Antonio Sangó (Huesca, 1975), recently awarded the ADEA Talent Management Award, has been the director of ESIC Aragon for a decade, although he has been professionally linked to this institution, which obtained in 2021 the consideration of University School, for almost twenty years. A graduate in Business Management and Administration (Business Management) from the European Business School in Aragon, Sangó holds an International MBA from Columbus IBS in Zaragoza, as well as an Executive MBA from ESIC Zaragoza, where he also participated in the Higher Program in Sales Management. Antonio Sangó has also been the Sales Director and Marketing Director of ESIC Aragón, a school linked to San Jorge University until September of this year, when ESIC Aragón became an affiliated center of ESIC University.
First of all, we would like to thank you for having been awarded the ADEA Talent Management Award 2024.
For me it has been an honor to share a short list of finalists with my friends Carlos Larraz (CEO and co-founder of Funidelia) and Santiago Calleja (corporate HR director of Grupo Jorge), both leaders in Aragon in the development of talent. I am the visible face of this award, but I would like to mention the team: I want to make it very clear that I am not proud that it is my team, but to be part of that team. How lucky and how nice it is to dedicate yourself to something that you like, and that consists of helping others, in this case, to develop their talent. Although it is good to remember that, although it is important to be good professionals, we will all be remembered for being good people.
Your objective as head of ESIC Aragon is to train in technical, managerial and executive knowledge and skills that provide students with the necessary abilities to develop in the business world. What are the main skills that your students should develop to achieve this objective?
The purpose of ESIC as an educational institution is to transform people so that they can develop in the business world, and why not, even try to achieve a better world. It is a very ambitious goal, which we pursue by training our students both in technical competencies and in skills and values. We always pursue the idea that, in this life, it is no longer enough to be a good professional, but you also have to be a good professional. Obviously, you have to run companies, and companies are there to make money, money that is then, through taxes, returned to society. But you can’t earn money in any way, you have to earn it in an ethical, humanistic way, and that’s what we invest a lot of time in at ESIC. Of course, we teach them to work, we improve their employability, but we also try to instill values in them from the beginning. In fact, there is one aspect that fills us with pride, and that is that ESIC, which was founded back in 1965, already included the subject of business ethics in one of its first study manuals in the 1960s.
In the 21st century, professionals are facing new challenges related to the emergence and spread of digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence.
Today there is a double challenge. On the one hand, the world has never changed so fast. As a consequence of new technologies, of digitalization, the world is constantly changing, and at breakneck speed. That is a major challenge. And the second big challenge is that we are facing the unknown. That is, all the experts are talking about thousands of jobs in the future that we still don’t even know what they consist of. From the educational institutions and universities, this leads us to reflect on how we are going to train the professionals of the future if we agree that we don’t even know what jobs will be needed. So, this leads to a third reading, or a consequence of the two previous ones, and that is that we have to teach our students to be in constant learning, to be aware that the world will require them to be in permanent training, to be absolutely flexible, to be adaptable, to know how to learn and, above all, to manage change, because, I insist, this is constantly changing, and moreover, it is changing faster and faster.
Antonio Sangó in front of ESIC Aragón. Photo: N. M..
Those values that you mention as the founding objective of ESIC, are they a good starting point for the continuous learning that the economy of the 21st century demands?
Without a doubt. Now that humanistic leadership is very much in vogue, human values should take precedence over anything else. But for us at ESIC this is not new, our founders, who were the Reparation Fathers, have always instilled in all ESIC managers and employees that, of course, we must govern, but we must always exercise leadership from a humanist vision, putting people at the center of everything.
What balance can you make of the evolution of ESIC Aragon in the last decade that you have been at the head of the organization?
