kfy-20240430
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Form 10-K
(Mark One)
For the fiscal year ended April 30, 2024
OR
For the transition period from ____to _____
Commission File Number 001-14505
KORN FERRY
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)
1900 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1500, Los Angeles, California 90067
(Address of Principal Executive Offices) (Zip Code)
(310) 552-1834
(Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code)
Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of Each Class Trading Symbol(s) Name of Each Exchange on Which Registered
Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share KFY New York Stock Exchange
Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yesþ No o
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes oNoþ
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yesþ No o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yesþ No o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer þ Accelerated filer o
Non-accelerated filer o Smaller reporting company o
Emerging growth company o
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. þ
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. o
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant's executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes o No þ
The aggregate market value of the registrant’s voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant on October 31, 2023, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter (assuming that the registrant’s only affiliates are its officers, directors and 10% or greater stockholders) was approximately $1,753,214 thousand based upon the closing market price of $45.52 on that date of a share of common stock as reported on the New York Stock Exchange.
The number of shares outstanding of our common stock as of June 20, 2024 was 51,808 thousand shares.
Documents incorporated by reference
Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K.
KORN FERRY
Index to Annual Report on Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended April 30, 2024
Item # Description Page
Part I.
Item 1 Business 1
Item 1A Risk Factors 11
Item 1B Unresolved Staff Comments 25
Item 1C Cybersecurity 25
Item 2 Properties 27
Item 3 Legal Proceedings 27
Item 4 Mine Safety Disclosures 27
Executive Officers
Part II.
Item 6 Reserved 30
Item 7A Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 46
Item 8 Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 46
Item 9A Controls and Procedures 47
Item 9B Other Information 47
Item 9C Disclosures Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 47
Part III.
Item 10 Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 48
Item 11 Executive Compensation 48
Item 14 Principal Accountant Fees and Services 48
Part IV.
Item 15 Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 49
Signatures 53
Financial Statements and Financial Statement Schedules F-1
PART I.
Item 1. Business
Company Overview
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. We work with our clients to design optimal organization structures, roles, and responsibilities. We help them hire the right people, focus on the right skills, and advise them on how to reward, engage and motivate their workforce while developing professionals as they navigate and advance their careers.
The importance and strength of our brand
A strong brand fosters familiarity and loyalty, builds trust, cultivates relationships, and has a lasting impact on sales velocity and growth which is why one of our strategic pillars is to continue to elevate ours.
Originally known for our leading position in executive search, our brand recognition is growing and evolving to represent great workplaces and the people – the talent – behind them. Collaboration across our sales, marketing, research, and business teams has significantly boosted Korn Ferry's market recognition and strengthened our client connections. By curating our intellectual property, content, and data, and integrating them with our colleagues' expertise, we inspire and challenge conventional workplace viewpoints. Career makers and business advisors, the impact we create spans entire organizations, but always starts with people.
The inspiration 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.
Underpinning our strategy with tech-enabled IP, data and content
Korn Ferry leads the industry with unique intellectual property, content, and data. Powered by one of the world’s largest and most distinctive talent database and analytics engine, we deliver technology-enabled, data-informed solutions for people and workplaces that drive growth strategies. With access to nearly 7 billion proprietary data points across 150 countries, we understand what excellence looks like and know how to achieve it. Our consultants use this data to develop informed talent solutions that provide a competitive edge, while our suite of tech-enabled talent products ensures implementation at scale with speed.
We have shaped our way of working to align with the ways of work
Focused on solving our clients' most pressing organization and people challenges, today our services and products support and work across the entire human capital ecosystem - from assessment and hiring to strategy implementation, rewards, development, and succession. We are the only firm that has this expanded portfolio that offers more ways for our consultants to engage with clients and make a lasting impact. This approach is intentional, builds on the best of our past, and gives us a clear path to the future with focused initiatives to increase our client and commercial impact. Whether restructuring to reduce costs, bringing in new leaders, merging or acquiring, or transforming to stay ahead, we help organizations lead through change and transform for growth.
Relevant solutions for a constant and rapidly changing world
Our vision is to be the premier organizational consulting firm and we believe that our well-known brand, intellectual property, content, data, and diversification strategy have positioned us well. Our unique approach enables us to accelerate and positively impact the performance of thousands of organizations. And we are poised for growth. The constantly evolving business landscape presents numerous opportunities for Korn Ferry, making us more relevant than ever. From the shift to remote work due to the pandemic and the talent challenges posed by the great resignation, to the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (Gen AI) on workforce needs, these changes highlight opportunities for Korn Ferry to demonstrate our cutting-edge, tech-enabled products, services, and solutions.
An added benefit, we leverage what we learn. Less than two years post-launch, Gen AI is changing the way individuals and organizations work and innovate. It has the fastest adoption rate of any technology in history, as well as the fastest pace of change and evolution. At Korn Ferry, we are enabling our colleagues to use Gen AI to gain efficiency, improving delivery and focus on value added work to ensure that the insight we create at scale is actionable through our products, services, and solutions. We are also leveraging the technology with our unique data and IP to differentiate our products and services, creating a moat around our business that protects from disruption.
Our go-to-market approach
As we drive our strategy, a focal point for us is our Marquee and Regional accounts program (M&R accounts) which is comprised of about 350 of our top clients that together generate slightly more than 37% of our year-to-date consolidated fee revenue. These accounts have Global Account Leaders assigned who help to orchestrate the delivery of core and integrated
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solutions and products that cut across multiple lines of business – effectively making more of the Firm’s resources available as our clients tackle their business and human capital issues. Approximately 84% of these clients use three or more lines of business and 70% of this year’s top ten M&R accounts were also top ten clients in the previous two years.
The opportunity upon us
Despite near-term headwinds, we believe Korn Ferry is poised for continued, long-term growth. We are capitalizing on the current and growing relevance of our solutions which, in combination with the strong connections amongst our service offerings and our acquisitive activities, drives top-line synergies that have resulted in double digit fee revenue growth rates (CAGR) over the past twenty years. Our fiscal 2024 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.
Our clients
During fiscal 2024, 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. We have built strong client loyalty, with more than 85% of our engagements in fiscal 2024 completed on behalf of clients for whom we had conducted engagements in the previous three fiscal years. We worked during fiscal 2024 with:
•97% of the S&P 100, and 86% of the S&P 500
•92% of the Euronext 100
•85% of the FTSE 100
•89% of the S&P Europe 350
•68% of the S&P Asia 50
•80% of the S&P Latin America 40
In addition, we worked during fiscal 2024 with:
•3 in every 4 best companies to work for (Fortune Magazine)
•1 in every 2 of the fastest growing companies in the world (Fortune Magazine)
•80% of the world’s top performing companies (Drucker Institute)
•96% of the top 50 world's most admired companies (Fortune Magazine)
Our business and our people
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 talent platform, 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 two fiscal years. 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.
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, exiting fiscal 2024, generating more than 25% of consolidated fee revenues in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 from referrals.
With vision, innovation and focus as our guide, we believe we are now a company with a more durable business and more resilient top-line, with greater and expanding relevance, and with an increasingly sustainable level of profitability that is poised for further growth in the years to come.
Fiscal 2024 Performance Highlights
Our results reflect the dedication and hard work of our more than 9,000 talented colleagues. They focus on creating value for our stakeholders, including 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 an uncertain and challenging global economic environment, generating $2,762.7 million in fee revenue, down only 3% compared to fiscal 2023.
•Net Income Attributable to Korn Ferry was $169.2 million.
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•Operating income and Adjusted EBITDA* were $212.9 million with a margin of 7.7%, and $408.2 million with a margin* of 14.8%, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased each consecutive quarter in fiscal 2024.
•Diluted Earnings Per Share was $3.23.
•Consulting and Digital showed resilient business operations:
◦Consulting fee revenue grew 2.7% year-over-year with an 11% increase in average bill rate to $420 per hour.
◦Digital fee revenue grew 3.4% year-over-year with a 9.4% increase in Subscription & License fee revenue growing to $131.0 million in fiscal 2024.
•During fiscal 2024, we continued with our balanced approach to capital allocation. For the full year, the Company invested $46.7 million in capital expenditures (excluding leasehold improvements and furniture & fixtures), $18.5 million on debt service costs, and returned $52.5 million and $54.4 million to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends, respectively.
*Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA and Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures and have limitations as analytical tools. See Item 7. 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
Our Strategy
As described above, our systematic approach to solving business challenges has us uniquely positioned to build industry leading products, 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:
1.Drive a One Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy through our Marquee and Regional Accounts and integration across solutions and geographies.
2.Create the Top-of-Mind Brand in Organizational Consulting - Lead innovation through relevant market offerings and evolve our thought leadership around talent strategy.
3.Deliver Client Excellence and Innovation and diversify our offerings into fully integrated, scalable and sustainable client engagements, enriched and differentiated with our unique IP, content and data.
4.Advance Korn Ferry as a Premier Career Destination - Attract and retain top talent through continued investment in building a world-class organization through a capable, motivated, and agile workforce.
5.Pursue Transformational M&A Opportunities at the Intersection of Talent and Strategy.
Our Core Capabilities
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, engagement, and reward—place us in a unique 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:
•Organizational Strategy: We map talent strategy to business strategy, designing operating models and organization structures that help companies put strategic plans into action.
•Assessment and Succession: 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, 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 map skills and competencies to business strategy and help develop leaders along each stage of their career with a spectrum of intensive high-touch and scalable high-tech development experiences.
•Total Rewards: We help organizations pay their people fairly for doing the right things with rewards they value at a cost that the organization can afford.
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Our Integrated Solutions
We also offer integrated solutions that bring together expertise from across our core capabilities to navigate broader business challenges. Korn Ferry IP and advanced technology enables our experts to deliver unique, actionable insights and personalized recommendations accurately and efficiently at scale. 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: We work with leaders to manage cost drivers: organization, people and rewards. 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 Talent 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 culturally accretive acquisitions which drive superior financial results.
•Culture, Change and Communication: We align organization culture to business strategy to enhance performance and employee engagement, providing comprehensive support for culture transformation, effective change management, and strategic communication to ensure meaningful and sustainable change.
•Career Transition and Outplacement: We help parting colleagues make a fresh start faster. Our career transition services cover personal assessments, coaching, upskilling courses, branding, interview preparation and even onboarding once they land their new job.
•Inclusion: We believe 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 create more inclusive organizations reflective of today's interconnected world.
•Sales Effectiveness: 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 leverages the KF Sell product and award-winning Miller-Heiman sales methodology to help organizations achieve their top-line growth objectives.
Our Digital Technology-Enabled Products
Our consulting is supported and enabled by data and we have a robust suite of HR Digital technology products to transform organizations further and faster, at scale. The insights drive actions. In addition, our clients purchase these products directly from Korn Ferry via subscription licenses. Digital technology products include:
•Korn Ferry Profile Manager: Defines what good looks like in a given role using a combination of psychometric criteria and skills. Our success profiles are the anchor point for our clients for talent acquisition and development.
•Korn Ferry Architect: Provides organization structure and workforce/talent planning solutions for an agile, future-focused workforce where everyone has opportunities to develop to their full potential.
•Korn Ferry Assess: Evaluates and provides insights into an individuals' competencies, traits, drivers, and experiences - essential for determining current and future leadership capabilities. Tailored to specific business needs and linking skills to strategies, assessments can range from high-volume, tech-driven self-assessments to personalized evaluations and help organizations understand their talent landscape, identify skill gaps, and create development plans to ensure that the right people are in the right roles.
•Korn Ferry Engage: A comprehensive feedback and survey solution designed to enhance the employee experience within organizations. We link employee experience and business performance data and apply world-class benchmarks, best-practice advisory and AI-backed analytics to identify gaps and improve engagement and performance.
