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Return to topSanjit Sengupta is on the edge of the new economy. As an associate professor of marketing, he is deeply involved in analyzing the latest developments in the Silicon Valley. It was precisely the Bay Area’s dynamic economy that attracted Sengupta from India to the West Coast to study at U.C. Berkeley and, eventually, to teach in San Francisco State University’s College of Business.
Sengupta’s research emphasis—business-to-business marketing—allows him to observe the unfolding progress of strategic alliances in the computer industry in functions such as new product development and sales management. Typical marketing approaches are driven by consumer demand. In marketing to businesses, however, the time to complete the marketing cycle and to make a sale is much longer, and the order itself may be huge. Therefore, businesses need to build relationships. That is why, Sengupta says, long-term alliances and partnerships are much more common in successful business-to-business relationships.
Sengupta points to two major trends for companies trying to build these relationships: the increasing importance of the Internet and globalization. "Technology levels the playing field and gives new suppliers a foot-in-the-door to present their offerings to organizational buyers," he says. "Buyers are always looking for the best value irrespective of where the supplier is located." However advanced the technology becomes, it nonetheless cannot replace the significance of face-to-face interaction for building and nurturing business relationships.
Sengupta’s career path led him to his studies. He received both an undergraduate degree in engineering and a master’s degree in business in India, where he was born and raised. He worked in industry until he was invited to teach as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Bombay. That experience spurred an interest in teaching that eventually brought him to U.C. Berkeley for Ph.D. studies. He came to the Bay Area to be near Silicon Valley. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1990, he became an assistant professor at the University of Maryland at College Park. He found the East Coast’s business culture to be much more formal and hierarchical than California’s, which displays a greater entrepreneurial spirit. Sengupta spotted an advertisement in Marketing News for an opening at SFSU and returned to the Bay Area in 1996.
Sengupta describes his time at SFSU as very positive. He emphasizes how mature the students are and notes that many are returning students with valuable work experiences that enrich his graduate and undergraduate courses. He describes one graduate seminar on marketing management as particularly rewarding. That seminar is a team course led by three faculty members who each teach for five weeks before switching. This allows the instructors to observe each other’s expertise and to keep abreast of the latest developments in the business world.
Connecting the classroom with the rapid developments outside is critical for a successful business program. Sengupta prizes his opportunities for training and consulting work with organizations like Kaiser Permanente and the ODC Dance Company, a Mission District arts organization. The dance company benefits from Sengupta’s pro bono expertise in marketing research to learn about their audience’s changing tastes and preferences.
For the future, Sengupta is investigating other aspects of business-to-business marketing. He is working on one paper that evaluates the effectiveness of key account managers, leaders of sales teams that call on companies. Another paper looks into the role of contracts in the maintenance of long-term relations. Through his many studies he hopes to better prepare his students for cutting-edge careers in the local and international economy.
--E.C. Wilkinson
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