What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2023-06-28 compared with 2022-06-28 · 183 added, 182 removed, 176 unchanged (67% of the section changed)

Company Overview

Korn Ferry (referred to herein as the “Company” or in the first-person notations “we,” “our,” and “us”) is a global organizational consulting firm.

Korn Ferry is a different firm today than when we were founded.

We are a Company with a more diverse service and solution offering that is aligned with our clients’ desire to synchronize their strategy, operations, and talent to drive superior performance.

Today, we believe we are the organizational consultancy that is uniquely positioned to help companies look at talent and strategy together, ensuring that they have the right people in the right places and are providing them with the right rewards.

We bring their strategies to life by designing their organizational structure and helping them hire, motivate and hold on to the best people.

Korn Ferry (referred to herein as the “Company” or in the first-person notations “we,” “our,” and “us”) is a leading global organizational consulting firm.

Korn Ferry has evolved from our executive search-focused roots into a company with a more diverse service and digital and other solution offering that is designed to align with our clients’ desire to synchronize their strategy, operations, and talent to drive superior performance.

We believe we are the premier organizational consultancy uniquely positioned to leverage our extensive intellectual property to help companies bring talent and strategy together, helping them have the right people in the right places and providing them with the right rewards.

We seek to bring their strategies to life by designing their organizational structure and helping them hire, motivate and retain the best people.

And we help professionals navigate and advance their career.

For fiscal 2022, our exceptional performance reflects the relevance of our strategy, the top-line synergies created by our end-to-end human capital solutions, the resilience of our colleagues, and increasing connection with our Korn Ferry brand.

The past year has presented many challenges.

However, with the commitment of our colleagues, we have concluded the year with strong, record results.

During fiscal 2022, we partnered with almost 15,000 organizations.

Our fiscal 2023 performance reflects the relevance of our strategy, the top-line synergies created by our end-to-end talent and leadership solutions, and the increasing reach and relevance of the Korn Ferry brand.

Thanks to the passion and performance of our colleagues, we have concluded the year with strong results, in what was a very challenging macroeconomic environment.

During fiscal 2023, we worked with almost 15,000 organizations.

Our clients include the world’s largest and most prestigious public and private companies, middle-market and emerging growth companies, and government and non-profit organizations.

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• 1 in every 2 of the fastest growing companies in the world (Fortune Magazine)

80% of the top companies changing the world (Fortune Magazine)

• 79% of the world’s top performing companies (Drucker Institute)

• 96% of the top 50 world's most admired companies (Fortune Magazine)

We also continued to make significant investments—in strategic acquisitions and the innovation and development of our assets, platforms, core capabilities, and solutions, all while we sought to attract, retain, and develop our people.

These investments are intended to help us further differentiate our competitiveness in the marketplace.

Today, as a result of our investments, innovation and growth, we believe we are uniquely positioned to address the most pressing human capital issues faced by organizations worldwide.

We continue to transform ourselves and our clients.

We are now a company with a more durable business, with greater and growing relevance, and a new sustainable level of business and profitability that is poised for further growth.

We continue to replicate and scale our solutions and to lead innovation at the intersection of talent and strategy in the digitally enabled new world of work.

The depth and breadth of our offerings across the talent lifecycle—from attraction to assessment to recruitment to development, management, and reward—place us in a distinctive position.

We offer end-to-end solutions—a view into an organization’s entire talent ecosystem—to create positive client outcomes.

Our deeply embedded intellectual property (“IP”), data, and content within our solutions are designed to help clients solve new and evolving issues within today’s dynamic work landscape.

We continue to align to the most pressing issues for organizations:

workforce transformation, diversity equity & inclusion ("DE&I”) initiatives, environmental, social & governance (“ESG”) matters, accelerating revenue growth (“ARG”) in a post-COVID-19 world, and new career trends like career nomads who are more frequently changing jobs.

We think we are uniquely positioned to help clients and their people exceed their potential in this environment.

We now place an even greater focus on driving a One Korn Ferry story.

Partnering with internal and external stakeholders, this singular vision engages our employees, resonates in the broader market, and is a platform for

differentiation and sustainable growth.

We develop and train nearly one million professionals a year and place on average a candidate every three minutes, each business hour.

We also continued to make significant investments across the breadth of our business and in our people.

This commitment includes strategic acquisitions and the innovation and development of our platforms, solutions and ways of working.

A testament to Korn Ferry’s forward-thinking approach is the acquisition of our third and fourth Interim hiring firms in the last 18 months.

This strategic decision has not only boosted our standing, particularly in the Professional Search and Interim sectors, but we believe also enables us to capitalize on significant opportunities for growth while effectively responding to prevailing shifts in the workforce.

These shifts include a heightened focus on agility and cost-management, a growing need for specialized expertise and on-demand skills, as well as the accommodation of evolving employee preferences and dynamics within the workforce.

These investments are intended to expand our offerings to help us further differentiate ourselves in the marketplace and reflect our continued focus on high-demand areas emerging in this environment.

A critical driver of our success has been the evolution and maturation of our go-to-market (“GTM”) activities.

