On New Years Day, 2002, I founded ev3 GmbH, a German subsidiary of ev3, which is based in Minneapolis. ev3 develops new breeds of medical devices, focusing on minimally invasive endovascular therapies.

ev3 acquires small companies that have created great products but lack experience in distribution. ev3 GmbH is a sales and marketing organization in charge of ev3's business in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. I'm the managing director of all three, and I ensure that ev3's main products for cardiological diseases, peripheral vessel diseases, and neurovascular diseases are placed in these markets. Most of ev3's products focus on stroke prevention. This is a growth market, as strokes are still one of the world's most expensive health problems.

I am based in Bonn, Germany (I'm also German), right on the Rhine, and report to the general manager of ev3 Europe, who works out of Paris. ev3 Europe employs more than 100 people, 21 of whom work for ev3 GmbH.

TYPICAL WORK DAY: 
7:30 a.m. -- I start my run, which I do every other day to prepare for the Cologne marathon in October. It's fun, and it brings this 39-year-old's circulation up to speed.

8:15 a.m. -- Despite my morning run, I'm no early bird, and I take my time to get started in the morning. I check my voice mail to find out if the U.S. office has left me any tasks or questions overnight. My commute to the office takes only a few minutes as I live next door to work. I greet the office staff and find out about their plans for the day. After that, I have a quick look at yesterday's sales results.

8:20 a.m. -- Conference call with the sales force. We discuss the strategy for the month, which products deserve special attention, what the competition is doing, and where the opportunities lie. The sales manager leads the conversation, but I like to be part of it to stay up-to-date.

9:00 a.m. -- I sift through my daily load of about 35 e-mails, usually regarding product supply, new product launches, and answers from product managers in the U.S. about product performance.

9:45 a.m. -- Meeting with my sales and marketing manager. We discuss our strategy for the launch of a new intravascular filter system in three months. We will organize a physician's symposium in June, and we discuss the kinds of promotional material we'll need, etc.

10:45 a.m. -- Conference call with a consultant, who assists us in placing new products in the health-care reimbursement system. We need more clinical data for this product, which is a new solution for patients who suffer from atrial fibrillation.

11:30 a.m. -- I work on a presentation I'll give to a group of hospital purchasing managers next week. They're looking for ways to optimize their supply chain, and we have some ideas for packaging our products for them.

12:30 p.m. -- Interview with a sales rep candidate during lunch. I've hired 21 people over the past two years, and I'm still looking for more sales talent. These people are hard to find because their talents are rare, and competition from the big established companies is huge.

1:30 p.m. -- I continue working on next week's presentation. These managers' decisions about their purchasing volume can be of great importance to our bottom line.

2:30 p.m. -- Meeting with a telecom company. These folks offer a virtual private network system that could help cut our telecom costs, which are high, with 16 salespeople on the road all day.

3:30 p.m. -- Time to finish my monthly sales report to the general manager in Europe. I have profit-and-loss responsibility, so I need to comment on operating expenses and revenue numbers.

4:30 p.m. -- A conference call with a potential sponsor for my racing team. I personally race-drive a BMW M3 in an Endurance Championship, and we're trying to recruit new sponsors for the 2004 season. In addition, we offer passenger rides for people who would like to see the world famous Nurburgring race track from the seat of a race car.

In 2002, I won the class (standard cars up to 1,850cc) with a BMW 318ti in the 24-hour-race at Nurburgring. This hobby helps takes my mind off work.

5:00 p.m. -- I focus on another meeting with my sales manager regarding another new product launch. The operating expenses for the launch are still too high, and we look for ways to decrease it without compromising quality.

6:00 p.m. -- Conference call with the head office for our neurovascular division in Irvine, Calif. The new product we introduced six weeks ago has more demand than we can meet, so we need to better allocate the products among our customers in Europe.

7:00 p.m. -- Everyone has left the office, so I have some time to go through my last e-mails without disruption. Most of them are about production forecasts, marketing plans, and information about customer requests by our sales reps.

8:00 p.m. -- I walk home to have dinner with my wife and the kids. The boys tell me about their school day, and I make a point to put them to bed every night when I get home.

9:30 p.m. -- A last half-hour to look at the latest e-mails, and another 15 minutes on a call with our senior management in the U.S.

12:00 a.m. -- I set the alarm clock for 6 a.m. I will fly to Vienna tomorrow morning to visit our biggest customer in Austria. They have budget problems and would like to discuss how much we can cut our prices if they agree to order more from us.

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