•Korn Ferry Pay: Provides the global benchmarking data and insights needed to inform effective and competitive employee compensation programs.
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•Korn Ferry Sell: A native application within Salesforce and Microsoft that combines world-class Miller Heiman sales methodology with powerful analytics driven technology to drive seller actions and increase win rates.
Our Businesses
The Company 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. While each line of business is strong on its own, as discussed above, the real strength is when our colleagues collaborate and our core solutions that sit in these lines of business are integrated.
1.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. The Consulting teams work across our core capabilities, architecting integrated solutions and technology products described above to help clients execute their strategy in a digitally enabled world.
Summary of financial fiscal 2024 highlights:
•Fee revenue was $695.0 million, an increase of 2.7% compared to fiscal 2023, representing 25.1% of consolidated fee revenue.
•Adjusted EBITDA was $114.3 million and Adjusted EBITDA margin was 16.4%.
•The number of consulting and execution staff at year-end was 1,678 with an increase in the average bill rate (fee revenue divided by the number of hours worked by consultants and execution staff) of $42 per hour or 11% compared to fiscal 2023.
Client Base—During fiscal 2024, the Consulting segment partnered with over 4,500 clients across the globe, and 28% of Consulting’s fiscal 2024 fee revenue was referred from Korn Ferry’s other lines of business. 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 AON, Mercer, McKinsey, Willis Towers Watson and Deloitte. We also compete with smaller boutique firms specializing in specific regional, industry, or functional leadership and human resources ("HR") consulting aspects.
2.Digital builds, sells and delivers our technology products. Our Digital talent technology products enable our clients to make critical talent decisions in the flow of work across talent acquisition and talent development. This talent suite encompasses integrated products that leverage Korn Ferry’s IP, talent science, and proprietary data into powerful offerings that anchor how organizations hire and develop talent. Our clients access these products via subscription licenses. In addition, our talent products enable our consultants to surface actionable insights and provide customized recommendations as part of their consulting engagements.
Summary of financial fiscal 2024 highlights:
•Fee revenue was $366.7 million, an increase of 3.4% compared to fiscal 2023, representing 13.3% of consolidated fee revenue.
•Subscription and License fee revenue was $131.0 million, an increase of 9.4% compared to fiscal 2023.
•Adjusted EBITDA was $108.7 million and Adjusted EBITDA margin was 29.6%.
Client Base—During fiscal 2024, the Digital segment partnered with over 8,000 clients across the globe, and 33% of Digital’s fiscal 2024 fee revenue was referred from Korn Ferry’s other lines of business, primarily Consulting. Our clients come from the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, across every major industry and represent diverse business challenges.
Competition—Again, competition is fragmented in this sector. We compete with specialist HR technology providers, and boutique and large consulting companies in each solution area such as AON, Eightfold, Hogan, KPMG, Mercer, Willis Towers Watson, SHL, and other boutique HR technology firms. One of our advantages is linking our data, IP and our technology platform across our solutions. This allows us to give organizations an end-to-end view of talent.
3.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 helps us build appropriate frameworks for
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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 2024 highlights:
•Fee revenue was $806.2 million, a decrease of 7.9% compared to fiscal 2023, representing 29.2% of consolidated fee revenue.
•Adjusted EBITDA was $171.1 million and Adjusted EBITDA margin was 21.2%.*
•In fiscal 2024, we opened more than 6,000 new engagements with an average of 572 consultants.
*Executive Search Adjusted EBITDA and Executive Search Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures and have limitations as analytical tools. See Item 7. 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 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 2024 Assignments Opened by Functional Expertise
Board Level/CEO/CFO/Senior Executive and General Management 80 %
Finance and Control 7 %
Information Systems 4 %
Marketing and Sales 4 %
Manufacturing/Engineering/Research and Development/Technology 3 %
Human Resources and Administration 2 %
Client Base—Our more than 3,700 Executive Search engagement clients in fiscal 2024 include many of the world’s largest and most prestigious public and private companies.
Competition—Our Executive Search line of business competes with specialist global executive search firms, such as Egon Zehnder, Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc., Russell Reynolds Associates and Spencer Stuart. We also compete with smaller boutique firms specializing in regional, industry, or functional searches. We believe our brand name, differentiated business model, systematic approach to client service, innovative technology, unique IP, global network, prestigious clientele, strong specialty practices and high-caliber colleagues are recognized worldwide. 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.
4.Professional Search & Interim delivers enterprise talent acquisition solutions for permanent placements at the professional level middle and upper management, and, for Interim, those same levels plus senior executives. 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).
Summary of financial fiscal 2024 highlights:
•Fee revenue was $540.6 million, an increase of 7.4% compared to fiscal 2023, representing 19.6% of consolidated fee revenue.
•Average bill rates increased by 10% to $126 per hour in fiscal 2024 from $115 per hour in fiscal 2023. Average bill rates represent fee revenue from interim services divided by the number of hours worked by consultants providing those services.
•Adjusted EBITDA was $101.9 million and Adjusted EBITDA margin was 18.8%.
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Client Base—During fiscal 2024, the Professional Search & Interim segment partnered with more than 3,600 clients across the globe, and 21% of Professional Search & Interim’s fiscal 2024 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, KForce, TekSystems and BTG. We believe our competitive advantage is distinct. We are strategic, collaborating with clients to hire best-fit candidates using our assessment IP, proprietary technology and professional recruiters. Our Talent Delivery Centers provide our teams with increased scalability, multilingual capabilities, global reach and functional specialization. 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.
5.RPO offers scalable recruitment outsourcing and projects solutions leveraging a customized technology enabled service delivery platform and talent insights. The Company's scalable solutions, built on our IP, science, and data 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 2024 highlights:
•Fee revenue was $354.1 million, a decrease of 16.6% compared to fiscal 2023, representing 12.8% of consolidated fee revenue.
•Adjusted EBITDA was $40.4 million and Adjusted EBITDA margin was 11.4%.
Client Base—During fiscal 2024, the RPO segment partnered with more than 200 clients across the globe, and 53% of RPO fiscal 2024 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, WilsonHCG 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: North America, EMEA, APAC and Latin America. Our geographic markets bring together capabilities from across the organization—infusing industry and functional expertise and skills—to deliver value to our partners.
We operate in 103 offices in 51 countries, helping us deliver our solutions globally, wherever our clients do business. We continue our commitment to diversity and inclusion, hiring, promoting, and extending opportunities to women and underrepresented groups. As of April 30, 2024, 72% of our workforce in the U.S. is female or from an underrepresented group. Broken down further, 64% of our workforce in the U.S. is female, and 64% of our global workforce is female. Our global age demographic is 54% Millennials (ages 28-43) and 9% Gen Z/Centennials (ages 27 and below). As of April 30, 2024, we had 9,076 full-time employees:
Consultants and execution staff1 Support staff2 Total employees
1Consultants and execution staff, primarily responsible for originating client services
2Support staff includes associates, researchers, administrative, and support staff
Business Challenges We Solve
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. 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 AI, the evolution continues. We support our clients amid a time of enormous transition and change, with these specific business challenges:
•Transforming businesses while delivering robust performance.
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•Solving leadership challenges arising from the new landscape of hybrid and remote working.
•Delivering for people, planet, and profit, and assisting with relevant corporate strategic initiatives.
•Finding the right talent in a dynamic and dislocated labor market.
•Engaging and motivating employees so companies can retain and reward their talent.
•Supporting the work-scape transition from a place of work to collaboration spaces.
•Building work environments that are inclusive and free from bias.
•Engaging and Reward to retain top talent.
Our Proprietary Data
We manage and leverage nearly seven billion data points via our Digital technology products and platform, including:
•Over 100 million assessments.
•Engagement data on approximately 36 million employees.
And we hold:
•Rewards data on more than 28 million people covering some 30,000 organizations.
•More than 10,500 individual success profiles covering over 30,000 job titles.
•Organizational benchmark data on almost 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 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.
The Korn Ferry Institute
The Korn Ferry Institute is our research and analytics arm. The Korn Ferry Institute develops robust research, innovative IP, and advanced analytics which is embedded in our talent products and leveraged by our consultants to enable Korn Ferry employees to partner with people and organizations to activate and exceed their potential.
We have built the Korn Ferry Institute on three core pillars:
1.Robust Research and Thought Leadership to anticipate and innovate: We explore trends and define leadership and human and organizational performance for a fast-changing economy. Some project examples from fiscal 2024 include research around:
•CEO Outcomes
•Inclusive Boards
•Change-Ready Leader
•Menopause at Work
•AI in the Workplace
•Evolution of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
•Leading for Impact
2.Differentiated IP development supported by leading-edge science and enablement: We develop IP that drives success for our clients. Our work includes research-based frameworks, assessments, talent development insights, and organization & reward measurement systems that power solutions for people, teams, and organizations. Examples from fiscal 2024 include IP around:
•Enterprise Success Framework
•Skills-Based Hiring
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•Strategic Workforce Planning
•AI-Powered Success Profiles Creation and Improvement
3.Client Advanced Analytics and Data Management to generate insights: We leverage data to generate insight-driven results. We continue to strive to prove the value of our IP, products, and data through demonstrable outcomes and the impact our work has on our clients. During fiscal 2024, we supported the following:
•Talent Analytics
•Future-Ready Leadership
•Talent Benchmarking & Talent Prediction
•Generative AI-Assisted Text Analytics
•KFI Knowledge Chatbot
In the fiscal year ahead, we intend to continue innovating to drive even greater business and societal impact to:
•Develop research centers of excellence, expand our partnerships, and further leverage data and insights to drive the impact, completeness and reach of our thought leadership.
•Extend, refine, and integrate our IP for seamless go-to-market and delivery across products and solutions.
•Leverage and monetize the value of our data in providing next-level insight to clients as "One Korn Ferry"; providing data availability, quality, and scalability.
Global Delivery Capability
We believe a key differentiator for us is our global delivery capability. 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.
Competition
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, enabled by technology and data, uniquely positioning us for success in this highly fragmented, talent management landscape.
Our Market and Approach
Industry Recognition
Our company culture and excellent work within the industry are widely recognized. Some highlights from fiscal 2024 include global industry awards and accolades in recognition of performance and achievements:
•Named America's Number One Executive Recruiter Firm 2024, Forbes
•Named among the top 20 on Training Industries’ 2024 Top Sales Training & Enablement Companies
•Named in America's Best Management Consulting Firms list in 2024, Forbes
•Leader level Carbon Disclosure Project ("CDP") Rating for 2023 response to climate change questionnaire
•Silver Medal for Sustainability rating from EcoVadis 2023
•Gold HIRE Vets Medallion Award 2023, US Department of Labor
•Recognized by Seramount (formerly Working Mother Media) in the best Companies for Parents list 2023, and in the Top 75 Companies for Executive Women list 2023
•Top Global RPO Provider, RPO Baker's Dozen List 2023, HRO Today
•Recognized as a Star Performer & Leader in Recruitment Process Outsourcing in Everest Group's PEAK Matrix Assessment 2023
•Named Number One HR Consulting Firm in Europe, Middle East and Africa, 2023 Statista
•Gold Rating, UK’s Leading Recruiters, 2024 Financial Times
•Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality, 2024 Human Rights Campaign Foundation
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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 the crossline of business referrals. This has been successful as during fiscal 2024, more than 75% of fee revenue came from clients using multiple lines of our business.
We intend to continue evolving integrated solutions along industry lines to drive cross-geography and cross-solution referrals. Our Marquee and Regional Accounts program is a pillar of our growth strategy, which now comprises more than one-third of our fee revenue, yet only 2% of our clients. 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. 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.
