Head to head
Egon Zehnder vs Russell Reynolds Associates
Named side by side in 6 executive search firms questions. Russell Reynolds Associates came out ahead on 3; on 3 the sample cannot tell them apart.
Over 6 executive search firms questions measured by The Shortlist Report over 1050 AI responses, Russell Reynolds Associates was named more often than Egon Zehnder on 3 of them, Egon Zehnder on 0, and the sample could not separate them on the remaining 3.
How Egon Zehnder and Russell Reynolds Associates differ
This data does not establish which firm is better. Egon Zehnder’s strongest result relative to Russell Reynolds Associates was on “What are the best executive search firms?” (100.0% versus 100.0%), while Russell Reynolds Associates’s strongest result relative to Egon Zehnder was on “Which search firms deliver genuinely diverse candidate slates?” (60.6% versus 42.3%).
Those are the clearest differences in the shared sample. They measure which firm AI assistants surfaced more often for each buyer question, not service quality or client results.
Question by question
| Question | Egon Zehnder | Russell Reynolds Associates | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|
| What are the best executive search firms?175 responses | 100.0% | 100.0% | Same tier — too close to call |
| Which firms specialise in the role we are hiring for?175 responses | 76.6% | 81.7% | Same tier — too close to call |
| Which search firms know our industry?175 responses | 66.9% | 84.6% | Russell Reynolds Associates |
| Who runs board and chief executive searches?175 responses | 64.0% | 70.3% | Same tier — too close to call |
| Which search firms deliver genuinely diverse candidate slates?175 responses | 42.3% | 60.6% | Russell Reynolds Associates |
| Our executive search is not working. Who can take over?175 responses | 38.9% | 49.1% | Russell Reynolds Associates |
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 3 of these 6 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 1050 responses, so neither is being scored on a sample the other did not face.
The full picture on each
- Everything measured about Egon ZehnderExecutive search for CEO succession, board work, and leadership assessment across global enterprises.
- Everything measured about Russell Reynolds AssociatesConducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large public companies and financial services.