Last August, Hawkins stepped up to the CEO spot at Medtronic, Minnesota’s iconic medical-device company (NYSE: MDT). Formerly the company’s COO, he faces three big challenges in 2008.
First, how does he drive growth at the $12-billion-in-annual-sales Fridley-based company? His strategy: geographic expansion and new products—both from acquisitions and the more than $1 billion that Medtronic spends each year on R&D. Second, the company must fight its way through various forms of patent litigation, which are endemic to its industry. (The med-tech industry, one of the state’s powerhouses, has suffered from layoffs and questions about product effectiveness in the last half of 2007.) Third, Hawkins must hope that improved operating performance cures investors’ complaints about a stock price that has done little more than tread water in recent years.