Our People
Culture and Workforce
Our culture has evolved tremendously over the years with a team spirit of working together across different offices, regions, and practices. We strive to foster a supportive, respectful culture where everyone feels valued for their contribution, can do their best work and exceed their potential. Our approach to talent acquisition, development, recognition, engagement and benefits are designed to support this approach. Our priority is to hire without bias and provide under-represented talent with equal opportunity across the firm. We work hard to build an environment of recognition by acknowledging others and appreciating their contributions and achievements. Our global talent promotion process recognizes colleagues for exceptional dedication and service to clients, embracing our firm's purpose and values, outstanding collaboration and stretching to meet expectations. We believe diversity drives innovation and connects us to our customers and communities. We are committed to building strong teams of people with diverse experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives.
Our Beliefs and Behaviors
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. They also reflect the experience we want our clients to have when they work with us. We seek to embrace people with different points of view. 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, 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. This thinking is embedded in our core values and guides how we work together and with others. We strongly believe in a radically human approach, striving for empathy, honesty and authenticity across our interactions.
Developing and Rewarding Our People
We focus on making Korn Ferry a firm that energizes, develops, rewards and empowers people to pursue their passions and help our business succeed. Our global talent promotion process recognizes colleagues for exceptional dedication and service to clients. Most years we run promotion cycles twice a year to allow us to appreciate the contribution of colleagues more frequently. In fiscal 2024, we promoted over 840 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. The Korn Ferry Cares benefits strategy focuses on keeping our colleagues and their families healthy – physically, emotionally, financially, and socially. Our progressive benefit offerings in the U.S. helped us earn top recognitions by Seramount (formerly Working Mother Media) as the best company for Parents 2023, Top Company for Female Professionals 2023, and as one of the Human Rights Campaign’s Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality 2024.
We believe in teaching and mentoring to support our colleagues’ career growth and success. These efforts have fostered stability and expertise in our workforce. Development happens broadly throughout the organization, from our formal mentoring program to direct training on our learning management platform, iAcademy. 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 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. Also, our internal employee engagement program, the Korn Ferry Founder Awards, recognizes and celebrates exceptional performance.
Employee Well-being
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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Our employee safety
We are committed to creating a place where people can be successful professionally and personally. In response to the pandemic, we developed and implemented new practices designed to prioritize the health and safety of our employees and clients.
Available Information
We file annual, quarterly, and current reports, proxy statements, and other documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), according to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"). Our reports, proxy statements, and other documents filed electronically with the SEC are available at the website maintained by the SEC at https://www.sec.gov.
We also make available, free of charge on the Investor Relations portion of our website at http://ir.kornferry.com, those annual, quarterly, and current reports, and, if applicable, amendments to those reports, filed or furnished under Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such reports with, or furnish them to, the SEC at www.sec.gov.
Our Corporate Governance Guidelines, Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, and the charters of the Audit Committee, Compensation and Personnel Committee, and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of our Board of Directors are also posted on the Investor Relations portion of our website at http://ir.kornferry.com. Stockholders may request copies of these documents by writing to our Corporate Secretary at 1900 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1500, Los Angeles, California 90067.
In addition, we make available on the Investor Relations portion of our website at http://ir.kornferry.com press releases and related earnings presentations and other essential information, which we encourage you to review.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
The discussion below describes the material factors, events, and uncertainties that make an investment in our securities risky, and these risk factors should be considered carefully together with all other information in this Annual Report, including the financial statements and notes thereto. It does not address all of the risks that we face, and additional risks not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also arise and impair our business operations. Our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially adversely affected by the occurrence of any of these risks.
Risks Related to Our Business
Our inability to successfully recover should we experience a disaster or other business continuity problem could cause material financial loss, loss of human capital, regulatory actions, reputational harm or legal liability.
Should we experience a disaster or other business continuity problem, such as a natural disaster, unusual weather conditions, terrorist attack, security breach, power loss, telecommunications failure or other man-made disaster, our continued success will depend, in part, on the availability of our personnel, our office facilities, and the proper functioning of our computer, telecommunication and other related systems and operations. In such an event, we could experience near-term operational challenges with regard to particular areas of our operations. In particular, our ability to recover from any disaster or other business continuity problem will depend on our ability to protect our technology infrastructure against damage from business continuity events that could have a significant disruptive effect on our operations. For example, a large number of our corporate staff are based in California, which has a high level of risk from wildfires and earthquakes. The impacts of climate change present notable risks, including damage to assets and technology caused by extreme weather events linked to climate change and may otherwise heighten or exacerbate the occurrence of such weather events. We could potentially lose client data or experience material adverse interruptions to our operations or delivery of services to our clients in a disaster. A disaster on a significant scale or affecting certain of our key operating areas within or across regions, or our inability to successfully recover should we experience a disaster, pandemic or other business continuity problem, could materially interrupt our business operations and cause material financial loss, loss of human capital, regulatory actions, reputational harm, damaged client relationships or legal liability.
We are limited in our ability to recruit candidates from certain of our clients due to off-limit agreements with those clients and for client relation and marketing purposes. Such limitations could harm our business.
Either by agreement with clients, or for client relations or marketing purposes, we are required to or elect to refrain from, for a specified period of time, recruiting candidates from a client when conducting searches on behalf of other clients. These off-limit agreements can cause us to lose search opportunities to our competition. The duration and scope of the off-limit agreement, including whether it covers all operations of the client and its affiliates or only certain divisions of a client, generally are subject to negotiation or internal policies and may depend on factors such as the scope, size and complexity of the client’s business, the length of the client relationship and the frequency with which we have been engaged to perform executive and professional searches for the client. We cannot ensure that off-limit agreements will not impede our growth or our ability to attract and serve new clients, or otherwise harm our business.
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We face significant competition. Competition in our industries could result in lost market share, reduced demand for our services, and/or require us to charge lower prices for our services, which could adversely affect our operating results and future growth.
We continue to face significant competition within each of our services and product offerings. The human resource consulting market has been traditionally fragmented and a number of large consulting firms, such as AON, McKinsey, Mercer, Willis Towers Watson and Deloitte have built businesses in human resource consulting to serve these needs. Our consulting business line has and continues to face competition from human resource consulting businesses. Many of these competitors are significantly larger than Korn Ferry and have considerable resources at their disposal, allowing for potentially significant investment to grow their human resource consulting business. Digital products in the human resource market have been traditionally fragmented and a number of firms such as AON, Hogan, Mercer, Willis Towers Watson, KPMG, Eightfold, SHL and other boutique HR technology firms offer competitive products. Competitors in the digital marketplace are a combination of large, well-capitalized firms and niche players who have received multiple rounds of private financing. Increased competition, whether as a result of professional and social networking website providers, traditional executive search firms, sole proprietors and in-house human resource professionals (as noted above) or larger consulting firms building human resources consulting businesses, may lead to pricing pressures that could negatively impact our business. For example, increased competition could require us to charge lower prices, and/or cause us to lose market share, each of which could reduce our fee revenue.
Our executive search services face competition from both traditional and non-traditional competitors that provide job placement services, including other large global executive search firms, smaller specialty firms and web-based firms. We also face increased competition from sole proprietors and in-house human resource professionals whose ability to provide job placement services has been enhanced by professional profiles made available on the internet and enhanced social media-based search tools. The continued growth of the shared economy and related freelancing platform sites may also negatively impact demand for our services by allowing employers seeking services to connect with employees in real time and without any significant cost. Traditional executive search competitors include Egon Zehnder, Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc., Russell Reynolds Associates and Spencer Stuart. In each of our markets, one or more of our competitors may possess greater resources, greater name recognition, lower overhead or other costs and longer operating histories than we do, which may give them an advantage in obtaining future clients, capitalizing on new technology and attracting qualified professionals in these markets. Additionally, specialty firms can focus on regional or functional markets or on particular industries and executive search firms that have a smaller client base are subject to fewer off-limits arrangements. There are no extensive barriers to entry into the executive search industry and new recruiting firms continue to enter the market.
We believe the continuing development and increased availability of information technology will continue to attract new competitors, especially web-enabled professional and social networking website providers, and these providers may be facilitating a company’s ability to insource their recruiting capabilities. Competitors in these fields include SmashFly, iCIMS, Yello, Indeed, Google for Jobs and Jobvite. As these providers continue to evolve, they may develop offerings similar to or more expansive than ours, thereby increasing competition for our services or more broadly causing disruption in the executive search industry. Further, as technology continues to develop and the shared economy continues to grow, we expect that the use of freelancing platform sites will become more prevalent. As a result, companies may turn to such sites for their talent needs, which could negatively impact demand for the services we offer.
Our RPO services primarily compete for business with other RPO providers such as Cielo, Alexander Mann Solutions, IBM, Allegis, WilsonHCG and Randstad while Professional Search & Interim services compete for mid-level professional search assignments with regional contingency recruitment firms and large national retained recruitment firms such as Robert Half, Michael Page, Harvey Nash, Robert Walters, TekSystems, KForce and BTG. In addition, some organizations have developed or may develop internal solutions to address talent acquisition that may be competitive with our solutions. This is a highly competitive and developing industry with numerous specialists. To compete successfully and achieve our growth targets for our talent acquisition business, we must continue to support and develop assessment and analytics solutions, maintain and grow our proprietary database, deliver demonstrable return on investment to clients, support our products and services globally, and continue to provide consulting and training to support our assessment products. Our failure to compete effectively could adversely affect our operating results and future growth.
Failure to attract and retain qualified and experienced consultants could result in a loss of clients which in turn could cause a decline in our revenue and harm to our business.
We compete with other executive, professional search and interim and consulting firms for qualified and experienced consultants. These other firms may be able to offer greater bonuses, incentives or compensation and benefits or more attractive lifestyle choices, career paths, office cultures, or geographic locations than we do. Competition for these consultants typically increases during periods of wage inflation, labor constraints, and/or low unemployment, and can result in material increases to our costs and stock usage under authorized employee stock plans, among other impacts.
Attracting and retaining consultants in our industry is particularly important because, generally, a small number of consultants have primary responsibility for a client relationship. Because client responsibility is so concentrated, the loss of key consultants may lead to the loss of client relationships. In fiscal 2024, our top six consultants generated business equal to approximately 2% of our total fee revenues. Furthermore, our top ten consultants generated business equal to approximately 3% of our total fee revenues. This risk is heightened due to the general portability of a consultant’s business:
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consultants have in the past, and will in the future, terminate their employment with our Company. Any decrease in the quality of our reputation, reduction in our compensation levels relative to our peers or modifications of our compensation program, whether as a result of insufficient revenue, a decline in the market price of our common stock or for any other reason, could impair our ability to retain existing consultants or attract additional qualified consultants with the requisite experience, skills and established client relationships. Our failure to retain our most productive consultants, whether in Executive Search, Consulting, Digital, Professional Search & Interim or RPO, or maintain the quality of service to which our clients are accustomed, as well as the ability of a departing consultant to move business to his or her new employer, could result in a loss of clients, which could in turn cause our fee revenue to decline and our business to be harmed. We may also lose clients if the departing consultant has widespread name recognition or a reputation as a specialist in his or her line of business in a specific industry or management function. We could also lose additional consultants if they choose to join the departing consultant at another executive search or consulting firm. Failing to limit departing consultants from moving business or recruiting our consultants to a competitor could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are working to advance culture change through the continued implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion ("DE&I") initiatives throughout our organization. If we do not or are perceived not to successfully implement these initiatives, our ability to recruit, attract and retain talent may be adversely impacted and shifts in perspective and expectations about social issues and priorities surrounding DE&I may occur at a faster pace than we are capable of managing effectively. If we are unable to identify, attract and retain sufficient talent in key positions, it may prevent us from achieving our strategic vision, disrupt our business, impact revenues, increase costs, damage employee morale and affect the quality and continuity of client service. In addition, risks associated with our recent reduction in headcount may be exacerbated if we are unable to retain qualified personnel.
