Some executives are quick to note how timely twists of fate helped create opportunities and put them on the path to senior positions in their respective industries. But rather than trusting to luck or simply hoping things will turn out for the best, Smita Gupta has always taken a more proactive approach to career planning and shaping her own destiny.
“All my decisions were consciously made with a view to leading the marketing or business function within a big tech firm,” says Gupta, now the senior director and Asia-Pacific head of marketing for Finastra, the world’s third-largest fintech company. “From the age of 14, I was sure about wanting to study economics and, after that, to be in the corporate world and help run a business.”
She came to her current role via stints with software, telecoms and high-tech networking firms and, every day, is still excited by the possibilities it affords to combine two elements doing so much to spur change and new ways of doing business.
“Nowadays, technology is everywhere; it touches every aspect of our lives,” says Singapore-based Gupta. “And marketing is the engine of transformation in terms of developing partnerships, understanding what customers are looking for, and advancing the company’s digital strategy.”
Her specific responsibilities range from devising marketing plans and agreeing targeted messages for different sectors to handling analyst relations and spearheading the firm’s initiative to help more women move into senior roles. She believes in clear goals, the importance of innovation, and team unity in a high-energy work environment.
“I’m a visionary person,” she says. “In my view, leadership is about contextualising situations and connecting the dots, using your impact and bringing people along on the journey. Besides that, I want to leverage my knowledge of economics and technology to shape the value proposition for the company.”
Gupta’s school years were spent in a succession of locations across northern
India. Her mother was the homemaker and her father a civil servant, whose job meant the family had to move every two to three years. This, though, was something she learned to take in her stride
“It was exciting, making new friends and getting to know different cities and cultures,” she says. “Academically, I was quite bright and curious about everything. I was someone who always wanted to do more, and my dad ensured we went to the best schools. He always said do what your heart tells you and explore the world.”
Inspired in part by Indian Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, in 1997 she began a three-year BA in economics at the prestigious Lady Shri Ram College for Women in Delhi. At graduation, that led on directly to a two-year MBA at Ohio State University, a step also taken by a group of college friends who have since stuck by each other through thick and thin. In the US, Gupta did a research project on ERP (enterprise resource planning) in Asia and, crucially, also “got the hang of computers”, something she hadn’t really encountered up to that point.
“Those were formative years,” she says. “I was always sure about wanting to study in the US, but would still run back to India at any opportunity.”
Primed to start earning and clear on her medium-term objectives, Gupta found a first job on the marketing side of a small software company in Bangalore, India’s IT capital. It was an introduction to the field, a chance to be closer to home and, as often happens, the prelude to shortish stays at other similar companies before a move to Cisco Systems in 2007.
During two years or so there, the main task was to drive group sales and pioneer digital marketing initiatives, the success of which impressed Akamai, who hired Gupta as Asia-Pacific head of a big R&D centre in Bangalore. She helped make them a leader in the content network delivery space before joining Tata Communications in Singapore to market their data, voice and cloud solutions to major enterprises for around five years. “In my view, you have to learn marketing through experience with sales teams, customers and other functions – those are the building blocks,” Gupta says. “Textbooks can give you the guiding principles, but you really learn on the ground by talking to clients and colleagues on a day-to day basis.”
That involved building strategies by segment, which also gave plenty of scope for invention, experimentation and client contact as the company entered a period of exponential growth across the region.
With the fintech sector clearly set to take off, her switch to Finastra in 2016 was another leap forward. At last count, the company had about 10,000 employees, around US$2.1 billion in annual revenues, a presence in 130 countries, and financial software solutions to support global payments, trade, supply chain and treasury transactions.
The appeal for Gupta was to be at the heart of a fast-moving, innovative business which offers the chance to keep learning and improving. To that end, she also has a mentor, a coach and a sponsor, three individuals able to provide personal and practical advice based on their differing experience and perspectives.
“I reached out to them because I want to have conversations with people outside the business on how to build a more impactful team and make it a model of new age marketing. We discuss complex leadership responsibilities, how to handle situations differently, how to create a shared vision, and how to look at things in a more objective way.”
However, she also “pays it forward” by sitting on the mentorship committee of the Singapore Management University. There, she advises students to voice ideas and opinions, to see every challenge positively, and not to compromise on honesty.
To unwind, Gupta finds cooking and gardening very therapeutic and keeps fit with horse riding, tennis and sailing.
“That’s when some of the brightest ideas come,” she says.
