Last August, Alexandre Brisson, a 2014 McGill-HEC Montréal EMBA graduate, was appointed to head a cross-functional team charged with advancing the growth of CN’s intermodal business. His efforts have clearly paid off, as Alexandre has recently been promoted to Vice-President, Multimodal Innovation at CN.
We reached Alexandre following the announcement of his promotion. He explained: “My role now is to put best practices forward related to the management of multimodal transport of goods, the definition of our transport product, customer orders and shipment visibility.”
A year ago, he commented that the strategic concepts he learned during the EMBA were the most useful notions for him, “I would say that the strategy module
[the Analytic Mindset] with Louis Hébert [Professor, Department of Management and co-director of the EMBA] is the module that has contributed the most to develop my strategic approach,” he explained. “I made the case, which led to the foundation of this initiative, by establishing a parallel between the corporate strategy and the information base currently in place at CN. The Operating Model approach seen in class proved to be very helpful.” Today, in addition to the strategic side, the knowledge he gained in operational excellence and value creation during the EMBA, will definitely be put to good use. Alexandre’s trajectory shows that, while we strive to make sure that the notions acquired in class are immediately transferable to our participants’ workplaces, most concepts are also useful for many years after graduation.