We lead with our Marquee and Regional Accounts, approximately 350 accounts or 2% of our total clients which represent 36% of our total fee revenue.

We continue to invest in Global Account Leaders (“GALs”), exiting the year with more than 60 colleagues in this role.

Our "Marquee" and "Regional" accounts lead these activities with approximately 340 accounts or 2% of our total clients, representing more than 35% of our total fee revenue.

We continue to invest in Global Account Leaders (“GALs”), resulting in us exiting the year with more than 70 colleagues in this role.

Leveraging our acquisition of the Miller Heiman Group, we use our own sales effectiveness methodologies and discipline in our Marquee and Regional account programs to drive rates of top-line growth in excess of the rest of our portfolio.

We continue to capitalize on the top-line synergies created by our end-to-end core and integrated solutions that address every aspect of an employee’s engagement with their employer.

This manifests itself in our ability to continue to increase fee revenues referred from one line of business to another, almost 30% for fiscal 2022.

We continue to capitalize on the top-line synergies created by our end-to-end solutions that are designed to address the many aspects of an employee’s engagement with their employer.

This manifests itself in our ability to continue generating additional fee revenues based on referrals from one line of business to another, generating more than 25% of total fee revenues for fiscal 2023.

In fact, by integrating the previously mentioned acquired companies into Korn Ferry, we were able to generate an incremental $50.0 million in fee revenues since November 1, 2021, (the date of acquisition of our first Interim business) through referrals between the acquired companies and our business prior the acquisitions.

With vision, innovation and focus as our guide, we believe we are now a company with a more durable business, with greater and expanding relevance, and with an increasingly sustainable level of business and profitability that is poised for further growth in the years to come.

Fiscal 2023 Performance Highlights

Our results reflect the dedication and hard work of our more than 10,600 talented colleagues.

They focus on creating value that matters for all our stakeholders, the clients, shareholders, and the communities in which we operate.

Our strategic growth reflects a more balanced and sustainable organization with solid revenue and earnings streams in fiscal 2022:

Our performance drove record-breaking results, generating $2,626.7 million in fee revenue, up 45.1% compared to fiscal 2021.

Diluted Earnings Per Share was $5.98 in fiscal 2022, a new high.

Net Income Attributable to Korn Ferry was $ 326.4 million (margin 12.4%), an increase of $211.9 million compared to fiscal 2021.

Operating income and Adjusted EBITDA* were $470.1 million (margin of 17.9%) and $538.9 million (margin of 20.5%), respectively, an increase of $314.3 million and $252.6 million, respectively, compared to fiscal 2021.

* Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP financial measures and have limitations as analytical tools.

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for a discussion of why management believes the presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding Korn Ferry’s performance.

They focus on creating value for our stakeholders, our colleagues themselves, our clients, our shareholders, and the communities in which we operate.

Our strategic growth reflects a more balanced and sustainable organization.

• Our performance was solid during what can be described as times of macroeconomic and geopolitical turbulence and uncertainty, generating $2,835.4 million in fee revenue, up 8.0% compared to fiscal 2022.

• Net Income Attributable to Korn Ferry was $209.5 million.

Operating income and Adjusted EBITDA* were $316.3 million (margin of 11.2%) and $457.3 million (margin of 16.1%), respectively.

• Diluted Earnings Per Share was $3.95.

• During fiscal 2023, we continued with our balanced approach to capital allocation.

We repurchased approximately 1,471,000 shares of stock for $98.8 million and paid dividends of $26.8 million.

Recognizing the opportunities of a large addressable market and the shift from career employee to career nomad, we acquired The Lucas Group, which brings substantial professional search and interim expertise to Korn Ferry.

We also recently completed the acquisition of Patina Solutions Group, an interim executive solutions firm that provides access to a network of C-suite, top-tier, and professional interim talent.

Both additions are expected to enhance our industry-leading search portfolio.

These two acquisitions were completed with $133.8 million of our capital.

We reinvested $45.6 million of capital into the development of technology-enabled products and solutions.

For the full year, the Company invested $254.8 million in acquisitions and $61.0 million in capital expenditures primarily related to the Digital business and corporate infrastructure.

We also spent $18.5 million on debt service costs, and returned $93.9 million and $33.0 million to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends, respectively.

* Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA and Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measure and have limitations as analytical tools.

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for a discussion of why management believes the presentation of non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding Korn Ferry’s performance.

The Korn Ferry Story

As the preeminent organizational consulting firm, we act as business advisors in talent and strategy and bring together solutions for our clients.

Our approach is focused on the following priorities to increase our client and commercial impact:

Our systematic approach to solving business challenges has us uniquely positioned to build the services and solutions that people, teams and organizations need so that business strategy is implemented and performance follows.

Our approach is focused on the following strategic priorities to increase our client and commercial impact:

Drive a One Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy through our Marquee and Regional Accounts and integration across solutions and geographies.

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Our Core Capabilities

We offer a unique set of capabilities tailored to the new world of work.

These offerings cover the entirety of the talent

journey, strengthening our work and thinking in the next.

We continue to integrate, replicate and scale our solutions and to lead innovation in the digitally enabled new world of work.