I came to the general management of ESIC in Aragon in 2014, although I had been in ESIC since 2007, with which I already knew the organization very well, since from 2007 to 2014 I held the position of Commercial and Marketing Director. In these ten years relevant events have occurred that are undoubtedly very positive for ESIC Aragon, but, why not say it, I think they have also been and will be positive for Aragon as a whole. During this period we became a center attached to the University San Jorge, and it has been nine years of a very beautiful and beneficial path for both institutions, both for the University San Jorge and for ESIC. And recently, on September 25, the Government of Aragon approved the affiliation of ESIC Aragon as a center attached to ESIC University, and the consequent de-attachment of San Jorge University.
it is not enough to be a good professional, but you also have to be a good professional.
In other words, we are starting a new stage, with deep gratitude to San Jorge University, to be honest, because they have been nine very nice and productive years. As a result of this new milestone, we will be able to bring more official degrees to Aragon to improve the employability of our young people, to retain the talent of people who are going to other communities to study degrees that are not currently available, and, why not say it, that this will also become a focus of attraction for talent, so that students from other communities come to study in Aragon.
What degrees are you thinking of incorporating into ESIC Aragon?
We base all our learning disciplines on three axes, which are Business, Marketing and Technology. This is our area of knowledge and, as our president, Eduardo Gómez, says, you can be very good, or the best, in some things, but not in everything. So we are perfectly aware that we have to focus on these three areas. This will be implemented through a degree in Marketing, and we are evaluating the possibility of bringing a degree in Data Science as soon as possible, very close to the business needs of Aragon.
In fact, Aragon is precisely following the path towards new technologies and is attracting the world’s technological giants.
Yes, we cannot ignore this reality. President Jorge Azcón recently talked about the fact that, in Aragon, during 2024, there will be an investment of close to 40,000 million euros, just in one year, mainly coming from technology companies. We have to be close to this reality, without forgetting what is also happening in Aragon, that in addition to these large multi-million figures, there is also a lot of agriculture, a lot of automotive, a lot of chemical industry, a lot of paper… we have to be able to train all these types of profiles, both the technological ones of the new multi-million investments, as well as the profiles that have been historically demanded in Aragon.
Aragon is still a land of medium-sized companies
Multinationals and these investments are very good, in my opinion, above all because of the tractor effect they generate, because behind a large investment there are many SMEs, many medium-sized companies, many family businesses, which are the ones that in the end will weave a business and employment network that is fundamental for Aragon. Family businesses here in Aragon have a strength that I would say does not exist in any other autonomous community in Spain. In Aragon, family businesses are very strong and represent a high percentage of Aragon’s GDP.
Talento Aragón Joven is one of the projects of ESIC Aragón. Photo: N. M.
You mentioned that we are in a time of rapid change. How can the people who will be in charge of companies be prepared to manage these rapid changes? What skills or training should they develop?
Just a few days ago we had a meeting of schools with more than seventy headmasters and headmistresses of schools in Aragon, and also a business meeting with more than fifty human resources managers of Aragonese companies, and we stressed the importance of training in leadership. Because, in the end, you have a technical training, whatever it is, but if at a certain moment in your organization you occupy a position of relevance for which you have responsibility over a few people, over a more or less numerous team, you must receive training on how to lead and how to manage those human teams. Everything can be learned, I am a firm believer that leadership can also be learned, and leadership can also be trained. Therefore, regardless of the position you hold, my recommendation or my opinion would be that you should be trained as a humanistic leader.
People management is key in any company
Without a doubt, people management is the most complicated and relevant function in any company, regardless of its size, sector or history. In fact, studies have shown that the main reason people leave a company is because they disagree with their boss. It is the main reason. They don’t feel identified, they don’t feel inspired, they don’t feel well led by their boss. This task, that of managing people, is fundamental.
At ESIC, in addition to training future managers, we offer continuous training for executives.
We have two main areas. On the one hand, university training and postgraduate training. And we also have a third line of activity, which is what we call Corporate Education, which basically consists of tailor-made training for Aragonese companies at different levels, either for profiles recently incorporated into the company, or for middle management, or for top management. And within this customized training, the most requested by companies is training in skills: teamwork, communication, team management, leadership, time management… At this moment, one of the courses that companies are demanding the most from us is management of effective meetings. Because in the end we are seeing, and companies are seeing, that in many occasions meetings, especially if they are multitudinous, become a great waste of time because they are not well managed. And that translates into a tremendous loss of money and opportunity cost.