Failing to maintain our professional reputation and the goodwill associated with our brand name could seriously harm our business.
We depend on our overall reputation and brand name recognition to secure new engagements and to hire qualified professionals. Our success also depends on the individual reputations of our professionals. We obtain a majority of our new engagements from existing clients or from referrals by those clients. Any client who is dissatisfied with our services can adversely affect our ability to secure new engagements. If any factor, including poor performance or negative publicity, whether or not true, hurts our reputation, we may experience difficulties in competing successfully for both new engagements and qualified consultants, which could seriously harm our business.
As we develop new services, clients and practices, enter new lines of business, and focus more of our business on providing a full range of client solutions, the demands on our business and our operating and legal risks may increase.
As part of our corporate strategy, we are attempting to leverage our research and consulting services to sell a full range of services across the life cycle of a policy, program, project or initiative, and we are regularly searching for ways to provide new services to clients, such as our entry into the Interim business and strategic acquisitions. This strategy, even if effectively executed, may prove insufficient in light of changes in market conditions, workforce trends, technology, competitive pressures or other external factors. In addition, we plan to extend our services to new clients and into new lines of business and geographic locations. As we focus on developing new services, clients, practice areas and lines of business; acquire or dispose of business; and engage in business in new geographic locations, our operations are exposed to additional as well as enhanced risks.
In particular, our growth efforts place substantial additional demands on our management and staff, as well as on our information, financial, administrative and operational systems. We may not be able to manage these demands successfully. Growth may require increased recruiting efforts, opening new offices, increased business development, selling, marketing and other actions that are expensive and entail increased risk. We may need to invest more in our people and systems, controls, compliance efforts, policies and procedures than we anticipate. Therefore, even if we do grow, the demands on our people and systems, controls, compliance efforts, policies and procedures may exceed the benefits of such growth, and our operating results may suffer, at least in the short-term, and perhaps in the long-term.
Efforts involving a different focus and/or new services, clients, practice areas, lines of business, offices and geographic locations entail inherent risks associated with our inexperience and competition from mature participants in those areas. Our inexperience may result in costly decisions that could harm our profit and operating results. In particular, new or improved services often relate to the development, implementation and improvement of critical infrastructure or operating systems that our clients may view as “mission critical,” and if we fail to satisfy the needs of our clients in providing these services, our clients could incur significant costs and losses for which they could seek compensation from us. As our business continues to evolve and we provide a wider range of services, we will become increasingly dependent upon our employees, particularly those operating in business environments less familiar to us. Failure to identify, hire, train and retain talented employees who share our values could have a negative effect on our reputation and our business.
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We are subject to potential legal liability from clients, employees, candidates for employment, stockholders and others. Insurance coverage may not be available to cover all of our potential liability and available coverage may not be sufficient to cover all claims that we may incur.
We are exposed to potential claims with respect to the executive search process and our consulting services, among numerous other matters. For example, a client could assert a claim for matters such as breach of an off-limit agreement or recommending a candidate who subsequently proves to be unsuitable for the position filled. Further, the current employer of a candidate whom we placed could file a claim against us alleging interference with an employment contract; a candidate could assert an action against us for failure to maintain the confidentiality of the candidate’s employment search; and a candidate or employee could assert an action against us for alleged discrimination, violations of labor and employment law or other matters. Also, in various countries, we are subject to data protection, employment and other laws impacting the processing of candidate information and other regulatory requirements that could give rise to liabilities/claims. Client dissatisfaction with the consulting services provided by our consultants may also lead to claims against us.
Additionally, as part of our consulting services, we often send a team of leadership consultants to our clients’ workplaces. Such consultants generally have access to client information systems and confidential information. An inherent risk of such activity includes possible claims of misuse or misappropriation of client IP, confidential information, funds or other property, as well as harassment, criminal activity, torts, or other claims. Such claims may result in negative publicity, injunctive relief, criminal investigations and/or charges, payment by us of monetary damages or fines, or other material adverse effects on our business.
From time to time, we may also be subject to legal actions or claims brought by our stockholders, including securities, derivative and class actions, for a variety of matters related to our operations, such as significant business transactions, cybersecurity incidents, volatility in our stock, and our responses to stockholder activism, among others. Such actions or claims and their resolution may result in defense costs, as well as settlements, fines or judgments against us, some of which are not, or cannot be, covered by insurance. The payment of any such costs, settlements, fines or judgments that are not insured could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, such matters may affect the availability or cost of some of our insurance coverage, which could adversely impact our results of operations and expose us to increased risks that would be uninsured.
We cannot ensure that our insurance will cover all claims or that insurance coverage will be available at economically acceptable rates. Our ability to obtain insurance, its coverage levels, deductibles and premiums, are all dependent on market factors, our loss history and insurers’ perception of our overall risk profile. Our insurance may also require us to meet a deductible. Significant uninsured liabilities could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to numerous and varied government regulations across the jurisdictions in which we operate.
Our business is subject to various federal, state, local, and foreign laws and regulations that are complex, change frequently and may become more stringent over time. Future legislation, regulatory changes or policy shifts under the current U.S. administration or other governments could impact our business. Our failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations could restrict our ability to provide certain services or result in the imposition of fines and penalties, substantial regulatory and compliance costs, litigation expense, adverse publicity, and loss of revenue. We incur, and expect to continue to incur, significant expenses in our attempt to comply with these laws, and our businesses are also subject to an increasing degree of compliance oversight by regulators and by our clients. In addition, our Digital services and increasing use of technology in our business expose us to data privacy and cybersecurity laws and regulations that vary and are evolving across jurisdictions. These and other laws and regulations, as well as laws and regulations in the various states or in other countries, could limit our ability to pursue business opportunities we might otherwise consider engaging in, impose additional costs or restrictions on us, result in significant loss of revenue, impact the value of assets we hold, or otherwise significantly adversely affect our business. Any failure by us to comply with applicable laws or regulations could also result in significant liability to us from private legal actions, or may result in the cessation of our operations or portions of our operations or impositions of fines and restrictions on our ability to carry on or expand our operations. Our operations could also be negatively affected by changes to laws and regulations and enhanced regulatory oversight of our clients and us. These changes may compel us to change our prices, may restrict our ability to implement price increases, and may limit the manner in which we conduct our business or otherwise may have a negative impact on our ability to generate revenues, earnings, and cash flows. If we are unable to adapt our products and services to conform to the new laws and regulations, or if these laws and regulations have a negative impact on our clients, we may experience client losses or increased operating costs, and our business and results of operations could be negatively affected.
As we incorporate AI and machine learning into our business there are uncertainties in the legal regulatory regime relating to AI that may require significant resources to modify and maintain business practices to comply with U.S. and non-U.S. laws, the nature of which cannot be determined at this time. Several jurisdictions around the globe, including Europe and certain U.S. States, have already proposed or enacted laws governing AI. For example, European regulators have proposed stringent AI regulations and laws, and the Company expects other jurisdictions will adopt similar legislation. Other jurisdictions may decide to adopt similar or more restrictive legislation that may render the use of such technologies challenging, impossible or financially prohibitive.
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Our business and operations are impacted by developing laws and regulations, as well as evolving investor and customer expectations with regard to, corporate responsibility matters and reporting, which expose us to numerous risks.
We are subject to evolving local, state, federal and/or international laws, regulations, and expectations regarding corporate responsibility matters, including sustainability, the environment, climate change, human capital management, DE&I, procurement, philanthropy, data privacy and cybersecurity, human rights, business risks and opportunities, including shifts in market preferences for reporting, more sustainable or socially responsible products and services, and other actions. These requirements, expectations, and/or frameworks, which can include assessment and ratings published by third-party firms, are not synchronized and vary by stakeholder, industry, and geography; as a result, they may: increase the time and cost of our efforts to monitor and comply with those obligations; limit the extent, frequency, and modality with which our consultants travel; impact our business opportunities, supplier and customer choices and reputation; and expose us to heightened scrutiny, liability, and risks that could negatively affect us. We report on our aspirations, targets, and initiatives related to corporate responsibility matters (both directly and in response to third-party inquiries), including our Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction goal for 2025 and our recently submitted goal to the Science-Based Target initiative. These efforts have also, and may in the future include, voluntary reporting intended to address certain third-party frameworks, such as the recommendations of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, the Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures and other mandatory or voluntary standards or assessments related to corporate responsibility matters. Our ability to achieve our corporate responsibility aspirations, which may change, or to meet these evolving expectations is not guaranteed and is subject to numerous risks, including the existence, cost, and availability of certain technology, methodologies, and processes, the acquisition and integration of new entities, and trends in demand. Failing to accurately report, progress on, or meet any such aspirations or expectations (including a perceived failure to do so) on a timely basis or at all could negatively affect our business, growth, results of operations, and reputation. Meeting or exceeding such aspirations or expectations also may not result in the benefits initially anticipated.
Within our own operations, we face additional costs: from rising energy costs, which make it more expensive to power our corporate offices; and efforts to mitigate or reduce our operations’ impacts from or on the environment, such as a shift to cloud technology or a leasing preference for buildings that are LEED-certified. We have also developed and offer corporate responsibility services and products designed to address customer demand for human capital management, DE&I, and sustainability matters within their own organizations and workforce, the success of which depends on many factors and may not be fully realized.
Risks Related to Our Profitability
We may not be able to align our cost structure with our revenue level, which in turn may require additional financing in the future that may not be available at all or may be available only on unfavorable terms.
Our efforts to align our cost structure with the current realities of our markets may not be successful. When actual or projected fee revenues are negatively impacted by weakening customer demand, we have and may again find it necessary to take cost cutting measures so that we can minimize the impact on our profitability, such as the restructuring recently initiated in the first half of fiscal 2024. Failing to maintain a balance between our cost structure and our revenue could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations and lead to negative cash flows, which in turn might require us to obtain additional financing to meet our capital needs. If we are unable to secure such additional financing on favorable terms, or at all, our ability to fund our operations could be impaired, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
Our financial results could suffer if we are unable to achieve or maintain adequate utilization and suitable billing rates for our consultants.
Our profitability depends, to a large extent, on the utilization and billing rates of our professionals. Utilization of our professionals is affected by a number of factors, including: the number and size of client engagements; the timing of the commencement, completion and termination of engagements (for example, the commencement or termination of multiple RPO engagements could have a significant impact on our business, including significant fluctuations in our fee revenue, since these types of engagements are generally larger, in terms of both staffing and fee revenue generated, than our other engagements); our ability to transition our consultants efficiently from completed engagements to new engagements; the hiring of additional consultants because there is generally a transition period for new consultants that results in a temporary drop in our utilization rate; unanticipated changes in the scope of client engagements; our ability to forecast demand for our services and thereby maintain an appropriate level of consultants; and conditions affecting the industries in which we practice, as well as general economic conditions.
The billing rates of our consultants that we are able to charge are also affected by a number of factors, including: our clients’ perception of our ability to add value through our services; the market demand for the services we provide, which may vary globally or within particular industries that we serve; an increase in the number of clients in the government sector in the industries we serve; the introduction of new services by us or our competitors; our competition and the pricing policies of our competitors; and current economic conditions.
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If we are unable to achieve and maintain adequate overall utilization, as well as maintain or increase the billing rates for our consultants, our financial results could materially suffer. In addition, our consultants oftentimes perform services at the physical locations of our clients. Natural disasters, pandemics, disruptions to travel and transportation or problems with communications systems negatively impact our ability to perform services for, and interact with, our clients at their physical locations, which could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
The profitability of our fixed-fee engagements with clients may not meet our expectations if we underestimate the cost of these engagements when pricing them.
