Korn Ferry and Heidrick: What Moved Executive Search Revenue

Across two firms’ own series, executive search revenue fell and then recovered. Disclosed volume and fee measures account for almost all of each change, but they decompose rather than explain it.

Executive Search Research LLC

The revenue series

Korn Ferry’s fiscal year ends on 30 April. Korn Ferry’s executive search total is the sum of four regional fee-revenue lines, because the segment note does not print an executive search total. Heidrick & Struggles uses calendar years and reports executive search net revenue as three regional lines. Heidrick’s nine-month 2025 figure is unaudited and is kept separate from the full years; it is not annualised here.

Korn Ferry’s fee revenue fell 7.9% in FY2024, then rose 5.0% in FY2025 and 9.2% in FY2026. The FY2026 figure of USD 924.1 million is 5.5% above FY2023. Heidrick’s net revenue rose 3.8% in CY2022, fell 13.5% in CY2023 and rose 4.9% in CY2024. Its CY2024 figure of USD 818.4 million is still 5.8% below CY2021. The nine-month 2025 figure of USD 690.6 million is 12.1% above the same nine months of 2024, but it is unaudited and covers only part of a year.

The troughs do not coincide. Korn Ferry’s trough year runs from May 2023 to April 2024; Heidrick’s runs from January to December 2023. The two series are therefore not a same-period ranking, and neither is a market estimate.

Sources: Korn Ferry FY2026 10-K, Note 12, printed pages F-38 to F-40, and FY2024 10-K, Note 12, printed page F-41; Heidrick CY2024 10-K, Note 18, printed pages 71 to 72, and CY2022 10-K, Note 18, printed page 69; Heidrick 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 September 2025, MD&A segment table, printed page 31.

Volume and fee decomposition

Both firms disclose a volume measure and an average-revenue measure alongside their revenue changes. Korn Ferry prints the number of engagements billed and the weighted-average fee billed per engagement. Heidrick prints the number of executive search confirmations and the average revenue per executive search. Heidrick does not define the average revenue per search in the documents read. Its near-zero bridge residuals are consistent with the measure behaving like net revenue divided by confirmations, but that is an inference, not a stated identity, and the measure is not a price or a fee.

The driver-implied change is calculated multiplicatively: ((1 + volume change) × (1 + average-revenue change) − 1). Adding the two rates would overstate or understate the result because of the cross-term. For example, Korn Ferry’s North America FY2026 drivers are engagements billed +3% and weighted-average fee +6%. The product is 1.03 × 1.06 − 1 = 9.18%, rounded to 9.2%. The cross-term is 0.18 percentage points. Because both drivers are printed as whole percentages, each carries plus or minus 0.5 points of rounding; the resulting band is 8.1% to 10.2%. The reported change is 8.9%, and the residual against the reported change is -0.3 points.

For Heidrick, confirmations are printed to 0.1 point and the average revenue per search to the nearest USD 1,000 in most years. The rounding band moves confirmations by plus or minus 0.05 points and each average to its rounding limits. The average pairs are taken from the same document in each case, because Heidrick recast some earlier averages.

The Korn Ferry constant-currency change equals the reported change minus the currency contribution. The Korn Ferry residual compares the driver-implied change with the constant-currency change where a currency effect is available, otherwise with the reported change. The Heidrick residual always uses the reported change. All arithmetic uses unrounded input values; tables display rounded results. The rounding band expresses uncertainty from rounded printed inputs, not a statistical confidence interval.

Nine of the ten Korn Ferry bridges fall inside their rounding band. The exception is EMEA FY2026. There the residual is -6.5 points against the constant-currency change, outside the band, but only -0.5 points against the reported change, inside it. The 6.1 percentage-point currency effect is research-derived from Korn Ferry’s disclosed USD impact divided by prior-year revenue; Korn Ferry does not print it as points. The fee driver in that paragraph lacks the local-currency qualifier that the North America and Asia Pacific paragraphs carry. That would fit a fee driver measured in US dollars, but the filing does not say which basis applies. The explanation is possible, not established, and no causal currency conclusion follows.

This table’s Latin America row covers FY2024 only, using the engagements billed and weighted-average fee pair that Korn Ferry disclosed for that year.

All four Heidrick bridges fall inside their rounding bands. The residuals against reported revenue are 0.0, 0.1, 0.5 and -0.3 points. That is consistent with the average revenue per search being, in effect, net revenue divided by confirmations. The bridge decomposes the change; it does not independently explain it.

Sources: Korn Ferry FY2026 10-K, MD&A, printed page 36, FY2025 10-K, MD&A, printed page 31 for the Executive Search total drivers and printed page 36 for the regional rows, and FY2024 10-K, MD&A, printed pages 38 to 39; Heidrick CY2024 10-K, MD&A, printed pages 28 to 30, CY2023 10-K, MD&A, printed page 30, CY2022 10-K, MD&A, printed page 28, and 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 September 2025, MD&A, printed page 36; Heidrick fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 release and fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 release for the currency effects.

Which driver led?

Fee-led and volume-led labels are used only where the difference between the two driver rates is beyond rounding. On that basis, the fee measure clearly rose faster than volume in Korn Ferry North America FY2026 (fee +6% against engagements +3%) and in Heidrick CY2024 (average revenue +4.3% against confirmations +0.1%). Volume clearly rose faster than the fee measure in Korn Ferry Asia Pacific FY2026 (engagements +8% against fee +3%) and Korn Ferry North America FY2025 (engagements +4% against fee +2%).

