Johanna Herbst is an entrepreneur from Zurich. Before setting up her own start-up, Delygate, in 2018, she studied, lived and worked in Switzerland, the USA, France and Germany. Her expertise includes corporate finance, management consulting as well as business development. She has worked in regional and global functions and business units for various companies, such as Procter & Gamble or Horvath & Partners.
In 2018, she founded a digital marketplace for delegating everyday tasks. The idea came about when she moved within Zurich. She did most of the tasks herself because she didn’t know where to find help. “Wouldn’t it be great if I could delegate tasks with just a few clicks?” That’s how the idea to develop delygate.com was born.
Johanna Herbst in the Premium Speakers interview:
Premium Speakers: What are the core subjects of your keynote speeches?
Johanna Herbst: My presentations are all about leadership, empowerment and diversity.
I have grown into these topics in my professional development, especially as a management consultant, life coach and startup founder. The question why companies don’t truly utilize the potential of their employees and why they don’t invest more in human capital has been on my mind for a long time. In my experience, I see a lot of room for improvement within the topics of corporate culture and leadership.
As a woman, I also know the situation of being the only woman in the room. On the one hand, I would like to inspire more women to move up, and on the other hand, I would like to create more awareness for the topic with leaders.
Premium Speakers: Which audiance or which industry do you reach with your speech?
Johanna Herbst: My topics are relevant across industries for all leadership levels. In my career, especially as a consultant, I worked across industries including FMCG, insurance and finance, automotive, energy, startups or media and found similar issues in all industries.
My leadership and diversity talks are especially relevant for leadership and managerial levels. My empowerment topics are also relevant for non-managerial levels.
Premium Speakers: Are you a PREMIUM SPEAKER? Where do you get your insights from?
Johanna Herbst: Presentations and workshops have always been part of my professional life and I have led them with great enthusiasm and joy from the very beginning.
As a startup founder, I started giving talks at large conferences for the very first time and was quite excited about how alive I felt on stage and discovered a new side of myself. What I enjoy most though is the opportunity to make a difference and inspire my audience.
In my MBA studies and in my roles especially for Procter & Gamble and Horvath, I also attended many communication trainings. As a management consultant, I facilitate workshops and meetings on a weekly basis for my clients and am continuously practicing my skills.
At the same time, I also did improv theater for a few years, which helped me a lot to overcome my inhibitions and feel free on stage.
Premium Speakers: What will be in the future? Does «time» play an important role in your work?
Johanna Herbst: I’d like to borrow a typical answer from economists for this one, “it depends…”.
Time plays an important role as we live in a fast paced and ever evolving time and companies are forced to react to changes and trends quickly. A perfect example is the Covid pandemic and the overnight shift to working remote. Such challenges require solid leadership skills because true character is revealed in times of crisis.
It’s a similar story with diversity. The time for waiting is up and companies need to develop solutions on how to increase their female leadership.
On the other hand, I am committed to a sustainable implementation of values and link this with continuity, since values such as trust can only be built over time and unfold their magic over time.
Premium Speakers: Tell us your life motto? What do you want to give your listeners to take with them?
Top of mind, I’d go with:
“Be courageous and try out things. If you fall, get up and try again.”
When I lived in the U.S., I became a fan of the trial-and-error approach and think we can learn a lot from it.
Of course, this also means that we should get rid of the fear of “failure” and rather see “failure” as part of learning. Who doesn’t enjoy learning?
Thank you dear Johanna for the interview!