Vanwege het internationale karakter van ons bedrijf en onze medewerkers hebben we hun verhalen en ervaringen in het Engels weergegeven.

"Taking decisions as if it is my own company."

Miranda lives in Geleen with her partner Richard, and together they have five kids
(four adolescent boys and a girl) as well as two dogs. She realizes that she is lucky and that this is an example of a modern family that integrated well together. Miranda loves to cook, which results in daily family time around the dinner table with the whole family.

What people do not know about Miranda, or would not expect from her, is that she loves adventurous sports: parachuting, canyoning or an altitude trail, Miranda does not back down from a challenge.

Also at work, Miranda does not back down from a challenge. Being with Medtronic since 1992, she is known as a pragmatic and enthusiastic person, always looking for a solution or an alternative.

Miranda about her position at Medtronic

Right now, I am part of a big cross-country program around our customer processes. The aim is to improve our service towards our customers – and in the end towards the patients. What is driving me? I want to deliver a strong process, for our patients, and I am really trying to find that optimal balance. I am 100% passionate about what I am doing, and I am making the decisions as if it is my own company.

Miranda’s education and career path

I started my career at Medtronic in 1992, in different leadership positions in the production facility of balloon catheters at our Vascular operations facility as well for the packaging team in the distribution center (DC) in our European Operations Center (EOC). After that,
I moved to the supply chain organization, where I held different customer care and supply chain analyst positions. In 2006, I became the customer care manager within Sales for the Netherlands, where I created a strong customer care team that was working closely with the sales teams.

In 2013, I moved to a project manager position to support the Medtronic strategic
“Fit for Growth” initiative to implement the front and back office split for Customer Care in Western Europe, which included transitioning the back office activities to Warsaw. The focus was on building relationships with senior leaders and directors to ensure that this change would be adopted. Next to that, I developed the training plan, the organizational structure, standard process mapping and other customer-specific requests.

After that, it was a logical step for me to take on the role of Senior Manager
Service & Repair Customer Care and Inside Sales for EMEA in 2016, where I became responsible for the centralized Service & Repair (S&R) customer care team for Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA), Over the past year, I have been a transition lead. Medtronic decided to transfer some of our customer care activities of our Service & Repair department to Accenture. The combination of my previous roles has been the foundation for the role that I have today.

Most challenging in my current role

The most challenging part in my current role is making sure that all different stakeholders are aligned on what we are doing with our Offer to Cash project, as well as getting their support and commitment. I do have to say that due to my 27-year tenure at the company,
I know quite a lot of people in the organization, at all levels. That makes working across all these departments, businesses and functions easier. Together, we are looking to the future. The benevolence and support are quite extraordinary.

What I like most in my current job

Due to Medtronic’s growth in the past years, a lot of new talented people joined the team. It is difficult for them to know the rationale behind old decisions. Not having that background and historic knowledge may be tricky when designing a process for the future. I do have this background and having that knowledge at hand, is very valuable in designing the process for the future.

And that is the second thing which I love about my role: for Service & Repair, I am both working at the design table, as well as rolling it out and presenting a new design to the business groups. I can set it up and implement it. I really feel that I contribute and that we are making this a success.

What I like about working for Medtronic

Making the difference, knowing that I contribute to the well-being of patients. Improving their quality of life and saving lives.

By means of a continuous improvement mindset, with the customer as our focal point, we can ensure that our patients can/will benefit from Medtronic products improving their quality of life.

What ‘Further, Together’ means to me

It means: together we can! Just one person will not be able to deliver results. Once we as a company are aligned and act as one team, we will accelerate the delivery to our customers.

My most memorable experiences at Medtronic

My most memorable experience was at the Medtronic patient event. One specific patient story impressed me tremendously: It was a personal story of a patient who suffered from Parkinson’s disease. Telling his story in front of an audience, while he had the deep brain stimulation surgery only eleven days before the event, was impressive in itself already. But on stage, he demonstrated what the neurostimulator device actually does. The patient reprogrammed the device and the neurostimulation stopped. Within seconds, he was shaking heavily again. The whole audience was quiet and emotional. For me, this story and demonstration showed exactly how we impact the lives of patients. This man, who was not able to drink a glass of water due to constant tremors, became self-sufficient again due to a Medtronic device.