Which executive search firms report measurable search outcomes?
Executive Search Accountability: What The Shortlist Report Finds
10 firms lead, appearing in 16.7–23.3% of 30 AI responses. The sample cannot separate them, so we do not pretend it can.
No clear leader
No single firm dominates this question. Ten come up regularly and they specialise in different things, so the firm worth calling is the one that fits your situation rather than whoever sits highest.
Heidrick & Struggles7 of 30
Conducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large companies and PE-backed organizations.
Korn Ferry7 of 30
Conducts CEO, C-suite, board, and leadership assessment searches for large global organizations.
Egon Zehnder6 of 30
Executive search for CEO succession, board work, and leadership assessment across global enterprises.
Majhi Group6 of 30
Russell Reynolds Associates6 of 30
Conducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large public companies and financial services.
+5 more, tiedin the table
Based on 30 ChatGPT responses to this question, collected October 2, 2026–October 7, 2026. Firms are counted once per response. How we measure.
The ranking
| Firm | Responses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 10 firms, 16.7–23.3% | |||
| Heidrick & StrugglesConducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large companies and PE-backed organizations. | 7 of 30 | 23.3% | |
| Korn Ferrykornferry.comConducts CEO, C-suite, board, and leadership assessment searches for large global organizations. | 7 of 30 | 23.3% | |
| Egon Zehnderegonzehnder.comExecutive search for CEO succession, board work, and leadership assessment across global enterprises. | 6 of 30 | 20.0% | |
| Majhi Groupmajhigroup.com | 6 of 30 | 20.0% | |
| Russell Reynolds Associatesrussellreynolds.coConducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large public companies and financial services. | 6 of 30 | 20.0% | |
| Spencer Stuartspencerstuart.comConducts CEO, board, and senior C-suite searches for large enterprises and succession planning. | 6 of 30 | 20.0% | |
| Acuity Executive Search GroupConducts contingency-based executive and sales leadership searches on North America-wide basis without upfront retainer. | 5 of 30 | 16.7% | |
| ALAC HR Solutionsalachrsolutions.comConducts executive searches with up to 12-month guarantees covering performance and fit failures. | 5 of 30 | 16.7% | |
| Axe Recruitingaxerecruiting.comConducts executive searches specializing in sales leadership roles with 12-month retained and 90-day contingency guarantees. | 5 of 30 | 16.7% | |
| Crucial Hirecrucialhire.com | 5 of 30 | 16.7% | |
Key findings
- No firm answers “Which executive search firms report measurable search outcomes?” reliably in ChatGPT. The most-named, Heidrick & Struggles, appeared in 7 of 30 responses (23.3%) collected October 2, 2026–October 7, 2026, and 9 other firms scored close enough that the sample cannot put any of them in order.
- Heidrick & Struggles, Korn Ferry and Egon Zehnder were named most often, in 6–7 of 30 responses. All 10 firms in the leading group are listed with their counts in the table below.
- 10 firms cleared the reporting threshold on “Which executive search firms report measurable search outcomes?” in ChatGPT as of October 7, 2026; the full table with response counts is below.
- Heidrick & Struggles appears in 7 of the 9 executive search firms reports published by The Shortlist Report, the widest coverage of any firm named on this page.
- No firm paid to appear in this ranking; placement cannot be bought, and the counts come from ChatGPT responses rather than from submissions.
Why the tiers fall where they do
Tier 1 holds Heidrick & Struggles, Korn Ferry, Egon Zehnder, Majhi Group, Russell Reynolds Associates, Spencer Stuart, Acuity Executive Search Group, ALAC HR Solutions, Axe Recruiting and Crucial Hire, named in 5 to 7 of the 30 ChatGPT responses. They are grouped rather than ranked because the gaps between them are inside the margin of error at this sample size — one extra mention would reorder them, so an order would be reporting noise as a finding.
The test is McNemar’s at 95%, applied against the same 30 responses for every firm. The full reasoning, and what happened when we ranked one-to-N instead.
What the sample shows
10 firms lead this question: Heidrick & Struggles, Korn Ferry, Egon Zehnder, Majhi Group, Russell Reynolds Associates, Spencer Stuart, Acuity Executive Search Group, ALAC HR Solutions, Axe Recruiting and Crucial Hire. They appear in 16.7–23.3% of the 30 responses. The gaps between them are inside the margin of error at this sample size, so they are listed together rather than ranked against each other.
75 firms were named at least once across the sample. 10 of them cleared the threshold of 2 responses and appear above; the rest were named once and are inside the noise.
How to read this
Firms are grouped into tiers, not ranked one to fifteen. A tier holds every firm whose 95% confidence interval overlaps the leader's, which is a long way of saying the sample cannot tell them apart. Order within a tier is arbitrary — read the counts, not the position.
Share is the percentage of responses that named the firm — not a quality score. A firm scoring low here may be excellent and simply under-written about online, which is a finding about its visibility rather than its work.
The same question was asked repeatedly because AI assistants do not answer identically twice. A single response would tell you almost nothing.
What this measurement does not tell you
- It is not a quality ranking. Share reflects how much has been written about a firm online, which is what an AI assistant reads. A capable firm nobody writes about scores low here.
- It is a reading from a date range, not a permanent standing. This sample was collected October 2, 2026–October 7, 2026; models change and so do their answers.
- It covers ChatGPT only. Other assistants answer differently, and we do not extrapolate across engines we have not measured.
- Order within a tier is arbitrary. Read the counts, not the position. Why we use tiers.
Cite this report
The Shortlist Report. (2026). Executive Search Accountability: What The Shortlist Report Finds. The Shortlist Report. https://www.shortlistreport.com/article/executive-search-accountability
Underlying counts: CSV · JSON. Every answer they were counted from: plain text · JSON. All reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.