Johnny Beverton
For our latest episode, Empiric’s Enterprise Technology Lead Ben Merchant sat down with Chief Data Officer for Europe at Mondelez International, Santiago Tacoronte, who brings more than 15 years of global experience to digital business leadership.
Santi shares what organisations need to do to build high-performing, business-led tech teams, and why curiosity, communication, and accountability are as crucial as technical skills.
If your organisation is moving from service-driven data work to strategic results, or if you’re a tech professional targeting the next level, Santi’s stories and insights should be on your radar.
Watch the full interview above and read on for a recap of the key points from the conversation.
Moving Data Teams from Service Providers to Business Partners
Santi is upfront about the fundamental shift tech leaders must drive. “We need to move from ‘what do you need’ into ‘what problem are we solving?’” underscoring the move from data as a utility to data as a business value driver, with best results coming when digital and data professionals work directly within the business rather than a siloed support function.
Storytelling is vital. “Translating technical insights, code architectures into a narrative that is appealing to business and stakeholders,” is central for making technical output actionable. When building teams, Santi looks for curiosity, communication skills, domain expertise, accountability and resilience - “We’re past the era of generalists…the digital products mindset forces people to be experts in something.”
The Age of Vibe Coding and AI-Enabled Development
Santi recounts a summer experiment on a train in Italy where, armed only with prompts and a clear goal, in response to the public announcement system delivering incorrect information, he looked to AI-driven solutions. “I open a lovable dev, and I said, me put together an application that uses AI to create public announcements using natural voices... After one hour, I made the backend, the entire registration system, I had connected to the OpenAI API and got the generative AI creating and generation audio announcements.”
He describes prompt engineering - the skill of instructing AI tools to deliver what you need - as a core capability everyone needs to develop but also cautions that while vibe coding is great for prototyping, enterprise-grade deployment still needs quality assurance. “Do I think that you can vibe code an enterprise application today? I have my doubts. Do I think that you will be able to do it in the future? I’m 99 percent sure.”
Keeping the Human Edge in an AI-Heavy World
Amidst the excitement around new technologies and the surge of AI tools, Santi is clear: “We are in a journey of rediscovering what makes us truly valuable as humans.” With generative AI handling repetitive tasks, leaders need to platform creativity, critical judgement, and emotional intelligence as the core skills for tech teams. “AI can do repetitive work and can use a lot of data today still. But AI is not so good at putting all the things together and delivering a judgment. That is still a more human thing.”
For hiring, Santi is practical: “I refuse to think someone will do all their interviews through AI... that sixth sense is something machines will never be able to grasp.”
Differentiating Impact from Busy Work
What distinguishes an impactful team? Santi flags meeting culture and an obsession with status updates as red flags. “Teams that are not great or not super productive tend to be firefighting most of the time… fixing, solving problems continuously in a constant firefighting mode, and particularly in legacy companies, complex processes, legacy processes that have been built during years.”
On the other hand, productive teams “don’t spend time discussing things that don’t bring value. They have ruthless prioritisation… very quick to say, no, we’re not going to do that. This is not a priority for us.” They also carve out deep work time: “productive teams… have time to do quality work, to spend a good 3, 4, 5 hours a day thinking, strategising, working on creating stuff that helps them bring value.” Strong team leaders run “learning loops”, reflect regularly, and make decisions with confidence and speed.
Succeeding Globally – Diversity and Cultural Intelligence
Building international technology teams is challenging, and Santi spotlights adaptability and awareness as essential assets. Diverse teams require “cultural intelligence and understanding how different cultures approach technology and, more importantly, change.” With global data privacy rules, organisations must avoid promises of rapid transformation, as “precipitation creates fragility” according to Renaud Daniel, SVP MDS Marketing, Sales, eCommerce and CIO at Mondelēz Europe in his “Fast is fragile, smart is sustainable” LinkedIn post. Chasing speed without strategic intelligence, as Daniel puts it, “is like building skyscrapers on sand.”
Santi explains: “Transformation projects often come with a shiny proposal, boosted by lots of marketing, but those pitches can lead to unrealistic expectations.” Instead, “Building one step at a time, becoming one percent better every day rather than thinking we are going to completely transform in six months” is his Kaizen-inspired advice.
Adaptability and resilience remain essential: “Transformations always mean change of direction. There are always curves ahead. There are bumps. So hire for adaptability and you will get a team that will be ready to pivot whenever needed.”
Alternative Data Careers and the New Internal Versus External Debate
Santi, who has taught over 30,000 students and champions making analytics accessible to non-technical professionals, sees AI breaking down the barriers to data careers. “Where I think this is going is to citizen data analysts: business people who become data analysts without necessarily having a tech background, because AI now supports both the data and the analytical work.”
He’s seen new tools “that answer with incredible accuracy to prompts to data,” marking a shift “from the dashboard era into more prompt-based analytics. AI prompting is a critical skill for everyone to have.”
Should firms build talent internally or recruit externally? “Internally gives you better business context, probably a higher cultural fit and retention, but you might not want to have, or you might not need to have all specialised skills in-house. It’s good to have enough internal muscle to do things and enough skills but also augmenting it with new technologies or new things that are happening that come externally, because not every company will necessarily become a high tech company or a company that has specialised roles for absolutely everything.”
Advice for Leaders: The Right Questions Matter
Leadership now means asking better questions. “We come from an era where leaders ask questions, but they didn’t have a lot of answers, or answers took time to get, and now we are at a moment where we have so many answers. What is really important is what questions you ask. There are leaders that are struggling to ask questions because the overwhelming amount of information we have now is answering everything almost real time.”
The differentiator, Santi argues, is purposeful, goal-oriented questions and strong storytelling. “The story you put behind is going be very much up to you because you know the context of your organisation and the story that you need to put together and who you’re dealing with. That’s something AI is not going to give you.”
Talent Expertise in the Age of Change
Santi’s advice for those working in data and digital fields is clear: “I would say to everyone that is working with data today, and not only with data that is working in an organisation that is using AI, to keep an open mindset, but more than anything, to preserve our human critical thinking. This is super important. Don't become just a follower of everything that AI says.”
He sums up: “Find what makes you find your edge as a human. What makes you great that a company, an AI, or an algorithm cannot do, and put it in motion. Look at your strengths and work on them and then support yourself with AI to remove the busy work and the things that are really consuming your time and not letting you free up time to do those things that make you authentic.”
He closes with a powerful reminder: “Don't ever lose your authenticity to AI or to any system or to anything, because humanity is what's the essence of who you are.”
In a rapidly moving world, our specialist technology recruitment team knows how to connect businesses with professionals who bring more than just a CV to projects. If you’re building a team, recruiting transformational hires or are a tech professional mapping your next move, start by browsing our latest vacancies or reaching out for a chat with us.
Want to know what it takes to stay ahead? Connect with Empiric for further content and insights and be sure to connect with Ben Merchant and Santiago Tacoronte on LinkedIn.
Be sure to check out Santiago’s ProductiviTree podcast on Spotify.
