26 April 2022
Madrid Headquarters
The Secretary of State for Digitisation and Artificial Intelligence, Carme Artigas, and the General Director of Strategy, Innovation and Sustainability at Sacyr, Marta Gil de la Hoz, took part in the second meeting of the public-private dialogues series held by Deusto Business School and ICADE Business School on 26 April on the Public and Corporate Leadership in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programmes (PLPE and PLCE).
The meeting was held at Deusto Business School in Madrid. Both gave their views on digital transformation, technological humanism, innovation management and sustainable development, among other issues.
The corporate director of Deusto Business School in Madrid, Marta Aguilar, was responsible for giving the welcoming speech at the meeting, organised in collaboration with the Elecnor group and the Association of Administrative Managers in Madrid. During her speech, Aguilar highlighted the need to address digital transformation "taking people into account" and explained that the challenge for business schools such as Deusto Business School is to train professionals to be able to respond to the sustainability challenges of the 21st century in an active and responsible way. "And this must be done on the basis of excellence, which we understand in the light of two main aspects: quality and warmth. This means being excellent professionally in what we do and excellent on a human level in how we do it". She concluded by stating that these values are fully in line with the mission of the University of Deusto Business School to contribute, in collaboration with other actors, to a more prosperous, just, inclusive and sustainable world.
During the discussion, presented and moderated by the academic directors of the PLPE and PLCE, Juan Moscoso del Prado and Emilio Martínez Gavira, respectively, both Carme Artigas and Marta Gil highlighted the importance of public-private collaboration to accelerate the transformation processes necessary to achieve advances that combine efficiency and productivity.
In particular, the Secretary of State for Digitisation and Artificial Intelligence said she was convinced of the benefits of public-private collaboration "as a catalyst for innovation, attracting talent and boosting competitiveness". She also pointed out that digitisation is the backbone of the reconstruction and modernisation of our production model. "We must move towards more competitive and sustainable models that drive efficiency and productivity," she said.
Furthermore, Artigas advanced that before the end of the year, Spain will have become the first country to have a State Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence. She argued that, in her opinion, in addition to the challenge of sustainability and climate change, there is another challenge to be met, namely that of resolving the ethical dilemmas of technology. She also defended rules such as the recent European Regulation on Artificial Intelligence, which do not aim to regulate technology, "but its uses so that, for example, the metaverse does not evolve uncontrollably to the point where its possible harmful effects are irreversible".
Again in relation to the importance of public-private collaboration, Carme Artigas referred to the launch of the venture capital investment fund Next Tech. A 4 billion fund (50% public and 50% private) for scale-ups over the next five years. "I invite companies to launch corporate funds. They will create innovation ecosystems around them with all the resources not always available within organisations," she said.
In turn, Marta Gil de la Hoz, Sacyr's general manager of Strategy, Innovation and Sustainability, recalled that last year Sacyr published its strategic plan until 2025, whose "basic pillar is sustainability". She explained that 70% of investment in innovation are projects with sustainable scope and that the goal is to double investment in innovation by 2025.
She also pointed out that at Sacyr "we try to make innovation the responsibility of all employees" and added that in the company, which is present in more than 20 countries on five continents, the relationship between innovation and sustainability "goes back a long way".
