People, Work and Alchemy. An Evening You Don’t Forget

There are evenings when you go out already knowing you’ll still be thinking about them. Not because of what you ate, or the venue, but because of what you felt. March 3rd was one of those evenings. Horton International Italy welcomed a group of CHROs and HR Managers to Ristorante Olmo, gathered around a table – and an idea. Piero Silvaggio, President and Managing Partner of Horton International Italy, wanted Davide Oldani by his side.

The Chef and his wife Evelina Rolandi are carrying forward a special project, and they are two warm-hearted people, generous in the rarest sense of the word: generous of thought, not just of time.

The evening’s theme was seemingly simple: people, work, alchemy. In reality, it was a conversation about something far harder to build – and to sustain.

Horton International: executive search with a different soul

Piero Silvaggio has a word he uses often: audacious. And he doesn’t use it to strike a pose. He uses it because it describes a real approach: doing executive search differently from how the market usually imagines it. Horton International doesn’t work on assessment as an end in itself. It works on the direct, human relationship between those who seek and those who are sought. The approach is closer to coaching than to classical evaluation – and this changes everything, starting with the quality of the people it is able to attract and bring to its clients.

The added value lies not in the process. It lies in the relationship

Horton’s international dimension – with a project division operating on a global scale – is not there to generate numbers. It is there to bring a broader perspective to every mandate, even when the context is local. And in this model, selection becomes a unique process because it treats every person as unique.

Davide Oldani: the irregular table and the philosophy of dependence

Davide Oldani needs no introduction. And through this event we encountered a version of him that goes beyond the Michelin-starred chef, beyond D’O, beyond the awards. We met a man who has built a consistent philosophy of work from beginning to end – and who speaks about it without rhetoric.

The irregular table at Olmo is not a design whim. It is a deliberate choice: he wants people to look each other in the eyes, to truly see one another. A small architectural detail, a powerful statement of intent.

It’s not my people who depend on me. I depend on them

This sentence, spoken with the simplicity of someone who genuinely means it, is worth more than any leadership course. Oldani talks about his team as people he builds something with – not as resources to be managed. Turnover at D’O is always voluntary. Not because the place is perfect, but because the project is real enough for people to choose freely. His father taught him to treat people well. And he took that lesson and made it into a business model. Not an HR policy. A way of being in the world.

Young people, school, saturday mornings

One of the things that struck us most: young people who want to join D’O are invited on Saturday mornings for lunch. They eat together, talk about books, get to know the people. Then – both they and he – decide whether it makes sense to continue. Gaps are not simply filled. Those chosen are the ones who want to learn, to read, to see the world. Those who have a vision, however small or imperfect. Those who put something of themselves into what they do.

And the supplier – the craftsman, the producer – is always paid, and before anyone else. Because respect for the supply chain is not ethics for a press release. It is how a healthy system works.

Alchemy: truly talking to one another

In the end, the evening came down to a single word: alchemy. And the definition Oldani gave it is the most honest we have heard in a long time.

Alchemy is talking and listening to each other

Not magic. Not inexplicable chemistry. Dialogue. The ability to be in a room with someone and build together something that did not exist before. This holds true in the kitchen, in executive search, in communication. Piero Silvaggio knows this well. And tonight he created exactly that: an evening in which different people, with different stories, sat around an irregular table and spoke about what truly matters.

Thank you to Horton International Italy, to Piero Silvaggio, to Chef Davide Oldani and to Evelina Rolandi for an evening that gave so much to everyone. Thank you to the entire agency team for the work behind the scenes: Veronica Sculati and Andrea Barettoni.

MiRò Comunicazione conceived and coordinated the event concept and the production of all communication materials.