When making proposals for fixed-fee engagements, we estimate the costs and timing for completing the engagements and these estimates may not be accurate. Any increased or unexpected costs or unanticipated delays in connection with the performance of fixed-fee engagements, including delays caused by factors outside our control, could make these contracts less profitable or unprofitable, which would have an adverse effect on our profit margin. Clients may also delay or cancel engagements, which could cause expected revenues to be realized at a later time or not at all. For the years ended 2024, 2023, and 2022, fixed-fee engagements represented 24%, 23%, and 22% of our revenues, respectively.
Inflationary pressure has and may continue to adversely impact our profitability.
Demand for our services is affected by global economic conditions and the general level of economic activity in the geographic regions in which we operate. During periods of slowed economic activity, many companies hire fewer permanent employees, and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. If unfavorable changes in regional or global economic conditions occur, our business, financial condition and results of operations could suffer. Accelerated and pronounced economic pressures, such as the ongoing inflationary cost pressures and rise in interest rates in the last few years, as well as geopolitical uncertainty, has and may continue to negatively impact our expense base by increasing our operating costs, including labor, borrowing, and other costs of doing business. Continued inflationary pressures may result in increases in operating costs that we may not be able to fully offset by raising prices for our services because if we do our clients may choose to reduce their business with us, which may reduce our operating margin.
Risks Related to Accounting and Taxation
Foreign currency exchange rate risks affect our results of operations.
A material portion of our revenue and expenses are generated by our operations in foreign countries, and we expect that our foreign operations will account for a material portion of our revenue and expenses in the future. Most of our international expenses and revenue are denominated in foreign currencies. As a result, our financial results are affected by changes in foreign currency exchange rates or weak economic conditions in foreign markets in which we have operations, among other factors. Fluctuations in the value of those currencies in relation to the U.S. dollar have caused and will continue to cause dollar-translated amounts to vary from one period to another. Such variations expose us to both adverse as well as beneficial movements in currency exchange rates. Given the volatility of exchange rates, we are not always able to manage effectively our currency translation or transaction risks, which has and may continue to adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
We have deferred tax assets that we may not be able to use under certain circumstances.
If we are unable to generate sufficient future taxable income in certain jurisdictions, or if there is a significant change in the time period within which the underlying temporary differences become taxable or deductible, we could be required to increase our valuation allowances against our deferred tax assets. This would result in an increase in our effective tax rate, and an adverse effect on our future operating results. In addition, changes in statutory tax rates may also change our deferred tax assets or liability balances, with either a favorable or unfavorable impact on our effective tax rate. Our deferred tax assets may also be impacted by new legislation or regulation.
Risks Related to Our Financing/Indebtedness
Our level of indebtedness could adversely affect our financial condition, our ability to operate our business, react to changes in the economy or our industry, prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under our indebtedness and could divert our cash flow from operations for debt payments.
As of April 30, 2024, we had approximately $400.0 million in total indebtedness outstanding, and $645.5 million of availability under our $650.0 million five-year senior secured revolving credit facility (the “Revolver”) provided for under our Credit Agreement, as amended on June 24, 2022 (the “Amended Credit Agreement”) that we entered into with a syndicate of banks and Bank of America, National Association as administrative agent. Subject to the limits contained in the Amended Credit Agreement that govern our Revolver and the indenture governing our $400.0 million principal amount of the 4.625% Senior Unsecured Notes due 2027 (the “Notes”), we may be able to incur substantial additional debt from time to time to finance working capital, capital expenditures, investments or acquisition, or for other purposes. If we do so, the risks related to our debt could increase.
Specifically, our level of debt could have important consequences to us, including the following: it may be difficult for us to satisfy our obligations, including debt service requirements under our outstanding debt; our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, debt service requirements, acquisitions or other general corporate
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purposes may be impaired; requiring a substantial portion of cash flow from operations to be dedicated to the payment of principal and interest on our indebtedness, including the Notes, therefore reducing our ability to use our cash flow to fund our operations, capital expenditures, future business opportunities and other purposes; we are more vulnerable to economic downturns and adverse industry conditions and our flexibility to plan for, or react to, changes in our business or industry is more limited; our ability to capitalize on business opportunities and to react to competitive pressures, as compared to our competitors, may be compromised due to our high level of debt and the restrictive covenants in the Amended Credit Agreement and the indenture governing our Notes; our ability to borrow additional funds or to refinance debt may be limited; and it may cause potential or existing customers to not contract with us due to concerns over our ability to meet our financial obligations, such as insuring against our professional liability risks, under such contracts. Furthermore, our debt under our Revolver bears interest at variable rates.
Despite our indebtedness levels, we and our subsidiaries may still incur substantially more debt, which could further exacerbate the risks associated with our substantial leverage.
We and our subsidiaries may incur substantial additional indebtedness in the future. The Amended Credit Agreement and the indenture governing our Notes contain restrictions on the incurrence of additional indebtedness, but these restrictions are subject to several qualifications and exceptions, and the indebtedness that may be incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be substantial. If we incur additional debt, the risks associated with our leverage, including those described above, would increase. Further, the restrictions in the indenture governing the Notes and the Amended Credit Agreement will not prevent us from incurring obligations, such as trade payables, that do not constitute indebtedness as defined in such debt instruments. As of April 30, 2024, we had $645.5 million available to incur additional secured indebtedness under our Revolver.
Our variable rate indebtedness subjects us to interest rate risk, which could cause our indebtedness service obligations to increase significantly.
Interest rates fluctuate. As a result, interest rates on the Revolver or other variable rate debt offerings could be higher or lower than current levels. When interest rates increase, as they have recently, our debt service obligations on our variable rate indebtedness, if any, increase even though the amount borrowed remained the same, and our net income and cash flows, including cash available for servicing our indebtedness, correspondingly decrease.
We may be unable to service our indebtedness.
Our ability to make scheduled payments on and to refinance our indebtedness depends on and is subject to our financial and operating performance, which in turn is affected by general and regional economic, financial, competitive, business and other factors, all of which are beyond our control, including the availability of financing in the international banking and capital markets. Lower total revenue generally will reduce our cash flow. We cannot assure you that our business will generate sufficient cash flow from operations or that future borrowings will be available to us in an amount sufficient to enable us to service our debt, to refinance our debt or to fund our other liquidity needs.
If we are unable to meet our debt service obligations or to fund our other liquidity needs, we will need to restructure or refinance all or a portion of our debt, which could cause us to default on our debt obligations and impair our liquidity. Our ability to restructure or refinance our debt will depend on the condition of the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. Any refinancing of our indebtedness could be at higher interest rates and may require us to comply with more onerous covenants that could further restrict our business operations.
Moreover, in the event of a default, the holders of our indebtedness, including the Notes, could elect to declare all the funds borrowed to be due and payable, together with accrued and unpaid interest, if any. The lenders under the Revolver could also elect to terminate their commitments thereunder, cease making further loans, and institute foreclosure proceedings against their collateral, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation. If we breach our covenants under the Revolver, we would be in default thereunder. The lenders could exercise their rights, as described above, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation.
The agreements governing our debt impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us and our subsidiaries, which may prevent us from capitalizing on business opportunities.
The Amended Credit Agreement and the indenture governing the Notes impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us. These restrictions limit our ability and the ability of our subsidiaries to, among other things: incur or guarantee additional debt or issue capital stock; pay dividends and make other distributions on, or redeem or repurchase, capital stock; make certain investments; incur certain liens; enter into transactions with affiliates; merge or consolidate; enter into agreements that restrict the ability of subsidiaries to make dividends, distributions or other payments to us or the guarantors; in the case of the indenture governing our Notes, designate restricted subsidiaries as unrestricted subsidiaries; and transfer or sell assets.
We and our subsidiaries are subject to covenants, representations and warranties in respect of the Revolver, including financial covenants as defined in the Amended Credit Agreement. See “Note 11 –Long-Term Debt” of our notes to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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As a result of these restrictions, we are limited as to how we conduct our business, and we may be unable to raise additional debt or equity financing to compete effectively or to take advantage of new business opportunities. The terms of any future indebtedness we may incur could include more restrictive covenants. We cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain compliance with these covenants in the future and, if we fail to do so, that we will be able to obtain waivers from the lenders and/or amend the covenants.
Our failure to comply with the restrictive covenants described above and/or the terms of any future indebtedness from time to time could result in an event of default, which, if not cured or waived, could result in our being required to repay these borrowings before their due date. If we are forced to refinance these borrowings on less favorable terms or cannot refinance these borrowings, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
A decline in our operating results or available cash could cause us to experience difficulties in complying with covenants contained in more than one agreement, which could result in our bankruptcy or liquidation.
If we sustain a decline in our operating results or available cash, we could experience difficulties in complying with the financial covenants contained in the Amended Credit Agreement. The failure to comply with such covenants could result in an event of default under the Revolver and by reason of cross-acceleration or cross-default provisions, other indebtedness may then become immediately due and payable. In addition, should an event of default occur, the lenders under our Revolver could elect to terminate their commitments thereunder, cease making loans and institute foreclosure proceedings against our assets, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation. If our operating performance declines, we may in the future need to obtain waivers from the lenders under our Revolver to avoid being in default. If we breach our covenants under our Revolver and seek a waiver, we may not be able to obtain a waiver from the lenders thereunder. If this occurs, we would be in default under our Revolver, the lenders could exercise their rights, as described above, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation.
Risks Related to Technology, Cybersecurity and Intellectual Property
Use of AI may result in operational challenges, legal liability, reputational concerns and privacy concerns and competitive risks.
Our business uses and intends to further rely on AI technology, which introduces certain risks including dependency on accurate AI performance, potential data privacy and security breaches, challenges in regulatory compliance, ethical considerations, potential workforce disruption, the risk of intellectual property infringement, and emerging technology risks. While we have established policies governing the use of AI technology, and we safeguard our assets, including intellectual property and sensitive information, we cannot ensure that our employees, contractors or other agents would adhere to those policies. Failure to address these risks adequately may negatively impact our operations, reputation and financial performance. Additionally, other unforeseen risks stemming from our use and development of AI tools and technology may arise in the future that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Technological advances may significantly disrupt the labor market and weaken demand for human capital at a rapid rate.
Our success is directly dependent on our customers’ demands for talent. As technology continues to evolve, more tasks currently performed by people have been and may continue to be replaced by automation, robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and other technological advances outside of our control. The human resource industry has been and continues to be impacted by significant technological changes, enabling companies to offer services competitive with ours. Many of those technological changes may (i) reduce demand for our services, (ii) enable the development of competitive products or services, or (iii) enable our current customers to reduce or bypass the use of our services, particularly in lower-skill job categories. Additionally, rapid changes in AI and generative AI which involves the use of advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques to create content, generate ideas, or simulate human-like behaviors and block chain-based technology are increasing the competitiveness landscape. We may not be successful in anticipating or responding to these changes and demand for our services could be further reduced by advanced technologies being deployed by our competitors. Technological developments such as these may materially affect the cost and use of technology by our clients and demand for our services, and if we do not sufficiently invest in new technology and industry developments, or if we do not make the right strategic investments to respond to these developments and successfully drive innovation, our services and solutions, our ability to generate demand for our services, attract and retain clients, and our ability to develop and achieve a competitive advantage and continue to grow could be negatively affected. If we are unable to keep pace with the industry changes this could result in an impairment of goodwill or other intangible assets and would have a negative impact on our profitability and operating results. In some cases, we depend on key vendors and partners to provide technology and other support. If these third parties fail to perform their obligations or cease to work with us, including as a result damage or disruption from fire, power loss, system malfunctions, telecommunications failure, computer viruses, cybersecurity attacks, natural disasters, acts of war or terrorism, employee errors or malfeasance, or other events beyond our control, our ability to execute on our strategic initiatives could be adversely affected.
