at all stages of a project: from the definition of the digital strategy, to the operational implementation of a system, including the associated change management.

Meja is a young consulting firm. We created it two and a half years ago with my partner Wadii Moustatir. We strive to adopt a method and rigour that are as demanding as close to, or even better than, those of very large consulting firms; And at the same time, we benefit from a certain flexibility and agility in our operation, which means that we are always in the process of bringing innovation.

Meja now has a dozen consultants specialising in three business sectors on which all of our activity is focused: education and training, administrations and local authorities, and health. 

It's been a year since the first lockdown, a lot of things have happened. Can you give us your opinion on the impact that this health crisis has had? From your customers' point of view, has there been an evolution?

From a "practical" point of view, when I started my job as a consultant, mobility was very strong: I spent my time on trains and now I spend my time on trains. Now all the work is done at my home or in the office. From a relational point of view, we are committed to continuing to support our customers with great proximity, although the contact is undeniably different when it is done remotely. Everyone talks about upheavals, very long-term changes, but I don't see it that way...

The crisis has illustrated that face-to-face work is not an obligation. The crisis doesn't really have a before and after, for me, it's rather indicative of the strength and maturity of the organizations we support or unfortunately of their weaknesses. The lockdown has highlighted the flaws of organizations that were a little outdated and found themselves very deprived overnight due to a rather "old school", authoritarian operation where management was synonymous with control linked to face-to-face work. Whereas other structures that are more suited to management by objectives – by projects, by taking responsibility by employees – have worked better. Obviously, this remote operation requires greater trust, it is not based on hierarchical control. 

Have you felt a change in your customers' demand? Have needs changed?

In my projects, I haven't seen any upheavals. But there has been a considerable slowdown in order intake and commercial activity. All projects that were not launched were frozen, and ongoing projects continued – but in a different way. On the other hand, customers show a need for support to learn to work in a more collaborative and less hierarchical way: more horizontal management.

How have you adapted to this situation internally?

The announcement was brutal, of course, but we were lucky enough to work collaboratively on web tools within meja, so the transition to total teleworking had no impact from a "tool" point of view. Still, this gave rise to a lot of thought at meja.

In our consulting activity, we have two main aspects: we do not sell a person, we sell expertise, know-how and training. It is this human aspect of exchange that has been hard to maintain. We changed our meeting rhythm and tried to keep this mutual aid, to play games remotely. Everything we do in a company becomes a collective adventure. People exchange with each other, they share. But all this will never replace the strength we had in person. We will try to maintain a fair distribution of working time on the site and teleworking.

In 2021, do you feel a change? With the resumption of postponed projects. Is the market recovering or is there still this uncertainty?

Of course, I felt this tension during the first lockdown, even if current projects have not been completely stopped. Since the end of the second half of last year and the beginning of 2021, we have returned to a more normal rhythm where new projects are launched. We are back to sustained commercial activity, in response to new needs.

Has there been a more profound change in the consulting approach? In the profession as such? Or was it just a parenthesis?

This is not a parenthesis. There are some changes that we won't go back on, such as teleworking. There will be fundamental changes, but this will not call everything into question. We thought that with the self-employed we could have disintermediation and that consulting firms were no longer going to exist and finally we realized that this was not the case.

And tomorrow, I don't believe in the completely fragmented council either, made up of self-employed workers behind their screens. I believe in the strength of a company, of a structured firm that acquires knowledge, capitalizes on knowledge, exchanges best practices, trains its employees; which the self-employed do not have.

You have made this approach work remotely. Does this make you want to go international? Can this be an opportunity to expand the market?

 At my level, I am not yet considering going international, because we are a fledgling company so we have plenty of room to grow in France.

What kind of advice could you give to a future founder?

The fundamental question is to know what we bring to the customer. You have to have confidence in your strengths, have convictions and not hesitate to take the plunge. It's not very complicated to found a consulting firm. On the other hand, you have to be very humble and have clear ideas about the project and what you bring. It is important to be flexible enough and to accept that we also depend on the market, on needs; You have to be able to readjust your project.

We have to take small steps. When you start, you have to succeed in aiming for what is achievable. And references, missions, etc. are things that are acquired over time when you start to make a name for yourself. The hardest thing is the beginning.

What we did and what worked, was that our first customers were cajoled. We didn't think about profitability, and we gave everything for these customers. We knew that these were customers who had chosen us at the beginning and who trusted us. They have taken a risk and this must be rewarded with the credibility of the work done. And it is thanks to these first customers that we were able to grow, today we have more than a million in turnover and we are starting to be recognized.

Over these two and a half years, what is the accomplishment of which you are most proud?

Regarding commercial success: when we started, after nine months we won a very large call for tenders for the Ministry of National Education. We have been listed as a single contractor in a consulting market against all the biggest competitors on the market. I am proud of it, we responded with a partner who trusted us but we were the market representative. It is the quality of our response that allowed us to win this project.

Regarding the success of production: it is the support of the Neoma Business school, they initially called on us for a small mission with a budget of €20,000 to help them structure a call for tenders. We over-quality and spent more time, little by little this client entrusted us with a lot of missions. And today they trust us to lead their ERP transformation projects, we are project managers for them. It is now the firm's biggest client and it is a real source of pride."

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