The depth and breadth of our offerings across the talent lifecycle—from attraction to assessment to recruitment to development, management, and reward—place us in a distinctive position.

We offer end-to-end solutions—a view into an organization’s entire talent ecosystem—to create positive client outcomes.

Our five core capabilities include:

• Organization Strategy:

We map talent strategy to business strategy, designing operating models and organization structures that help companies put plans into action.

We map talent strategy to business strategy, designing operating models and organization structures that help companies put strategic plans into action.

• Assessment and Succession:

We identify the talent organizations need, compare that to the talent they have, and help close the gaps.

Our assessment and succession solutions help pinpoint clear and actionable opportunities for growth.

Leaders and employees are empowered to take action on their own development, while companies use strategic perspectives to build stronger plans and make smarter investments today and into the future.

• Talent Acquisition:

From executive search to recruitment process outsourcing ("RPO"), we help organizations attract and retain the right people across functions and levels.

From Executive Search, Professional Search & Interim and Recruitment Process Outsourcing ("RPO") covering single to multi-hire permanent positions and interim contractors, we help organizations attract and retain the right people across functions, levels and skills.

• Leadership and Professional Development:

We develop leaders along every stage of their career journey with a spectrum of intensive high-touch and scalable high-tech development experiences.

We help develop leaders along each stage of their career with a spectrum of intensive high-touch and scalable high-tech development experiences.

• Total Rewards:

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Our Integrated Solutions

We deliver differentiated and integrated solutions, bringing together our best thinking from across our core capabilities to target specific client challenges:

We also offer integrated solutions that bring together expertise from across our core capabilities to navigate broader business challenges around leading through change, transforming for growth and keeping top talent.

Our solutions are powered by the Korn Ferry Intelligence Cloud and are enabled by the combination of our rich and unique data and a suite of Digital Performance Management Tools that combine the expertise of Korn Ferry with the power of Open artificial intelligence ("AI").

Focused on business outcomes, the combination of Korn Ferry intellectual property ("IP") and advanced technology enables our experts to deliver actionable insights and personalized recommendations accurately and efficiently.

These solutions include:

• Workforce Transformation :

We offer practical and pragmatic solutions to support organizations in re-shaping workforces for the future.

These solutions are designed to enhance workforce productivity, agility, engagement, and alignment with the organization's strategic goals.

• Cost Optimization :

There’s increased pressure to optimize costs and drive efficiency in this disruptive world.

We work with leaders to manage cost drivers:

organization, people and rewards.

We put in place strategies designed to ensure they achieve cost reductions while maintaining performance and growth, making client organizations fit for the future.

Workforce Transformation :

Our workforce transformation offers practical and pragmatic solutions to support organizations in re-shaping workforces for the future.

Accelerating Revenue Growth :

We help make client organizations fit for the future by putting in place strategies designed to enable our clients to achieve cost reductions while maintaining performance and growth.

• Leadership Development and Coaching at Scale :

Businesses need to prepare for the future by creating a culture of learning that helps them quickly adapt to new trends and demands.

Leveraging our Korn Ferry Advance platform, we combine our expertise in leadership development with technology to provide quality coaching and development at scale across organizations.

• M&A Solutions :

We use a framework that helps organizations look beyond balance sheets and focus on people.

From the assessment and selection of leaders to drive the go-forward strategy, to the future organization design and governance, we help shape the combined purpose, ensure you have the right people in the right roles and craft the integration and change management activities to maximize the investment.

We also help buyers achieve leadership and cultural accretive acquisitions which drive superior financial results.

• Environmental, Social & Governance ("ESG") and Sustainability :

We believe our people-focused approach to ESG practices contribute to long-term value creation.

By aligning strategy, people and business operations in this area, we help companies build resilience, foster innovation, and improve their reputation, positioning them for sustainable growth and success in both turbulent and prosperous times.

• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion :

We believe diverse and inclusive organizations drive better business performance, attract and retain high-caliber talent, foster innovation for competitive advantage, and enhance brand reputation.

Our expertise in this area runs deep.

We help clients comply and create more inclusive, equitable, and successful organizations reflective of today's diverse and interconnected world.

• Sales Effectiveness powered by KF Sell :

Today's selling environment is more complex than ever, with sales teams challenged to deliver value.

Sellers need the right tools, training, and approach to be successful.

Korn Ferry combines our technology and methodology to help organizations achieve their top-line growth objectives.

ESG - Our people-focused approach for clients :

ESG factors are high on the agenda for most of our partners.

We have a unique set of capabilities to help organizations manage the issues transforming how we work and live.

Our support can help accelerate their transition by taking a people-focused approach to ESG matters.

We help clients build diverse and inclusive organizations to deliver superior organizational performance.

We achieve this through a systematic approach, unlocking the power and potential of their people.

Learning Development (“LDO”) :

We believe businesses need to prepare for the future by creating a culture of learning that helps them quickly adapt to new trends and demands.

Our LDO solution, leveraging our Korn Ferry Advance platform, takes our expertise in leadership coaching and combines it with technology to provide quality coaching at scale across organizations.