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We have invested in specialized technology and other IP for which we may fail to fully recover our investment, or which may become obsolete.
We have invested in developing specialized technology and IP, including proprietary systems, processes and methodologies, that we believe provide us a competitive advantage in serving our current clients and winning new engagements. Many of our service and product offerings rely on specialized technology or IP that is subject to rapid change, and to the extent that this technology and IP is rendered obsolete and of no further use to us or our clients, our ability to continue offering these services, and grow our revenues, has been and may continue to be adversely affected. There is no assurance that we will be able to develop new, innovative or improved technology or IP or that our technology and IP will effectively compete with the IP developed by our competitors. If we are unable to develop new technology and IP or if our competitors develop better technology or IP, our revenues and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We rely heavily on our information systems, and if we lose that technology, or fail to further develop our technology, our business could be harmed.
Our success depends in large part upon our ability to store, retrieve, process, manage and protect substantial amounts of information. Our information systems are subject to the risk of failure, obsolescence and inadequacy. To achieve our strategic objectives and to remain competitive, we must continue to develop and enhance our information systems. This may require the acquisition of equipment and software and the development of new proprietary software, either internally or through independent consultants. If we are unable to design, develop, implement and utilize, in a cost-effective manner, information systems that provide the capabilities necessary for us to compete effectively, or for any reason any interruption or loss of our information processing capabilities occurs, this could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. We cannot be sure that our current insurance against the effects of a disaster regarding our information technology or our disaster recovery procedures will continue to be available at reasonable prices, cover all our losses or compensate us for the possible loss of clients occurring during any period that we are unable to provide business services.
We are subject to risk as it relates to software that we license from third parties.
We license software from third parties, much of which is integral to our systems and our business. The licenses are generally terminable if we breach our obligations under the license agreements. If any of these relationships were terminated or if any of these parties were to cease doing business or cease to support the applications we currently utilize, we may be forced to spend significant time and money to replace the licensed software. However, we cannot assure you that the necessary replacements will be available on reasonable terms, if at all.
We are dependent on third parties for the execution of certain critical functions.
We do not maintain all of our technology infrastructure, and we have outsourced certain other critical applications or business processes to external providers, including cloud-based services. The failure or inability to perform on the part of one or more of these critical suppliers or partners have caused, and could in the future cause significant disruptions and increased costs. We are also dependent on security measures that some of our third-party vendors and customers are taking to protect their own systems and infrastructures. If our third-party vendors do not maintain adequate security measures, do not require their sub-contractors to maintain adequate security measures, do not perform as anticipated and in accordance with contractual requirements, or become targets of cyber-attacks, we may experience operational difficulties and increased costs, which could materially and adversely affect our business.
Cybersecurity vulnerabilities and incidents have and may again lead to the improper disclosure of information obtained from our clients, candidates and employees, which could result in liability and harm to our reputation.
We use information technology and other computer resources to carry out operational and marketing activities and to maintain our business records.We rely on information technology systems to process, transmit, and store electronic information and to communicate among our locations around the world and with our clients, partners, and employees. The breadth and complexity of this infrastructure increases the risk of security incidents resulting in the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive or confidential information and other adverse consequences that could have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations. Our reliance on trained professionals to configure and operate this infrastructure creates the potential for human error, leading to potential exposure of sensitive or confidential information.
Our systems and networks and the vendors who provide us services are vulnerable to incidents, including physical and electronic break-ins, attacks by hackers, computer viruses, malware, worms, router disruption, sabotage or espionage, ransomware attacks, supply chain attacks, disruptions from unauthorized access and tampering (including through social engineering such as phishing attacks), employee error and misconduct, impersonation of authorized users and coordinated denial-of-service attacks. We have experienced and may again in the future experience cybersecurity incidents resulting from unauthorized access to our systems, which to date have not had a material impact on our business or results of operations; however, there is no assurance that such impacts will not be material in the future. Cyberattacks using AI are increasing, enabling automated phishing exploits and dynamic malware. These advancements pose challenges for traditional defense controls, emphasizing the need for new strategies and tools to protect against these threats. We expect cybersecurity incidents to continue to occur in the future.
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The continued occurrence of high-profile data breaches against various entities and organizations provides evidence of an external environment that is increasingly hostile to information security. This environment demands that we regularly improve our design and coordination of security controls across our business groups and geographies in order to protect information that we develop or that is obtained from our clients, candidates and employees. Despite these efforts, given the ongoing and increasingly sophisticated attempts to access the information of entities, our security controls over this information, our training of employees, and other practices we follow have not and may not prevent the improper disclosure of such information. Our efforts and the costs incurred to bolster our security against attacks cannot provide absolute assurance that future data breaches will not occur. We depend on our overall reputation and brand name recognition to secure new engagements. Perceptions that we do not adequately protect the privacy of information could inhibit attaining new engagements, qualified consultants and could potentially damage currently existing client relationships.
Further, unauthorized use or misuse of AI by the Company's employees, vendors or others may result in disclosure of confidential company and customer data, reputational harm, privacy law violations and legal liability. The Company's use of AI may also lead to novel and urgent cybersecurity risks, including access to or the misuse of personal data, all of which may adversely affect its operations and reputation.
Data security, data privacy and data protection laws, such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), and other evolving regulations and cross-border data transfer restrictions, may limit the use of our services, increase our costs and adversely affect our business.
We are subject to numerous U.S. and foreign jurisdiction laws and regulations designed to protect client, colleague, supplier and company data, such as the GDPR, which requires companies to meet stringent requirements regarding the handling of personal data, including its use, protection and transfer and the ability of persons whose data is stored to correct or delete such data about themselves. Complying with the enhanced obligations imposed by the GDPR has resulted and may continue to result in additional costs to our business and has required and may further require us to amend certain of our business practices. Failure to meet the GDPR requirements could result in significant penalties, including fines up to 4% of annual worldwide revenue. The GDPR also confers a private right of action on certain individuals and associations.
Laws and regulations in this area are evolving and generally becoming more stringent. For example, the New York State Department of Financial Services has issued cybersecurity regulations that outline a variety of required security measures for protection of data. Some U.S. states, including California and Virginia, have also enacted cybersecurity laws requiring certain security measures of regulated entities that are broadly similar to GDPR requirements, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act, California Privacy Rights Act and Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act. New privacy laws in Colorado took effect in calendar year 2023, and we expect that other states will continue to adopt legislation in this area. As these laws continue to evolve, we may be required to make changes to our services, solutions and/or products so as to enable the Company and/or our clients to meet the new legal requirements, including by taking on more onerous obligations in our contracts, limiting our storage, transfer and processing of data and, in some cases, limiting our service and/or solution offerings in certain locations. Changes in these laws, or the interpretation and application thereof, may also increase our potential exposure through significantly higher potential penalties for non-compliance. The costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, such laws and regulations and client demand in this area may limit the use of, or demand for, our services, solutions and/or products, make it more difficult and costly to meet client expectations, or lead to significant fines, penalties or liabilities for noncompliance, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
In addition, due to the uncertainty and potentially conflicting interpretations of these laws, it is possible that such laws and regulations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with applicable laws or satisfactorily protect personal information could result in governmental enforcement actions, litigation, or negative publicity, any of which could inhibit sales of our services, solutions and/or products.
Further, enforcement actions and investigations by regulatory authorities related to data security incidents and privacy violations continue to increase. It is possible that future enactment of more restrictive laws, rules or regulations and/or future enforcement actions or investigations could have an adverse impact on us through increased costs or restrictions on our businesses and noncompliance could result in regulatory penalties and significant legal liability.
Social media platforms present risks and challenges that can cause damage to our brand and reputation.
The inappropriate and/or unauthorized use of social media platforms, including blogs, social media websites and other forms of Internet-based communications, which allow individuals access to a broad audience of consumers and other interested persons by our clients or employees could increase our costs, cause damage to our brand, lead to litigation or result in information leakage, including the improper collection and/or dissemination of personally identifiable information of candidates and clients. In addition, negative or inaccurate posts or comments about us on any social networking platforms could damage our reputation, brand image and goodwill.
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Risks Related to Acquisitions
Acquisitions, or our inability to effect acquisitions, may have an adverse effect on our business.
We have completed several strategic acquisitions of businesses in the last several years, including our acquisition of The Lucas Group and Patina Solutions Group, Inc. in fiscal 2022 and Infinity Consulting Solutions and Salo LLC in fiscal 2023. Targeted acquisitions have been and continue to be part of our growth strategy, and we may in the future selectively acquire businesses that are complementary to our existing service offerings. However, we cannot be certain that we will be able to continue to identify appropriate acquisition candidates or acquire them on satisfactory terms. Our ability to consummate such acquisitions on satisfactory terms will depend on the extent to which acquisition opportunities become available; our success in bidding for the opportunities that do become available; negotiating terms that we believe are reasonable; and regulatory approval, if required.
Our ability to make strategic acquisitions may also be conditioned on our ability to fund such acquisitions through the incurrence of debt or the issuance of equity. Our Amended Credit Agreement limits us from consummating acquisitions unless we are in pro forma compliance with our financial covenants, and certain other conditions are met. If we are required to incur substantial indebtedness in connection with an acquisition, and the results of the acquisition are not favorable, the increased indebtedness could decrease the value of our equity. In addition, if we need to issue additional equity to consummate an acquisition, doing so would cause dilution to existing stockholders.
If we are unable to make strategic acquisitions, or the acquisitions we do make are not on terms favorable to us or not effected in a timely manner, it may impede the growth of our business, which could adversely impact our profitability and our stock price.
As a result of our acquisitions, we have substantial amounts of goodwill and intangible assets, and changes in business conditions could cause these assets to become impaired, requiring write-downs that would adversely affect our operating results.
All of our acquisitions have been accounted for as purchases and involved purchase prices well in excess of tangible net asset values, resulting in the creation of a significant amount of goodwill and other intangible assets. As of April 30, 2024, goodwill and purchased intangibles accounted for approximately 25% and 2%, respectively, of our total assets. We review goodwill and intangible assets annually (or more frequently, if impairment indicators arise) for impairment. Future events or changes in circumstances that result in an impairment of goodwill or other intangible assets would have a negative impact on our profitability and operating results.
An impairment in the carrying value of goodwill and other intangible assets could negatively impact our consolidated results of operations and net worth.
Goodwill is initially recorded as the excess of amounts paid over the fair value of net assets acquired. While goodwill is not amortized, it is reviewed for impairment at least annually or more frequently, if impairment indicators are present. In assessing the carrying value of goodwill, we make qualitative and quantitative assumptions and estimates about revenues, operating margins, growth rates and discount rates based on our business plans, economic projections, anticipated future cash flows and marketplace data. There are inherent uncertainties related to these factors and management’s judgment in applying these factors. Goodwill valuations have been calculated using an income approach based on the present value of future cash flows of each reporting unit and a market approach. We could be required to evaluate the carrying value of goodwill prior to the annual assessment if we experience unexpected, significant declines in operating results or sustained market capitalization declines. These types of events and the resulting analyses could result in goodwill impairment charges in the future and therefore impact the value of assets we hold, or otherwise significantly adversely affect our business, which could limit our financial flexibility and liquidity.
Risks Related to Global Operations
We are a cyclical company whose performance is tied to local and global economic conditions.
