TheShortlist Report

Measured research on who gets recommendedLatest reading

Counts, not opinions · No paid placement · Method published

Head to head

Egon Zehnder vs Odgers

Named side by side in 5 executive search firms questions. Egon Zehnder came out ahead on 5; on 0 the sample cannot tell them apart.

70.5%Egon Zehnder
26.9%Odgers
5–0Questions led
0Too close to call

Over 5 executive search firms questions measured by The Shortlist Report over 275 AI responses, Egon Zehnder was named more often than Odgers on 5 of them, Odgers on 0, and the sample could not separate them on the remaining 0.

Question by question

QuestionEgon ZehnderOdgersAhead
What are the best executive search firms?55 responses100.0%54.5%Egon Zehnder
Which search firms know our industry?55 responses74.5%41.8%Egon Zehnder
Which firms specialise in the role we are hiring for?55 responses76.4%16.4%Egon Zehnder
Who runs board and chief executive searches?55 responses63.6%16.4%Egon Zehnder
Our executive search is not working. Who can take over?55 responses38.2%5.5%Egon Zehnder

How to read this

Share is the percentage of sampled ChatGPT responses to a question that named the firm at all — a measure of visibility, not of the work. A capable firm little has been written about will score low, which is a fact about how often it gets named and not a verdict on whether to hire it.

"Too close to call" is a result, not a gap in the data. Firms are grouped into tiers holding every firm the sample cannot statistically separate from that tier's leader, so two firms in one tier are reported as level however their percentages happen to fall. On 0 of these 5 questions that is what the measurement supports, and saying otherwise would be inventing precision.

Nothing here is our judgement of who is good. It is a count of who gets named. Both firms are measured over the same questions and the same 275 responses, so neither is being scored on a sample the other did not face.

The full picture on each

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