The participatory and practical methodology is part of the values of ESIC Zaragoza. What would you highlight about the values of this institution?
ESIC’s values cannot be separated from the values of the founders of the institution. The founders were the Padres Reparadores, a religious order that founded ESIC in 1965 so that training would become what we were talking about before, an element that would allow managers to manage and lead companies well, in an ethical way, in a proper way. So, beyond these profound values, ESIC’s differential elements include its methodology. When ESIC was founded in 1965, skills such as public speaking and teamwork already existed, and this has been fundamental for ESIC from minute one.
We must teach our students to be constantly learning: the world will require them to be in constant training.
In addition, it is a learning process that is very close to reality. The idea of learning by doing, called learning by doing, is very much in our DNA. There is a very nice phrase from our founder, Simón Reyes, who says that the student does not come to ESIC to compete, but to share, understanding by competition an unhealthy competition in which I have to step on your interests so that mine can prevail. We value this healthy competitiveness, with yourself; unhealthy competitiveness is frowned upon at ESIC.
How many students pass through ESIC Aragón each year?
Between the three areas, university, postgraduate and corporate, approximately 2,100 students pass through each year. I insist, between the three main areas. And in the last 31 years, since the corporate area was incorporated, more than 30,000 alumni have been trained at ESIC Aragon.
At ESIC Aragón they train and discover young talent every day, and in fact since 2017 they have been developing Talento Aragón Joven, a program that brings students closer to the business world in a real way. What is your assessment of this program?
Talento Aragón Joven, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful projects that we develop. Talento Aragón Joven was born because we identified that Aragón was becoming, if I may say so, a centrifuge of talent. That is to say, a boy or a girl finished a career, and in many cases they left Aragon, but not because it was their choice, but because they had no other option but to go abroad to look for opportunities adapted to their level. They went to Madrid, Barcelona, abroad… We will always defend that students who want to go abroad of their own free will, welcome, it is a wonderful option, but it should be of their own free will, not because they have no other choice.
Antonio Sangó in the outside area of ESIC Aragón. Photo: N. M.
In collaboration with Heraldo de Aragón, we created Talento Aragón Joven to generate opportunities in large Aragonese companies, making internships or job offers available to all university students in their final year in the autonomous community. What Talento Aragón Joven does is to identify talent in Aragonese universities. Then it makes a selection, as if they were professionals already in the business world. We keep the fifty most brilliant students in their final year of studies in Aragon, and from these fifty, the fifteen companies that collaborate in this project choose the fifteen most suitable candidates. Each year approximately 550 university students apply, about 120 go on to the next phase, and there are fifty finalists. We are going to start the new edition around February 2025, we are delighted with the project.
What novelties does ESIC have in store for the coming years?
The great novelty I mentioned before, we have achieved a very important milestone with the affiliation of ESIC Aragon to ESIC University. The degrees that are already being taught at ESIC University in Madrid, and that we see are working very well, we will gradually bring them to Aragon. Above all, degrees closely related to technology, business and marketing. The Government of Aragon has helped us a lot in this process, it has been a very long and laborious process, but fortunately it has come to fruition. It allows us to enter a very exciting new stage, because we are going to bring in degrees that, honestly and humbly, we believe will improve Aragon’s competitiveness.
What have these almost two decades of association with ESIC meant for you on a personal and professional level?
On the one hand, it is a source of pride, because you feel part of something very nice, which is to contribute to the development of talent. Something as beautiful as it is for people to grow and improve. On the other hand, it is very enriching because when you work with people it is an absolutely live sector. I feel privileged to be in the education sector, I have been in this sector for many years and the truth is that, I insist, I consider myself lucky. I enjoy each and every day of my work because at the end of the day we are an educational institution, we are a university, but deep down we are constantly learning from our students, teachers and companies. It is a luxury and it is a great fortune.
Antonio Sangó. Photo: N.M..