Demand for our services is affected by global economic conditions, including recessions, inflation, interest rates, tax rates and economic uncertainty, and the general level of economic activity in the geographic regions and industries in which we operate. When conditions in the global economy, including the credit markets, deteriorate, or economic activity slows, many companies hire fewer permanent employees and some companies, as a cost-saving measure, choose to rely on their own human resources departments rather than third-party search firms to find talent, and under these conditions, companies have cut back on human resource initiatives, all of which negatively affects our financial condition and results of operations. We also experience more competitive pricing pressure during periods of economic decline. If the geopolitical uncertainties result in a reduction in business confidence, when the national or global economy or credit market conditions in general deteriorate, the unemployment rate increases or any changes occur in U.S. trade policy (including any increases in tariffs that result in a trade war), such uncertainty or changes put negative pressure on demand for our services and our pricing, resulting in lower cash flows and a negative effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, some of our clients experience reduced access to credit and lower revenues, resulting in their inability to meet their payment obligations to us.
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We face risks associated with social and political instability, legal requirements and economic conditions in our international operations.
We operate in 51 countries and, during the year ended April 30, 2024, generated 45% of our fee revenue from operations outside of the U.S. We are exposed to the risk of changes in social, political, legal and economic conditions inherent in international operations. Examples of risks inherent in transacting business worldwide that we are exposed to include:
▪changes in and compliance with applicable laws and regulatory requirements, including U.S. laws affecting the activities of U.S. companies abroad, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 and sanctions programs administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control, and similar foreign laws such as the U.K. Bribery Act, as well as the fact that many countries have legal systems, local laws and trade practices that are unsettled and evolving, and/or commercial laws that are vague and/or inconsistently applied;
▪difficulties in staffing and managing global operations, which could impact our ability to maintain an effective system of internal control;
▪difficulties in building and maintaining a competitive presence in existing and new markets;
▪social, economic and political instability, including the repercussions of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the cessation of our business in Russia;
▪differences in cultures and business practices;
▪statutory equity requirements;
▪differences in accounting and reporting requirements;
▪repatriation controls;
▪differences in labor and market conditions;
▪potential adverse tax consequences;
▪multiple regulations concerning immigration, pay rates, benefits, vacation, statutory holiday pay, workers’ compensation, union membership, termination pay, the termination of employment, and other employment laws; and
▪the introduction of greater uncertainty with respect to trade policies, tariffs, disputes or disruptions, the termination or suspension of treaties, boycotts and government regulation affecting trade between the U.S. and other countries.
One or more of these factors has and may in the future harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Risks Related to Our Dividend Policy
You may not receive the level of dividends provided for in the dividend policy our Board of Directors has adopted or any dividends at all.
We are not obligated to pay dividends on our common stock. Despite our history of paying dividends, the declaration and payment of all future dividends to holders of our common stock are subject to the discretion of our Board of Directors, which may amend, revoke or suspend our dividend policy at any time and for any reason, including earnings, capital requirements, financial conditions and other factors our Board of Directors may deem relevant. The terms of our indebtedness may also restrict us from paying cash dividends on our common stock under certain circumstances. See below “—Our ability to pay dividends is restricted by agreements governing our debt, including our Amended Credit Agreement and indenture governing our Notes, and by Delaware law.”
Over time, our capital and other cash needs may change significantly from our current needs, which could affect whether we pay dividends and the level of any dividends we may pay in the future. If we were to use borrowings under our Revolver to fund our payment of dividends, we would have less cash and/or borrowing capacity available for future dividends and other purposes, which could negatively affect our financial condition, our results of operations, our liquidity and our ability to maintain and expand our business. Accordingly, you may not receive dividends in the intended amounts, or at all. Any reduction or elimination of dividends may negatively affect the market price of our common stock.
Our ability to pay dividends is restricted by agreements governing our debt, including our Amended Credit Agreement and indenture governing our Notes, and by Delaware law.
Both our Amended Credit Agreement and the indenture governing our Notes restrict our ability to pay dividends. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources,” where we describe the terms of our indebtedness, including provisions limiting our ability to declare and pay dividends. As a result of such restrictions, we may be limited in our ability to pay dividends unless we redeem our Notes and amend our Amended Credit Agreement or otherwise obtain a waiver from our lenders. In addition, as a result of general
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economic conditions, conditions in the lending markets, the results of our business or for any other reason, we may elect or be required to amend or refinance our Revolver, at or prior to maturity, or enter into additional agreements for indebtedness. Any such amendment, refinancing or additional agreement may contain covenants that could limit in a significant manner or entirely our ability to pay dividends to you. Additionally, under the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”), our Board of Directors may not authorize payment of a dividend unless it is either paid out of surplus, as calculated in accordance with the DGCL, or if we do not have a surplus, out of net profits for the fiscal year in which the dividend is declared and/or the preceding fiscal year. If, as a result of these restrictions, we are required to reduce or eliminate the payment of dividends, a decline in the market price or liquidity, or both, of our common stock could result. This may in turn result in losses for you.
Our dividend policy may limit our ability to pursue growth opportunities.
If we pay dividends at the level currently anticipated under our dividend policy, we may not retain a sufficient amount of cash to finance growth opportunities, meet any large unanticipated liquidity requirements or fund our operations in the event of a significant business downturn. In addition, because a portion of cash available will be distributed to holders of our common stock under our dividend policy, our ability to pursue any material expansion of our business, including through acquisitions, increased capital spending or other increases of our expenditures, will depend more than it otherwise would on our ability to obtain third party financing. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available to us at all, or at an acceptable cost. If we are unable to take timely advantage of growth opportunities, our future financial condition and competitive position may be harmed, which in turn may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
Risks Related to Our Stockholders
We have provisions that make an acquisition of us more difficult and expensive.
Anti-takeover provisions in our Certificate of Incorporation, our Bylaws and under Delaware law make it more difficult and expensive for us to be acquired in a transaction that is not approved by our Board of Directors. Some of the provisions in our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws include: limitations on stockholder actions; advance notification requirements for director nominations and actions to be taken at stockholder meetings; and the ability to issue one or more series of preferred stock by action of our Board of Directors.
These provisions could discourage an acquisition attempt or other transaction in which stockholders could receive a premium over the current market price for the common stock.
General Risk Factors
Failing to retain our executive officers and key personnel or integrate new members of our senior management who are critical to our business may prevent us from successfully managing our business in the future.
Our future success depends upon the continued service of our executive officers and other key management personnel. Competition for qualified personnel is intense, and we may compete with other companies that have greater financial and other resources than we do. If we lose the services of one or more of our executives or key employees, or if one or more of them decides to join a competitor or otherwise compete directly or indirectly with us, or if we are unable to integrate new members of our senior management who are critical to our business, we may not be able to successfully manage our business or achieve our business objectives.
Changes in our accounting estimates and assumptions and other financial reporting standards could negatively affect our financial position and results of operations.
We prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. These accounting principles require us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of our financial statements. We are also required to make certain judgments that affect the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during each reporting period. We periodically evaluate our estimates and assumptions. Our consolidated financial statements also reflect estimates of the impact of the macroeconomic environment, including the impact of inflation, foreign exchange rate fluctuations and other conditions which have led to disruptions in commerce and price stability. Actual results could differ from the estimates we make based on historical experience and various assumptions believed to be reasonable based on specific circumstances, and changes in accounting standards could have an adverse impact on our future financial position and results of operations.
Unfavorable tax laws, tax law changes and tax authority rulings may adversely affect results.
We are subject to income taxes in the U.S. and in various foreign jurisdictions. Domestic and international tax liabilities are subject to the allocation of income among various tax jurisdictions. Our effective tax rate could be adversely affected by changes in the mix of earnings among countries with differing statutory tax rates or changes in tax laws. Further changes in tax laws of jurisdictions in which we operate could arise under the two-pillar Base Erosion and Profit Shifting framework set forth by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, including the Pillar Two global minimum tax. The amount of our income taxes and other taxes are subject to audits by U.S. federal, state and local tax authorities and by non-U.S. authorities. If these audits result in assessments different from estimated amounts recorded, future financial results may include unfavorable tax adjustments.
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Future changes in tax laws, treaties or regulations, and their interpretations or enforcement, may be unpredictable, particularly as taxing jurisdictions face an increasing number of political, budgetary and other fiscal challenges. Tax rates in the jurisdictions in which we operate may change as a result of macroeconomic and other factors outside of our control, making it increasingly difficult for multinational corporations like ourselves to operate with certainty about taxation in many jurisdictions.
As a result, we have been and may again be materially adversely affected by future changes in tax law or policy (or in their interpretation or enforcement) in the jurisdictions where we operate, including the U.S., which could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, results of operations, financial condition, as well as our effective income tax rate.
Limited protection of our IP could harm our business, and we face the risk that our services or products may infringe upon the IP rights of others.
We cannot guarantee that trade secrets, trademark and copyright law protections are adequate to deter misappropriation of our IP (which has become an important part of our business). Existing laws of some countries in which we provide services or products may offer only limited protection of our IP rights. Redressing infringements may consume significant management time and financial resources. Also, we cannot detect all unauthorized use of our IP and take the necessary steps to enforce our rights, which may have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition or results of operations. We cannot be sure that our services and products, or the products of others that we offer to our clients, do not infringe on the IP rights of third parties, and we may have infringement claims asserted against us or our clients. These claims may harm our reputation, result in financial liability and prevent us from offering some services or products.
We may not be able to successfully integrate or realize the expected benefits from our acquisitions.
Our future success depends in part on our ability to complete the integration of acquisition targets successfully into our operations. The process of integrating an acquired business subjects us to a number of risks, including:
▪diversion of management attention;
▪amortization of intangible assets, adversely affecting our reported results of operations;
▪inability to retain and/or integrate the management, key personnel and other employees of the acquired business;
▪inability to properly integrate businesses resulting in operating inefficiencies;
▪inability to establish uniform standards, disclosure controls and procedures, internal control over financial reporting and other systems, procedures and policies in a timely manner;
▪inability to retain the acquired company’s clients;
▪exposure to legal claims for activities of the acquired business prior to acquisition; and
▪incurrence of additional expenses in connection with the integration process.
If our acquisitions are not successfully integrated, our business, financial condition and results of operations, as well as our professional reputation, could be materially adversely affected.
Further, we cannot assure you that acquisitions will result in the financial, operational or other benefits that we anticipate. Some acquisitions may not be immediately accretive to earnings and some expansion may result in significant expenditures.
Businesses we acquire may have liabilities or adverse operating issues that could harm our operating results.
Businesses we acquire may have liabilities or adverse operating issues, or both, that we either fail to discover through due diligence or underestimate prior to the consummation of the acquisition. These liabilities and/or issues may include the acquired business’ failure to comply with, or other violations of, applicable laws, rules or regulations or contractual or other obligations or liabilities. As the successor owner, we may be financially responsible for, and may suffer harm to our reputation or otherwise be adversely affected by, such liabilities and/or issues. An acquired business also may have problems with internal controls over financial reporting, which could in turn cause us to have significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in our own internal controls over financial reporting. These and any other costs, liabilities, issues, and/or disruptions associated with any past or future acquisitions, and the related integration, could harm our operating results.
We may be subject to the actions of activist stockholders, which could disrupt our business.
We value constructive input from investors and regularly engage in dialogue with our stockholders regarding strategy and performance. Activist stockholders who disagree with the composition of the Board of Directors, our strategy or the way the Company is managed may seek to effect change through various strategies and channels, such as through commencing a proxy contest, making public statements critical of our performance or business or engaging in other similar activities. Responding to stockholder activism can be costly and time-consuming, disrupt our operations, and divert the attention of management and our employees from our strategic initiatives. Activist campaigns can create perceived uncertainties as to our future direction, strategy, or leadership and may result in the loss of potential business opportunities, harm our ability to attract new employees, investors, and customers, and cause our stock price to experience periods of volatility or stagnation.
