Jennifer Beske '04 MBA

Managing globally Jennifer Beske '04 MBA uses her enterprise experience to build Medtronic's business in China Shanghai, China-based Jennifer Beske, '04 MBA, serves as a business development manager for Medtronic's Greater China division. She is charged with developing business growth strategies for the Minn.-based medical device leader across China as well as leading Medtronic China's mergers & acquisition (M&A) group. "I look for ways that Medtronic can grow its business exponentially in China by serving and improving more patients' lives with Medtronic's therapies," says Beske. "I also attempt to define how Medtronic will be positioned in China's medical device industry in the next five years." Currently, Medtronic is a leader in the Chinese market for most of its divisions and has had double-digit growth in China in the last five years. While pursuing her Carlson MBA, Beske participated in the Carlson Consulting Enterprise. Beske's MBA-student experiences could seem remote from her current role. In fact, she finds that the skills she developed while consulting on Enterprise projects have everyday applications. "As a business consultant, you acquire information and knowledge about the company and industry that you need to analyze and translate into tangible recommendations useful to the client," she says. "The Enterprise reinforced my ability to deliver value-added analysis and recommendations to a client, to tell them a story about their business and market that is both meaningful and actionable." While participating in the Enterprise, Beske led a team of student consultants on a project with Minneapolis-based Rimage Inc., the world's largest full-line manufacturer of CD and DVD publishing, duplication, and printing systems. Her team produced lifetime value calculations, as well as product positioning analyses and recommendations for the company. The project taught Beske the importance of aligning team members towards a common goal. "The Consulting Enterprise provided an environment for me to improve the skills necessary for taking a project from concept to fruition. I learned what to do—and what not to do—as I managed client needs and team dynamics. In every project, individual team members have different strengths," she says. "I was given a firsthand opportunity to learn how to best draw out the different strengths of the team members. I then tried to merge the team's strengths and common goals to deliver the best possible product for our client. " Soon after graduation, Beske started working for Medtronic in its corporate development group, where she partnered with Medtronic leaders to execute in its M&A-related plans and deals. "Going into my first job at Medtronic, I felt grateful to have developed analytical and 'consultancy' skills from my CCE projects necessary to execute these deals," she says now. "Every deal was—and still is—a project."