Korn Ferry leverages the KF Sell platform and award-winning Miller-Heiman sales methodology to help organizations achieve their top-line growth objectives.

• Career Mobility for Tech Talent powered by KF Career:

We retain, engage and develop tech talent to create a competitive advantage for our clients' organizations.

For example, using KF Career for Tech, clients can benchmark their teams, identify skill gaps, create career mobility for tech talent and deliver a progressive employee experience where the individuals, team and company move together in synergy.

Our Businesses

We have seven reportable segments that operate through the following four lines of business, supported by a corporate center.

This structure allows us to focus on our clients and partner with them to solve the challenges they face in their businesses.

Consulting aligns organization structure, culture, performance, and people to drive sustainable growth by addressing four fundamental talent needs:

The Company has recently acquired companies that have added critical mass to our existing Professional Search & Interim business.

This provided the Chief Operating Decision Maker ("CODM") with the opportunity to reassess how he managed and allocated resources to the prior RPO & Professional Search segment.

Therefore, beginning in fiscal 2023, the Company separated RPO & Professional Search into two segments to align with the CODM's strategy to make separate resource allocation decisions and assess performance separately between Professional Search & Interim and RPO.

The Company now has eight reportable segments that operate through the following five lines of business, supported by a corporate center.

This structure allows us to bring our resources together to focus on our clients and partner with them to solve the challenges they face in their businesses.

Consulting aligns organizational structure, culture, performance, development, and people to drive sustainable growth by addressing four fundamental organizational and talent needs:

Organization Strategy, Assessment and Succession, Leadership and Professional Development, and Total Rewards.

We support this work with a comprehensive range of best-in-class lP and data.

The Consulting teams employ an integrated approach across our core capabilities and integrated solutions described above, each one intended to strengthen our work and thinking in the next, to help clients execute their strategy in a digitally enabled world.

We enable this work with a comprehensive set of Digital Performance Management Tools, based on our best-in-class IP and

The Consulting teams employ an integrated approach across our core capabilities and integrated solutions described above to help clients execute their strategy in a digitally enabled world.

Summary of financial fiscal 2023 highlights:

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• Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin were $108.5 million and 16.0%, respectively.

The number of consulting and execution staff at year-end was 1,841, an increase of 276 compared to fiscal 2021 with an increase in the average bill rate (fee revenue divided by the number of hours worked by consultants and execution staff) of $38 per hour or 12% compared to fiscal 2021.

• The number of consulting and execution staff at year-end was 1,853 with an increase in the average bill rate (fee revenue divided by the number of hours worked by consultants and execution staff) of $10 per hour or 3% compared to fiscal 2022.

Client Base —During fiscal 2023, the Consulting segment partnered with over 4,800 clients across the globe, and 28% of Consulting’s fiscal 2023 fee revenue was referred from Korn Ferry’s other lines of business.

clients come from the private, public , and not-for-profit sectors, across every major industry and represent diverse business challenges .

Competition —The people and organizational consulting market is fragmented, with different company offers for our core solutions.

Our clients come from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors across every major industry and represent diverse business challenges.

Competition —The people and organizational consulting market is fragmented, with different companies offering our core solutions.

Our competitors include consulting organizations affiliated with accounting, insurance, information systems, and strategy consulting firms such as McKinsey, Willis Towers Watson and Deloitte.

We also compete with smaller boutique firms specializing in specific regional, industry, or functional leadership and HR consulting aspects.

Digital delivers scalable tech-enabled solutions designed to identify the best structures, roles, capabilities and behaviors to drive businesses forward.

Our digital products give clients direct access to our proprietary data, client data and analytics to deliver clear insights with the training and tools needed to align organizational structure with business strategy.

We also compete with smaller boutique firms specializing in specific regional, industry, or functional leadership and human resources ("HR") consulting aspects.

Digital develops technology-enabled Performance Management Tools that empower our clients.

At the core of our offerings is the proprietary Korn Ferry Intelligence Cloud platform.

With access to six billion data points and fortified by our established success methodology, this platform drives a range of Digital Performance Management Tools.

Through these tools, our consultants can analyze business data, benchmark against industry best practices, and deliver personalized recommendations.

Additionally, our clients and their employees can independently utilize these digital tools to identify, implement, and maintain performance enhancements at scale.

Our Digital products include:

Puts the right people, with the right skills in place to deliver.

• KF Architect:

Streamlines the way jobs are designed, organized and evaluated.

Provides insight to understand and improve the employee experience.

Creates a consistent, repeatable sales strategy to maximize sales effectiveness.

Compares and develops the best pay structures to motivate people to perform at their best.

• KF Career for Tech:

Upskill, reskill, develop and deploy an optimized technology workforce.

Summary of financial fiscal 2023 highlights:

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Our clients come from the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, across every major industry and represent diverse business challenges.

Competition —Again, there is fragmentation in this sector.

Competition —Again, competition is fragmented in this sector.

We compete with specialist suppliers, and boutique and large consulting companies in each solution area such as AON, Mercer, Willis Towers Watson, SHL, Fuel 50, SkillSoft, Criteria, Predictive Index, Prevue Hire and Textlio.

