“I want you to help me solve this business problem over the summer, but let me warn you this is a tough problem to solve.” My manager, Nick Bernini, Director of Analytics, said that to me as he gave me the details of my internship project on day one.

This summer, I worked with Industrial Scientific in Pittsburgh as part of Fortive’s General Management Development Program. Industrial Scientific is a market leader in gas detection technology and is one of the fastest growing operating companies within the Fortive portfolio.

Having run a small business before, the idea of being a general manager and running a global business always excited me. The moment I saw this opportunity on the Tepper Job Portal, I knew this would be a great fit for me. And it actually was because I love solving tough business problems. That was exactly the reason I came to Tepper. Tepper does a really great job in equipping us with the knowledge and tools to solve some of the most difficult business problems.

My project was about developing a commercialization strategy for a recently developed AI based safety software solution. I started with creating a business model using the lean canvas I learned in entrepreneurship class and putting together a list of hypotheses around it. For the next few weeks, I talked to a lot of customers to validate those hypotheses and gather insights. I used my Tepper and personal network extensively to reach out to people in different industries. I then distilled all those insights to create an effective go-to-market and pricing strategy for this product. The last piece of the puzzle was calibrating the sales process to ensure scalability and sustainment.

My Tepper MBA skills came in extremely handy as I started working on these problems. It was amazing to see how I could directly apply the knowledge I gained in my coursework to real business problems.

“You went really deep to identify the root cause of the problems and eliminate them. My hats off to you for what you were able to achieve here in the last 10 weeks. I am sure you learned a lot, but even I have learned so much over the summer by just working with you,” said Nick at the end of my internship.