ESADE presented its 2016-2017 Donations Report at the sixth edition of the Gathering for Talent. During this event, ESADE highlighted the importance of donor support, which allows the institution to keep growing and investing in major challenges: attracting top talent, generating new knowledge through research and contributing to social debate.

Eugenia Bieto, Director General of ESADE, explained how the school manages and allocates private contributions. During the 2015-2016 academic year, she explained, ESADE received €3.9 million as a result of the institution’s close ties to individual and corporate donors. These private contributions have been allocated in accordance with the school’s strategic priorities: 63% to research, teaching and research grants; 32% to the scholarship programme; and 5% to the endowment

Commitment to diversity, equality and talent

Dr. Bieto highlighted the mission of ESADE Scholarship Programme, which is one of the school’s major commitments. She described the programme as the best tool for fostering diversity, equal opportunities and talent in the classroom. She also noted that the number of scholarship recipients at ESADE has increased by 128% since the 2010-2011 academic year – from 115 students to 262 at present – with a total of €2,772,318 allocated for talent scholarships.

Talent in the century of millennials and centennials

During the Gathering for Talent, Norbert Monfort, Lecturer in the Department of People Management and Organisation at ESADE, led a debate on the topic of talent in the century of millennials and centennials. During the debate, Alejandro Estruch (BBA ‘13, MSc ‘14, CEMS ‘15), Human Resources Manager at Unibail-Rodamco, defined talent as “the potential to do things and the ability to learn about society’s new needs in order to meet them”.

Maite Poyos, Human Resources Director at Deloitte, commented: “The problem in organisations is the failure to adapt to modern times as quickly as new generations do.” She argued that it is therefore very important to listen to young people and join forces with them: “We all have to get together: older people with their experience and younger people with their innovation and creativity.” Oriol Aguilar (Lic&MBA ‘02), President of the Constant Group, offered a similar opinion: “There needs to be constant dialogue between organisations and the young people who are coming on board.”

Towards the end of the debate at the Gathering for Talent, Marcos Durán, a scholarship student in the fourth year of the Bachelor of Business Administration and co-leader of the scholarship organised by the BBA class of 2017, offered his viewpoint as a millennial. According to Mr. Durán, the new generations follow a very different lifestyle. “In order for organisations to understand us and vice versa, there needs to be a mutual change,” he argued. “A socialisation process is necessary.”