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This allows us to give organizations an end-to-end view of talent.

Executive Search helps organizations recruit board-level, chief executive, and other senior executive and general management talent to deliver lasting impact.

Executive Search helps organizations recruit board-level, chief executive, and other C-suite/senior executive and general management talent to deliver lasting impact.

Our approach to placing talent brings together our research-based IP, proprietary assessments and behavioral interviewing with our practical experience to determine the ideal organizational fit.

Salary benchmarking then builds appropriate frameworks for compensation and retention.

This business is managed and reported on a geographic basis and represents four of the Company’s reportable segments (Executive Search North America, Executive Search EMEA, Executive Search Asia Pacific and Executive Search Latin America).

Salary benchmarking then helps us build appropriate frameworks for compensation and attraction.

This business is managed and reported on a geographic basis and represents four of the Company’s reportable segments (Executive Search North America, Executive Search Europe, the Middle East and Africa ("EMEA"), Executive Search Asia Pacific ("APAC") and Executive Search Latin America).

Summary of financial fiscal 2023 highlights:

Fee revenue was $935.6 million, an increase of 47% compared to fiscal 2021, representing 36% of total fee revenue.

• Fee revenue was $875.8 million, a decrease of 6% compared to fiscal 2022, representing 31% of total fee revenue.

• Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin were $205.8 million and 23.5%, respectively.*

• In fiscal 2023, we opened more than 6,300 new engagements with an average of 594 consultants.

*Executive Search Adjusted EBITDA and Executive Search Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures and have limitations as analytical tools.

Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for a discussion of why management believes the presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding Korn Ferry's performance.

Consultants are organized in six broad industry groups and bring an in-depth understanding of the market conditions and strategic management issues clients face within their industries and geographies.

In addition, we regularly look to expand our specialized expertise through internal development and strategic hiring in targeted growth areas.

Functional Expertise — We also have organized executive search centers of functional expertise.

Members of functional groups are located throughout our regions and across our industry groups.

These consultants have extensive backgrounds in placing executives in particular functions, such as board directors, CEOs, and other senior executive officers.

Most assignments for fiscal 2022 were for our Board & CEO Services group, which focuses exclusively on placing CEOs and board directors in organizations worldwide.

They are a dedicated team from the most senior ranks of the Company.

Their work is with CEOs and the boardroom, and their expertise is in organizational leadership and governance.

They conduct hundreds of engagements every year, tapping talent from every corner of the globe.

This work spans across ranges of corporate scale

Functional Expertise — We also have organized centers of functional expertise.

This helps our teams comprehensively grasp the specific requirements and nuances involved in the role itself.

These partners bring a deep understanding of the functional dynamics–from strategy through to execution-enabling them to identify and place candidates who possess the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience to excel in the role.

Percentage of Fiscal 2023 Assignments Opened by Functional Expertise

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We also believe our long-term incentive compensation arrangements and other executive benefits distinguish us from most of our competitors and are essential in attracting and retaining our top consultants.

RPO and Professional Search focuses on delivering enterprise talent acquisition solutions to our clients, at the professional level.

We leverage the power of people, process expertise, IP-enabled technology and compensation information to do this.

Transaction sizes range from single professional searches to team, department, line of business projects and global outsource recruiting solutions.

During fiscal 2022, we acquired The Lucas Group, which brings substantial professional search and interim placement expertise to Korn Ferry and has enhanced our industry-leading search portfolio.

We also acquired the Patina Solutions Group, an interim executive search firm that is expected to bring access to a vast network of C-suite, top-tier and professional interim talent.

Professional Search & Interim delivers enterprise talent acquisition solutions for professional level middle and upper management.

The Company helps clients source high-quality candidates at speed and scale globally, covering single-hire to multi-hire permanent placements and interim contractors (that are focused on senior executive, information technology ("IT"), Finance & Accounting and HR roles).

During fiscal 2023, we acquired Infinity Consulting Solutions, a provider of IT interim talent.

We also acquired Salo LLC, a provider of finance, accounting and HR interim talent.

Summary of financial fiscal 2023 highlights:

• Fee revenue was $503.4 million, an increase of 69% compared to fiscal 2022, representing 18% of total fee revenue.

• Average bill rates increased by 26% to $115 per hour in the last quarter of fiscal 2023 from $91 per hour as of January 31, 2022, which was the quarter we acquired our first interim business.

Average bill rates represent fee revenue from interim services divided by the number of hours worked by consultants providing those services.

• Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin were $110.9 million and 22.0%, respectively.

Client Base —During fiscal 2022, the RPO & Professional Search segment partnered with more than 3,500 clients across the globe, and 50% of RPO & Professional Search’s fiscal 2022 fee revenue was referred from Korn Ferry’s other lines of business.

Competition —We primarily compete for RPO business with other global RPO providers such as Cielo, Alexander Mann Solutions, IBM, Allegis, Kelly Services and Randstad and professional search assignments with regional contingency and large national retained recruitment firms such as Robert Half, Michael Page, Harvey Nash, Robert Walters and BTG.

