Corporate Responsibility (5): How Heribert Sangs Takes Action

In our Group’s just-published Corporate Responsibility Report 2010/2011, five Bertelsmen and –women talk about how exactly they put Bertelsmann’s corporate culture into practice in their workaday life, and why and how they do so at their company – and often beyond it. We are pleased to introduce these colleagues, whose portraits incidentally grace the five different covers the report was published with.

After RTL TVI presenter Sandrine Corman, Ceneta Lee Williams of Random House New York, and Stefan Neiske, Emissions Control Officer at Mohn Media in Gütersloh, this time Heribert Sangs, Head of Corporate Education at Bertelsmann’s Corporate Center in Gütersloh, talks about his experiences motivating employees.

“When I quit my job in 1990, my mother nearly had a heart attack. ‘Son,’ she said, ‘that was a secure job.’ But being a vocational school teacher just wasn’t the life for me, forever having to deal with hundreds of regulations and inspectors. I wanted to make something happen, put ideas into action, so the job listing really appealed to me. I said goodbye to life as a teacher and relatively quickly took over as head of Bertelsmann’s Vocational School and the Education Department, where theory is linked to practice.

Now, as Head of Corporate Education, I am responsible for the recently founded Academy, our apprentices’ training, the Vocational School and for the sports and health program, but my principles have not changed: If you believe in something and have a goal in mind, you need creativity and application. I learned that from soccer: Before you can raise your arms in triumph, you need to sweat.

But when your hard work pays off, it’s an unforgettable moment. Then you realize that the effort is worthwhile and you get so much in return – in the form of proud and relieved apprentices, our bachelor’s degree candidates when they’ve passed their exams, and the very large number of alumni who still work for Bertelsmann. But also from the great interest in our educational and sports activities, and not least from the positive feedback and the great trust of my wonderful staff.

One event in my career really moved me – the musical about the history of Bertelsmann performed at the 175th anniversary celebration. Our students and trainees created it themselves and staged it in front of more than 10,000 employees, with outfits and music for each decade. These are the moments when I think: If you can get young people that excited, you’ve done all right on the whole.”