Four cases are inconclusive because the two driver rates are within rounding of each other: Korn Ferry EMEA FY2026 (engagements +6% against fee +5%, with the fee basis unstated), Korn Ferry Executive Search total FY2025 (fee +3% against engagements +2%), Korn Ferry Asia Pacific FY2025 (both +1%) and Heidrick 9M2025 (confirmations +5.9% against average revenue +6.2%). One case is not classifiable: Korn Ferry EMEA FY2025 prints only a fee driver, +5%, and no volume driver.

Across the downturn, the pattern is mainly volume-led. In Korn Ferry FY2024, engagements billed fell in every region while the weighted-average fee rose: North America -11% against +1%, EMEA -7% against +2%, Asia Pacific -15% against +8%, and Latin America -16% against +5%. In Heidrick CY2023, confirmations fell 10.5% while average revenue per search fell 3.5%, so volume fell by about three times as much as the average. Across the recovery, neither driver led throughout: the fee measure led in some region-years and volume in others.

Consultant productivity

Both firms disclose consultant counts, but not on the same basis. Korn Ferry prints an average number of executive search consultants for the year in Item 1. Heidrick prints year-end consultant counts as a separate disclosure, and its own annualised net revenue per consultant does not state whether the consultant base is average or year end. The two productivity measures are not comparable at the level of raw values, because the revenue definitions differ and the Heidrick denominator is unstated.

Korn Ferry’s derived fee revenue per average consultant fell 4.4% in FY2024, then rose 9.0% in FY2025 and 6.9% in FY2026. Heidrick’s own productivity measure fell 17.4% in CY2023, with a rounding band of -21.3% to -13.3%. Its CY2024 change of +5.3% has a rounding band of 0.0% to 10.8%, so the printed figures do not establish a rise. The nine-month 2025 change of +10.0% against the same nine months of 2024 is clear, with a band of 4.9% to 15.4%, but it is unaudited.

The two firms moved consultant numbers in opposite directions in the downturn. Korn Ferry’s average consultant count fell 3.7% in FY2024, while Heidrick’s year-end count rose 6.2% in CY2023. Neither figure says anything about how much consultant time each search received, and no client outcome or staffing capacity claim follows.

Sources: Korn Ferry FY2026 10-K, Item 1, printed page 8, FY2025 10-K, Item 1, printed page 8, FY2024 10-K, Item 1, printed page 6, and FY2023 10-K, Item 1, printed page 5; Heidrick CY2024 10-K, MD&A, printed page 28, CY2023 10-K, MD&A, printed page 30, CY2022 10-K, MD&A, printed page 28, and 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 September 2025, MD&A, printed page 36.

The strongest counter-reading

Heidrick’s residuals are close to zero against reported revenue, which is consistent with average revenue per search behaving like net revenue divided by confirmations. That is an inference, not a defined identity. Heidrick does not define its average revenue per search in the documents read, and Korn Ferry does not define its weighted-average fee billed per engagement.

A higher average fee does not mean the firms charged more. An average fee can rise because roles are more senior or better paid, or because the mix of regions and currencies shifted. The evidence cannot separate price from mix.

What employers can take from this

The following points are editorial inference from the observed data, not findings about any particular mandate.

The recent recovery included a rising fee per engagement at Korn Ferry and a rising average revenue per search at Heidrick. An employer can ask how the fee is calculated and whether it is fixed, capped or percentage-based.

Second, a volume rebound is not evidence of easier delivery. In the downturn, volumes fell faster than consultant numbers at Korn Ferry, and Heidrick added consultants as its productivity fell. The filings say nothing about how much consultant time each search received. An employer can ask the lead consultant’s current number of live assignments rather than infer capacity from the cycle.

Heidrick’s average revenue per executive search was USD 146,000 in CY2024. That is an executive search average that Heidrick does not define; it behaves like net revenue divided by confirmations. It is not a price for any mandate.

Methodology and source notes

The revenue series use audited segment amounts from each firm’s annual report. Korn Ferry’s executive search total is the sum of four regional fee-revenue lines, because the segment note does not print an executive search total. Heidrick’s total is the sum of three regional net-revenue lines. The nine-month 2025 Heidrick figure is unaudited and comes from its 10-Q; it is not annualised and is not combined with the full-year figures.

The volume and fee drivers come from unaudited MD&A narrative, not from the audited financial statements. Korn Ferry’s drivers are printed as whole percentages, so each carries plus or minus 0.5 points of rounding. Heidrick’s confirmations are printed to 0.1 point and its average revenue per search to the nearest USD 1,000 in most years; the rounding bands reflect those limits. Average revenue pairs are taken from the same document in each case, because Heidrick recast some earlier averages.

Each row’s comparison is with its own prior period: Korn Ferry fiscal years end on 30 April, Heidrick calendar years end on 31 December. The two series are not a same-period ranking. No conclusion here describes the period after Korn Ferry’s FY2026 or after Heidrick’s September 2025.

Source documents: Korn Ferry Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 30 April 2026, Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 30 April 2025, Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 30 April 2024 and Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 30 April 2023; Heidrick & Struggles Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2024, Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2023, Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2022 and Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended 30 September 2025; Heidrick & Struggles fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 release and fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 release.