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We face various risks related to health epidemics, pandemics, and similar outbreaks that negatively impact our operations and financial performance and those of the clients we serve. The ultimate magnitude of any future pandemics or similar outbreaks depends on numerous factors, the full extent of which we may not be capable of predicting.
Our business and financial results have been, and could be in the future, adversely affected by health epidemics, pandemics, and similar outbreaks. Pandemics can cause a global slowdown in economic activity, a decrease in demand for a broad variety of goods and services, disruptions in global supply chains, and significant volatility and disruption of financial markets. Because the severity, magnitude and duration of a pandemic and its economic consequences are uncertain and vary by region, its full impact on our operations and financial performance is uncertain and difficult to predict. Further, a pandemic’s ultimate impact depends in part on many factors not within our control, including (1) restrictive governmental and business actions (including travel restrictions, vaccine mandates, testing requirements, and other workforce limitations), (2) economic stimulus, funding and relief programs and other governmental economic responses, (3) the effectiveness of governmental actions, (4) economic uncertainty in key global markets and financial market volatility, (5) levels of economic contraction or growth, (6) the impact of the pandemic on health and safety and (7) the availability and effectiveness of vaccines and booster shots.
In addition, pandemics can subject our operations and financial performance to a number of risks, including operational challenges, such as heightened attention to employee health and safety, workplace disruptions or shutdowns, cybersecurity risks, supplier disruptions or delays, and travel restrictions, as well as client-related risks, as clients may experience similar disruptions, fluctuations, and restrictions that may impact our ability to provide products and services to our clients (or for clients to pay for such products and services) and may reduce demand for our products and services.
Bank failures or other events affecting financial institutions could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition, or have other adverse consequences.
The failure of a bank that we use, or events involving limited liquidity, non-performance or other adverse conditions in the financial or credit markets impacting financial institutions at which we maintain balances, or concerns or rumors about such events, may lead to disruptions in access to our cash balances, adversely impact our liquidity, including our ability to borrow under our credit facility, or limit our ability to process transactions related to our clients. In the events of a failure of a bank or other financial institution that holds our cash deposits, there can be no assurance that our deposits in excess of the FDIC or other comparable insurance limits will be recoverable or, even if ultimately recoverable, there may be significant delays in our ability to access those funds. Furthermore, bank failures, non-performance, or other adverse developments that affect financial institutions could impair the ability of one or more of the banks participating in our credit facility from honoring their commitments. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
Not applicable.
Item 1C. Cybersecurity
Risk Management and Strategy
We have an established cybersecurity risk management program designed to identify, assess, manage, mitigate, and respond to cybersecurity threats. Our cyber risk management program is designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our systems and the data of our clients, candidates and company. This program and its processes are an integral component of our enterprise risk management ("ERM") program.
Our cybersecurity program leverages several industry and regulatory frameworks, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology ("NIST") Cybersecurity Framework, International Organization for Standardization Information Security Management Systems ("ISO 27001"), and the Center for Internet Security Critical Security Controls. Our approach to protecting our systems uses the concept of defense in depth, providing multiple layers of defense, monitoring, and controls. It is a mutually supporting environment of fit-for-purpose technology, established processes, trained security and operations personnel, and supporting external services.
As of the date of this report, we have not experienced a cybersecurity incident that has materially affected us, including our business strategy, results of operations or financial condition. While we have not experienced any material cybersecurity threats or incidents, there can be no guarantee that we will not be the subject of future successful attacks, threats or incidents. Risks from cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any previous cybersecurity incidents, have not materially affected us, including our business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition, but we face certain ongoing risks from cybersecurity threats that, if realized, are reasonably likely to have such an effect. Additional information on cybersecurity risks we face can be found in Item 1A “Risk Factors” under the heading “Risks Related to Technology, Cybersecurity and Intellectual Property,” which should be read in conjunction with the foregoing information.
People
Our global security team is led by our Global Vice President Security who reports to the Chief Information Officer. Our Chief Information Officer has more than three decades of technology, security and leadership experience across both the public
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and private sector. The Global Vice President Security leads the strategy and execution of our cybersecurity program, has more than two decades of dedicated security experience, and holds multiple security qualifications including Certified Information Systems Security Professional ("CISSP"). He leads an experienced security team, organized and geographically structured with the goal of maximizing responsiveness and coverage for our global enterprise. The team is additionally supported through external services and on demand incident response capabilities. These capabilities include pre-established relationships with industry leading providers for incident containment, forensic analysis, systems recovery, legal advice, and external communications assistance.
Technology
Korn Ferry has invested in a spectrum of security tools and capabilities designed to prevent compromise of our systems and data. These solutions are selected from well recognized industry leaders and encompass a wide range of security capabilities including, among other things, threat detection, prevention, system monitoring, logging, vulnerability assessment, incident and event management, system and cloud configuration and permission management. To validate the effectiveness of our security capabilities and our supporting environment we assess them across multiple dimensions. This includes the use of independent external third-party security firms to conduct external and internal penetration tests, vulnerability assessments, and audits.
Process
We leverage a structured process framework based on ISO 27001 to minimize cyber risks and facilitate continuous improvement. We adhere to the principle of least privilege when provisioning access to systems, seeking to limit potential abuse of system privileges by internal or external threats. We train our employees annually in cybersecurity awareness and responsibilities and we engage them throughout the year with phishing awareness exercises, additional focused training, and messaging about current and persistent threats. Employees with privileged access to systems are further trained in security-by-design principles, centered on best practices for securely developing and managing software systems.
Our software development processes are governed by a structured systems development lifecycle process that is designed to review new features and system changes for adherence to security requirements prior to deployment. Our systems are further protected via a regular cadence of patching and prioritized vulnerability remediation. Lastly, the use of third-party software in our environment is governed by our third-party risk management (“TPRM”) program, which is designed to assess and remediate cyber and business risks associated with vendor-provided software and services.
Integral to our cybersecurity processes is our Security Incident Response Plan ("SIRP"), designed to facilitate the timely and accurate reporting of any material cybersecurity incident. The incident management process is designed so that incidents are appropriately categorized and escalated to the Security Incident Response Team ("SIRT") for action and materiality determination. Our SIRT is comprised of senior executives including the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer, Global Vice President Security, Co-Chief Privacy Officers, General Counsel and other members as required depending on the nature of the incident. In addition to managing escalated incidents, the SIRT conducts tabletop exercises to simulate various threat scenarios, and outcomes are used to build experience and to refine the SIRP and response approaches. Korn Ferry has also maintained cyber insurance for more than a decade.
Korn Ferry has been certified by the British Standards Institute (BSI) to ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27018 for our key technology platforms and processes across global operations.
Governance
Board of Directors Oversight
Our Board is responsible for the oversight of the Company's overall ERM program, which includes cybersecurity risks. The Board is briefed at least annually by the Chief Information Officer on the readiness and efficacy of the cybersecurity program. These briefs include a review of the Company’s cybersecurity initiatives, key security metrics, business continuity and disaster recovery plans and updates on evolving cyber threats and mitigation plans. These briefs also review significant updates to procedures, policies, and controls used to identify, manage, and mitigate cybersecurity risks. The Board is supported in this oversight by the Audit Committee, which receives regular updates from members of the executive leadership team including the Chief Financial Officer, General Counsel, Chief Information Officer, and the Senior Vice President Internal Audit on emerging cybersecurity risks and issues.
Management Oversight
Management regularly assesses and identifies potential cybersecurity risks as a key component of the Company’s ERM program. The Company's cyber risks are reviewed and prioritized as part of the annual Enterprise Risk Assessment and ongoing quarterly reviews. Changes in these risks are communicated at least quarterly to the Audit Committee. Management further enables regular reviews of systemic, emerging, and ongoing security and data privacy risks through a standing body, the Privacy and Security Executive Committee ("PEC/SEC") which meets quarterly and whose reporting is used to inform the Audit Committee and annual reporting to the Board of Directors. The PEC/SEC is comprised of senior management including the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer, Global Vice President Security, Co-Chief Privacy Officers, Chief Human Resources Officer, General Counsel and other senior leaders as required.
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Item 2. Properties
Our corporate office is in Los Angeles, California. We lease our corporate office as well as an additional 102 offices through which we conduct business that are located in North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific and Latin America, all of which are used by all of our business segments. As of April 30, 2024, we leased an aggregate of approximately 0.9 million square feet of office space. The leases generally have remaining terms of 1 to 13 years and contain customary terms and conditions. We believe that our facilities are adequate for our current needs, and we do not anticipate any significant difficulty replacing such facilities or locating additional facilities to accommodate any future growth.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
From time to time, we are involved in litigation both as a plaintiff and a defendant, relating to claims arising out of our operations. As of the date of this report, we are not engaged in any legal proceedings that are expected, individually or in the aggregate, to have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
Information about our Executive Officers
Name Age as of April 30, 2024 Position
Gary D. Burnison 63 President and Chief Executive Officer
Mark Arian 63 Chief Executive Officer, Consulting
Michael Distefano 54 Chief Executive Officer, Professional Search & Interim
Jeanne MacDonald 55 Chief Executive Officer, RPO
Our executive officers serve at the discretion of our Board of Directors. There is no family relationship between any executive officer or director. The following information sets forth the business experience for at least the past five years for each of our executive officers.
Gary D. Burnison has been President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company since July 2007. He was the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Company from March 2002 until June 30, 2007, and Chief Operating Officer from October 2003 until June 30, 2007. Prior to joining Korn Ferry, Mr. Burnison was Principal and Chief Financial Officer of Guidance Solutions, a privately held consulting firm, from 1999 to 2001. Prior to that, he served as an executive officer and a member of the board of directors of Jefferies and Company, Inc., the principal operating subsidiary of Jefferies Group, Inc. from 1995 to 1999. Earlier, Mr. Burnison was a Partner at KPMG Peat Marwick. Mr. Burnison earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Southern California.
Robert P. Rozek joined the Company in February 2012 as our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and, in December 2015, also became our Chief Corporate Officer. Prior to joining Korn Ferry, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., a privately held commercial real estate services firm, from June 2008 to February 2012. Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., Mr. Rozek served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp., a leading global developer of destination properties (integrated resorts) that feature premium accommodations, world-class gaming and entertainment, convention and exhibition facilities and many other amenities, from 2006 to 2008. Prior to that, Mr. Rozek held senior leadership positions at Eastman Kodak, and spent five years as a Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Mr. Rozek is a graduate of Canisius College in New York with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.
Mark Arian joined the Company as Chief Executive Officer of Korn Ferry’s Advisory segment in April 2017 and is now the Chief Executive Officer of Consulting. Prior to Korn Ferry, Mr. Arian served as a Managing Principal at Ernst & Young LLP, a multinational professional services firm that provides audit, tax, business risk, technology and security risk services, and human capital services worldwide, from March 2014 until March of 2017. In that capacity, he led the People Advisory Services—Financial Services Sector, and his responsibilities included commercial, people and key account leadership. Between 2008 and 2014, Mr. Arian held various leadership positions at AON and AON Hewitt, a provider of insurance, reinsurance, human capital and management consulting services, serving as an Executive Vice President and leading its strategic Mergers and Acquisitions (“M&A”) and business transformation offering globally. Mr. Arian has also held various leadership positions at Towers Perrin (now Wills Towers Watson) including serving as the Global M&A and Global Change Management leader, and Hewitt Associates, where Mr. Arian built and led the Corporate Restructuring and Change Practice. Mr. Arian is a graduate of Duke University and holds a juris doctorate from Columbia University.
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