Introduction
Daniela Oliboni for Valore Donna
Since 1996, Daniela Oliboni has shaped Hermes Consulting into a professional community with a strong female identity, guiding businesses and leadership teams through the most delicate stages of change. A story rooted in one conviction: when work recognises people’s talent, it can generate growth, shared value, and a sustainable future.
At the age of 26, Daniela Oliboni founded Hermes Consulting. Today, at 56, she leads a company born from a clear vision: helping organisations become places where people can contribute, grow, and be recognised.
Thirty years later, that vision has grown into a professional community of around sixty people—predominantly women—working alongside CEOs, HR directors, and leadership teams through the most critical phases of business transformation.
Let’s start from the beginning. When was Hermes Consulting truly born?
“Hermes Consulting was founded thirty years ago, but the spark behind it came even earlier. In my twenties, I was studying Neuro-Linguistic Programming in Milan and felt an inner fire. I was struck by a simple yet radical idea: every person possesses talent, resources, and the potential to express them.
I have never viewed work merely as a way to earn a living. Work builds identity, relationships, belonging, and recognition. People also work to feel capable, useful, and seen. That is why work touches a profoundly human dimension and, when guided well, can serve the common good.”
What does work serving the common good actually mean in practice?
“It means that a person’s contribution goes far beyond their job description. When individuals put their talents at the service of a shared project, they contribute to something greater than themselves. Everyone shapes a piece of the world and meets the needs of other human beings.
To me, this is the essence of the common good: recognising that there is something bigger than the individual in which we all take part.
In organisations, fears, defences, rivalries, and resistance naturally exist, but I still believe people genuinely want to do good work, be seen as capable, and make a contribution they can take pride in. Our role is to create the conditions where they can choose to give their best.”
Hermes Consulting is also the story of a female-led business. How deliberate was that choice?
“Very deliberate. Thirty years ago, that was by no means obvious. At university, I engaged with the philosophy of sexual difference and the works of great female thinkers and philosophers. I was deeply inspired by the concept of female genealogies: women recognising, authorising, and supporting one another across different generations.
When I founded Hermes Consulting, this perspective was already part of me. I wanted to build a professional community where women could grow, lead, create value, and establish their authority. Not an exclusive community set against anyone else, but a space where feminine qualities could become a genuine business strength.
Today, being an organisation made up largely of women is our story, our responsibility, and our way of understanding work and the market.”
Thirty years on, what kind of business has Hermes Consulting become?
“It has become a professional community that works alongside CEOs, HR directors, and leadership teams whenever strategy calls for real change. We help turn major goals into observable behaviours, culture, processes, skills, and tangible results.
Over the years, we have worked through many themes: entrepreneurship, inclusion, gentle leadership, collaboration, unlocking talent, trust, and accountability. The underlying thread has always been the same: helping organisations function better so that people can contribute better.”
What sets your approach apart from traditional training?
“Training can be a valuable tool, but it is not our starting point. We begin by reading the system. When a company shares a need with us, we never simply offer an off-the-shelf course or a standard solution.
We listen to the symptoms as doctors would, but we also seek to understand the system producing them: culture, leadership, processes, underlying fears, stated objectives, and implicit needs.
From there, we build bridges for change: targeted, essential programmes designed to deliver tangible transformation. We are not interested in adding more activities; our aim is to create meaningful progress.”
What do you see as the most pressing challenges for Italian businesses today?
“I see two challenges, and they are deeply intertwined.
The first is the generational transition. Italian companies hold an immense wealth of knowledge built up over time: technical expertise, client insight, craftsmanship, and relational acumen. Much of this know-how lives within senior people and risks being lost if it is not acknowledged, engaged, and transferred.
At the same time, younger generations bring fresh energy, new languages, digital fluency, and a different perspective on work.
The challenge is not to replace one generation with another, but to forge generative partnerships.
The second challenge is artificial intelligence. AI represents a new infrastructure for work, knowledge, and decision-making.
It can help organisations capture, organise, and share knowledge, but it can also trigger fear and disorientation.
The future of Italian enterprise depends on the ability to bring together senior expertise, rising generations, and emerging technologies.”
How do you guide companies through this transition?
“First and foremost, by helping them not to oversimplify change. Culture must always precede competence.
Regarding generational succession, we help organisations identify critical knowledge, senior figures who can serve as mentors,
younger talents to accelerate, and practices that turn individual experience into shared collective capital.
The same applies to artificial intelligence. People need to learn how to use it, but before that, we must support their questions: How will my role change? What remains distinctly human about my contribution? What happens to my experience?
When these questions are ignored, adoption stays superficial or defensive. When, instead, we foster psychological safety, open dialogue, and shared purpose, AI can unlock knowledge, accelerate learning, and strengthen connections across generations.”
How does Hermes Consulting embody the “Made in Italy” spirit?
“Made in Italy is a mindset about work: care, balance, quality, and human relationships.
In professional services, this means designing bespoke projects with close attention to context, methodological elegance, and practical execution. We feel very much part of this Made in Italy tradition within professional services.
We operate with almost artisanal precision, yet on strategic issues. For us, beauty is quality of thought translated into quality of action.”
If you were to sum up the meaning of these thirty years?
“When people’s talent is recognised, guided, and placed in service of a shared purpose, a company does not merely produce business results—it builds the future.”