Client Base —During fiscal 2023, the Professional Search & Interim segment partnered with more than 4,000 clients across the globe, and 32% of Professional Search & Interim’s fiscal 2023 fee revenue was referred from Korn Ferry’s other lines of business.

Competition —We primarily compete for Professional Search & Interim business with regional contingency and large national retained recruitment firms such as Robert Half, Michael Page, Harvey Nash, Robert Walters and BTG.

We believe our competitive advantage is distinct.

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We also work under the One Korn Ferry umbrella to help clients plan for their broader talent acquisition needs as part of their business strategy planning.

Finally, our corporate center manages finance, legal, technology/IT, human resources, marketing, and our research arm, the Korn Ferry Institute.

RPO offers scalable recruitment outsourcing solutions leveraging customized technology and talent insights.

The Company's scalable solutions, built on science and powered by best-in-class technology and consulting expertise, enable the Company to act as a strategic partner in clients’ quest for superior recruitment outcomes and better candidate fit.

Summary of financial fiscal 2023 highlights:

• Fee revenue was $424.6 million, an increase of 8% compared to fiscal 2022, representing 15% of total fee revenue.

• Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin were $52.6 million and 12.4%, respectively.

Client Base —During fiscal 2023, the RPO segment partnered with more than 300 clients across the globe, and 54% of RPO fiscal 2023 fee revenue was referred from Korn Ferry’s other lines of business.

Competition —We primarily compete for RPO business with other global RPO providers such as Cielo, Alexander Mann Solutions, IBM, Allegis, Kelly Services and Randstad.

Finally, our corporate center manages finance, legal, technology/IT, HR, marketing, and our research arm, the Korn Ferry Institute.

We help clients in four geographic markets:

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is female, and 64% of our global workforce is female.

Our global age demographic is 62% Millennials (ages 26-41) , G en Z/ Centennials (ages 25 and below).

Our global age demographic is 53% Millennials (ages 26-41) and 8% Gen Z/Centennials (ages 25 and below).

As of April 30, 2023, we had 10,697 full-time employees:

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Total employees

Consulting 1,853 363 2,216

Digital 347 1,077 1,424

Executive Search 602 1,218 1,820

RPO & Professional Search

Professional Search & Interim 498 591 1,089

RPO 180 3,750 3,930

Corporate — 218 218

Total 3,480 7,217 10,697

1 Consultants and execution staff, primarily responsible for originating client services

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Business Challenges We Solve

Our judgment and expertise are built from decades of experience and insight into the business challenges companies are grappling with across industries.

Our judgment and expertise have been built from decades of experience and insight into the business challenges companies are grappling with across industries.

We work to understand the relevant macro trends impacting society and the future of work.

A s the world/workforce emerges from COVID-19, we believe it is even more evident that the world of work has permanently changed.

After the reopening that followed the global pandemic, it is evident that the world of work has permanently changed and with the emergence of technologies like artificial intelligence ("AI"), the evolution continues.

We support our clients amid a time of enormous transition and change, with these specific business challenges:

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• Building work environments that are inclusive and free from bias.

Korn Ferry Intelligence Cloud

Korn Ferry Intelligence Cloud powers our capabilities, integrated solutions and products.

With four billion data points, Intelligence Cloud blends our proprietary insight and consultancy with market data and AI-technology to accurately provide insights and actions.

Intelligence Cloud is the digital platform that underpins our solutions;

helping global organizations advance a talent strategy that results in reduced time to hire, cheaper cost per acquisition, improved mobility and retention and better sales performance.

Organizations can access the data and insight within the platform—which focuses on talent mobility, talent management, talent acquisition and sales effectiveness—via a suite of specialist enterprise applications or via tailored tech-enabled consultancy:

Talent mobility :

using our Success Profiles™, organizations can benchmark people—leaders, teams and individuals—and create career paths to build a future-ready workforce.

Talent management :

Intelligence Cloud is designed to pinpoint the skillsets and mindsets needed to deliver against future goals and identify gaps, while robust talent assessment and development tools upskill and reskill existing employees.

Talent acquisition & strategy :

using AI, Intelligence Cloud helps make sense of external talent market data to identify candidates for critical roles to solve talent shortages and skills gaps.

Sales effectiveness :

we bring together the Miller Heiman™ sales methodology, AI-powered technology and seamless integration with Salesforce and Microsoft CRMs, to improve sales performance and predictability through actionable insights for sellers.

Our Knowledge in Data

Our vast wealth of data, IP, and insights include the following:

More than five billion data points collected

Over 86 million assessments taken

Almost six million employee engagement survey responses over recent 3 years period.

Rewards data for over 23 million people

Organizational benchmark data on 12,000 entities

More than 5,000 individual success profiles covering more than 30,000 job titles

Management data on more than 150 countries.

• Engaging and Reward to retain top talent.

Our Proprietary Data

We manage and leverage more than six billion data points, including:

• Over 98 million assessments.

• Engagement data on approximately 33 million employees.

• Rewards data on more than 30 million people covering some 30,000 organizations.

• More than 10,000 individual success profiles covering over 30,000 job titles.

• Organizational benchmark data on more than 12,000 entities.

