Supriyo Gosh, PhD, EMTM’13

As an applications manager for Bruker Corporation, Supriyo leads the North American R&D group for the TD-NMR product line in collaboration with European counterparts. A relative newcomer to the workplace, Supriyo has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and food science from North Carolina State University, and interned at the Chemical Technology division of Procter & Gamble corporate R&D before joining Bruker as an applications scientist. Just under two years later, he was promoted to his current managerial position. Bruker’s products are used for monitoring products and processes across the chemical, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, polymer, biotech and food industries, and after some time on the job, Supriyo came to realize that his scientific background represented only a portion of the skills he would need to succeed at the company. “Engineering and physics alone would not do the job. I needed to have some business perspective so I could sell R&D ideas and utilize available resources within and outside the company more effectively.”

Why EMTM?
Supriyo researched management programs for more than a year before applying to EMTM. “I don’t need another engineering degree. Nor do I foresee myself working in the financial industry. I was looking for the best fit for my needs, a program that would help me to make management decisions and offer me the insight to streamline R&D and support other parts of the business by adding value through efficient and targeted product development.” In EMTM, he recognized a strong management foundation with an emphasis on technology. “I have seen MBA programs that offer some technology courses, but what I liked about UPenn EMTM was that the program was designed in a more unified fashion.” Though he had offers from other, closer programs, and enrolling in EMTM necessitated a commute from Houston, Supriyo felt the benefits outweighed the inconvenience. He also liked that he could begin the program on a half-time basis and leave open the possibility of switching to full time at a later date.

Career Impact
Even though Supriyo has just recently started the program, he is already feeling its positive impacts on his career. “From the beginning of the first term I could see how exceptionally good the professors are. It’s not just theory — it’s the insight provided by them, way beyond the books, and lessons you can bring to work on Monday.” His Marketing class, for one, is proving directly applicable to his job and he is already communicating with the company’s head of marketing on ways to refine current strategies to capture a different market segment for his product line. “In the class, Professor Zhang is really teaching us the whole framework of marketing, how systematically this needs to be done.”

In Negotiations, Supriyo is gaining a new, more codified approach to skills he’d gained on the fly at work. “Since I never had any formal education in this area I had the notion that negotiation was the business of trying to divide a pie and the point was to get a bigger portion. I’m realizing that there is more to it — that there are ways to prepare for the negotiation, to read or predict or influence the other party’s perception, and ways of enlarging the pie before dividing it so that both party’s gains are maximized.” Supriyo suspects these skills will be useful as he works with other companies on technology transfer or collaborates with research organizations for R&D.

Supriyo has also enjoyed EMTM weekend life and the camaraderie with fellow students in formal and informal settings. “I can see that probably half of my learning will come from classmates, because they’re bringing in so many real-life experiences to the class. The emerging technology seminars on Friday nights are also an added benefit, as they give us enormous exposure to what’s new out there.”

Supriyo is not exactly sure where his career will lead him, but he’s confident that EMTM is providing him the right tools and insights and pointing him in the right direction. “EMTM gives you a broader perspective and allows you to be that bridge between business and technology. The workload is quite intense but the takeaways are well worth it.”

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