Head to head
Korn Ferry vs Russell Reynolds Associates
Named side by side in 6 executive search firms questions. Korn Ferry came out ahead on 1; on 5 the sample cannot tell them apart.
Over 6 executive search firms questions measured by The Shortlist Report over 330 AI responses, Korn Ferry was named more often than Russell Reynolds Associates on 1 of them, Russell Reynolds Associates on 0, and the sample could not separate them on the remaining 5.
Question by question
| Question | Korn Ferry | Russell Reynolds Associates | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|
| What are the best executive search firms?55 responses | 100.0% | 100.0% | Same tier — too close to call |
| Which search firms know our industry?55 responses | 89.1% | 81.8% | Korn Ferry |
| Which firms specialise in the role we are hiring for?55 responses | 85.5% | 80.0% | Same tier — too close to call |
| Who runs board and chief executive searches?55 responses | 67.3% | 70.9% | Same tier — too close to call |
| Which search firms deliver genuinely diverse candidate slates?55 responses | 45.5% | 54.5% | Same tier — too close to call |
| Our executive search is not working. Who can take over?55 responses | 34.5% | 49.1% | Same tier — too close to call |
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 5 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 330 responses, so neither is being scored on a sample the other did not face.
The full picture on each
- Everything measured about Korn FerryConducts CEO, C-suite, board, and leadership assessment searches for large global organizations.
- Everything measured about Russell Reynolds AssociatesConducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large public companies and financial services.
Other comparisons
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- DHR Global vs Russell Reynolds Associates4 shared questions