• Culture surveys on approximately 600 entities and 7.2 million respondents.

• Pay policy and practice data on more than 150 countries.

Innovation & Intellectual Property

Korn Ferry is dedicated to developing leading-edge services and leveraging innovation.

We are transforming how clients address their talent management needs.

We have made investments in technology, learning platforms, virtual coaching, individual learning journeys, data insights, and intellectual property that permeates all our solutions.

With these investments, we are transforming how clients address their talent management needs.

We have evolved from a mono-line business to a multi-faceted consultancy, giving our consultants more opportunities to engage with clients.

The expansion of our business into larger markets offers higher growth potential and more durable and visible revenue streams.

In addition, we have made investments in technology, learning platforms, virtual coaching, individual learning journeys, data insights, and intellectual property that permeates all our solutions.

The Korn Ferry Institute

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We explore trends and define leadership and human and organizational performance for a fast-changing economy.

Some project examples from fiscal 2022 include:

Board and investor ESG research

CEO of the future

Enterprise Leader research

Climate change thought leadership series

Neuroscience and work thought leadership series

ESG field guide and analysis of ESG regulations and reporting practices.

Science-Based IP to enable growth:

Some project examples from fiscal 2023 include research around:

• Neuroscience

Differentiated IP development supported by leading-edge science and enablement :

We develop and measure what is required for success at work in the new economy.

Examples from fiscal 2022 include:

Personal purpose inventory and coaching guide

Persona report and talent grid

Mobile-friendly assessment enhancement design

Continued expansion of Korn Ferry's robust success profiles.

Examples from fiscal 2023 include IP around:

• Inclusive Language and Leadership

• Learning Agility

• Career Mobility

• Assessments and Interactive Feedback

Client Advanced Analytics and Data Management to generate insights:

We integrate and build upon our datasets and external data using advanced modeling and artificial intelligence.

We integrate and build upon our datasets and external data using advanced modeling and AI.

This allows us to produce predictive insights and deliver demonstrable client impact.

During fiscal 2022, we:

Supported over 190 advanced analytic client projects to generate insights

Enabled over 45 analytics ambassadors globally to support client analytics projects

Expanded on internal AI/ML capabilities to analyze text

Developed data management, architecture, storage, mining, and compliance best practices.

In the fiscal year ahead, we intend to continue innovating to drive even greater business and societal impact by:

Focusing on the changing society and technology-led landscape so that our science, research and IP remain innovative and relevant.

Revamping and 'technologizing' our internal processes to improve how we enable and engage with our business partners and provide increasingly agile, responsive, and collaborative services.

Driving a step-change in value through effective collecting, organizing, structuring, and delivering our rich data, IP, and analytics.

We are achieving this in collaboration with IT, Digital, and solutions for faster, easier access to insights, outcomes, and benchmarks.

During fiscal 2023, we supported the following:

• On-demand Assessment Analytics

• Demographics and Job Factors

• Psychometrics

In the fiscal year ahead, we intend to continue innovating to drive even greater business and societal impact to:

• Provide research and modeling on the future of work, our solution areas, and industries to support growth and help our science, research and IP remain innovative and relevant.

• Innovate and refine knowledge to strengthen IP, educate colleagues, expand analytics capabilities, and maximize impact across solutions and markets.

Global Delivery Capability

We believe a key differentiator for us is our global delivery capability.

This allows us to support all parts of our business to give clients value-added services and solutions across the globe.

We can bring the right people from anywhere in the world to our clients at the right time both in physical and virtual working environments, which is a capability that is particularly crucial as business needs and conditions continue to change rapidly.

This allows us to support the varied parts of our business to give clients value-added services and solutions across the globe.

We believe we can bring the right people from anywhere in the world to our clients at the right time both in physical and virtual working environments, which is a capability that is particularly crucial as business needs and conditions continue to change rapidly.

Korn Ferry operates in a rapidly changing global marketplace with a diverse range of organizations that offer services and solutions like those we offer.

However, we believe no other company provides the same full range of services, uniquely positioning us for success in this highly fragmented, competitive landscape.

And we believe we are poised for even more sustainable growth over the next fiscal year.

However, we believe no other company provides the same full range of services, uniquely positioning us for success in this highly fragmented, talent management landscape.

Our Market and Approach

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Some highlights from fiscal 2023 include global industry awards and accolades in recognition of performance and achievements:

Recognized by Seramount (formerly Working Mother Media) as the No.

1 company for female hires and promotions and one of the 100 Best Companies for Parents 2021

Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality from the Human Rights Campaign in 2021

Leader in 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Sales Training Providers

Pacesetter in ALM Intelligence’s Workforce Management Services Research Report for 2021

Pacesetter in ALM Intelligence’s Employee Well-being Research Report for 2022

Leader & Star Performer in Recruitment Process Outsourcing, 2021 Everest Group

Listed in INC.’s Best-Led companies of 2021 in America

• Named America's Number One Executive Recruiter Firm 2023, Forbes

• Named among the top 20 on Training Industries’ 2023 Top Sales Training & Enablement Companies

• Named in America's Best Management Consulting Firms list in 2023, Forbes

• Leader level Carbon Disclosure Project ("CDP") Rating for 2022 response to climate change questionnaire

• Gold Medal for Sustainability rating from EcoVadis 2022

• Gold HIRE Vets Medallion Award 2022, US Department of Labor

• Recognized by Seramount (formerly Working Mother Media) in the best Companies for Parents list 2022, in the Best Companies for Dads list 2022, and as a Top Company in the Executive Women list 2022

• Top Global RPO Provider, RPO Baker's Dozen List 2022, HRO Today

• Recognized as a Leader in Recruitment Process Outsourcing in Everest Group's PEAK Matrix Assessment 2022

Our Go-To-Market Approach

Our go-to-market strategy brings together Korn Ferry’s core solutions to drive more integrated, scalable client relationships.

Our goal is to drive topline synergies by increasing growth in crossline business referrals.

Our goal is to drive topline synergies by increasing growth in the crossline of business referrals.

This has been successful as during fiscal 2023, approximately 80% of revenue came from clients using multiple lines of our business, consistent with fiscal 2022.

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Its success has been realized by using our own IP and by following a disciplined approach to account planning and management with the addition of Global Account Leaders, resulting in more enduring relationships with clients.

Building long-term client relationships of scale delivers less cyclical, more resilient revenue and new business through structured, programmatic account planning and strategic investments in account management talent.

Elevating our Voice

Collaboration with sales and marketing teams has enabled a deeper connection with our customers through our thought leadership and best practices.

We evolved our brand and value proposition to focus on enabling people and organizations to exceed their potential.

We have helped them solve their biggest people challenges around performance, leadership, recruitment, culture, team, future of work, and talent management trends.

We continue to focus on timely, news-driven issues pertinent to our clients that help them set their talent agenda.

We publish whitepapers, research, trend analysis, and insights around relevant talent and people topics.

We believe building long-term client relationships of scale delivers less cyclical, more resilient revenue and new business through structured, programmatic account planning and strategic investments in account management talent.

Elevating our Brand

Collaboration between sales, marketing, research and business teams has enabled wider recognition for Korn Ferry in the market and a deeper connection with our customers through our thought leadership and the sharing of timely, news-driven content designed to inspire and challenge conventional points of view around workplace topics.

The provocation we put out into the world is to Be More Than .

Be More Than is about identifying and unleashing potential.

Bring the right opportunity, to the right person, at the right time and it will change their world.

Get people focused, aligned, believing and working together and it can change the world.

The principles behind Be More Than guide our thinking and behavior and represent our commitment to our clients and to each other.

We help unleash potential in people to enable thriving, high-performing teams that collectively power sustainable growth and transform businesses.

Culture and Workforce

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Our culture starts with our values of Inclusion, Honesty, Knowledge, and Performance .

Our values set the standard

for what we expect of all our people.

Our values set the standard for what we expect of all our people.

They also reflect the experience we want our clients to have when they work with us.

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We actively help our colleagues grow and develop with mentoring and support.

We strive to learn, grow, to be better today than we were yesterday , a nd always do our best for our clients, colleagues, and shareholders.

We strive to learn, grow, to be better today than we were yesterday, and always do our best for our clients, colleagues, and shareholders.

As a global corporation, our commitment is to act ethically, which begins with each of us.

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We run promotion cycles twice a year to allow us to appreciate the contribution of colleagues more frequently.

In fiscal 2022, we promoted almost 2,000 people in our four lines of business and Corporate.

In fiscal 2023, we promoted over 1,200 people in our five lines of business and Corporate.

We offer competitive benefits across the globe customized to each country we operate in based on market prevalence and cultural relevance.

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Our progressive benefit offerings in the U.S.

helped us earn top recognitions by Seramount (formerly Working Mother Media) as the No.

1 company for female hires and promotions in 2021, one of the 100 Best Companies for Parents 2021, and as one of the Human Rights Campaign’s Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality 2021.

helped us earn top recognitions by Seramount (formerly Working Mother Media) as the best company for Parents 2022, Top Company for Dads 2022, Top Company for Female Professionals 2022, and as one of the Human Rights Campaign’s Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality 2022.

We believe in teaching and mentoring to support our colleagues’ career growth and success.

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We also champion a range of career and leadership programs, such as our Mosaic program for diverse high-potentials, Leadership U for Korn Ferry, and Leadership U PLUS for Korn Ferry colleagues, an internal leadership development program.

We also extended the use of our Korn Ferry Advance platform, used externally by clients for career coaching and career development, into an internal development program platform.

We use our Korn Ferry Advance platform, used externally by clients for career coaching and career development, as an internal development program platform.

We run a global colleague advisory council that offers feedback to senior leadership on the colleague experience within Korn Ferry.

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Employee Well-being

The well-being of our employees is a significant focus, particularly given the last few years of unprecedented change due to COVID-19 and the need to support our people in different ways.

The well-being of our employees is a focus.

We run a series of initiatives to support employee well-being and instill an organizational culture of health, including an Employee Assistance program, mental health awareness campaigns, well-being webinars, flexible work schedules and parental support for distance learning.

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Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business