Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. (‘Heidrick & Struggles’) operates as a human capital leadership advisory firm.
The company is providing executive search, consulting and on-demand talent services to businesses and business leaders worldwide to help them to improve the effectiveness of their leadership teams. The company provides its services to a broad range of clients through the expertise of over 500 consultants located in major cities around the world.
The company’s service offering...
Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. (‘Heidrick & Struggles’) operates as a human capital leadership advisory firm.
The company is providing executive search, consulting and on-demand talent services to businesses and business leaders worldwide to help them to improve the effectiveness of their leadership teams. The company provides its services to a broad range of clients through the expertise of over 500 consultants located in major cities around the world.
The company’s service offerings include the following:
Executive Search. The company partners with its clients - respected organizations across the globe - to help them build and sustain the best leadership teams in the world, with a specialized focus on the placement of top-level senior executives. Through the company’s unique relationship-based, data-driven approach, the company helps its clients find the right leaders, set them up for success, and accelerate their and their team’s performance.
The company’s executive search services derive revenue through the fees generated for each search engagement, which generally are based on the annual compensation for the placed executive. The company provides its Executive Search services primarily on a retained basis.
The company employs a global approach to executive search built on better insights, more data and faster decision making facilitated by the use of the company’s Heidrick Leadership Framework and Heidrick Connect. The company’s Heidrick Leadership Framework allows clients to holistically evaluate a candidate's pivotal experience and expertise, leadership capabilities, agility and potential, and culture fit and impact, thereby allowing the company’s clients to find the right person for the role. The company supplements its Heidrick Leadership Framework through a series of additional online tools including the company’s Leadership Accelerator, Leadership Signature and Culture Signature assessments. Heidrick Connect, a completely digital, always available client experience portal, allows the company’s clients to access talent insights for each engagement, including the Heidrick Leadership Framework and other internally developed assessment tools. In response to working remotely, the company’s Executive Search teams employed Heidrick Connect to operate effectively and efficiently while engaging virtually with the company’s clients. Additionally, the company has introduced upgrades to Heidrick Connect, resulting in greater flexibility, increased productivity and the ability to deliver more insights to the company’s clients.
The executive search industry consists of several thousand executive search firms worldwide. Executive search firms are generally separated into two broad categories: retained search and contingency search. Retained executive search firms fulfill their clients’ senior leadership needs by identifying potentially qualified candidates and assisting clients in evaluating and assessing these candidates. Retained executive search firms generally are compensated for their services regardless of whether the client employs a candidate identified by the search firm and are generally retained on an exclusive basis. Typically, retained executive search firms are paid a retainer for their services equal to approximately one-third of the estimated first year compensation for the position to be filled. In addition, if the actual compensation of a placed candidate exceeds the estimated compensation, executive search firms often are authorized to bill the client for one-third of the excess. In contrast, contingency search firms are compensated only upon successfully placing a recommended candidate.
The company is a retained executive search firm. The company’s search process typically consists of the following steps:
Analyzing the client’s business needs in order to understand its organizational structure, relationships and culture, advising the client as to the required set of skills and experiences for the position, and identifying with the client the other characteristics desired of the successful candidate;
Selecting, contacting, interviewing and evaluating candidates on the basis of experience and potential cultural fit with the client organization;
Presenting confidential written reports on the candidates who potentially fit the position specification;
Scheduling a mutually convenient meeting between the client and each candidate;
Completing reference checks on the final candidate selected by the client; and
Assisting the client in structuring compensation packages and supporting the successful candidate’s integration into the client team.
On-Demand Talent. The company’s on-demand services provide clients seamless on-demand access to top independent talent, including professionals with deep industry and functional expertise for interim leadership roles and critical, project-based initiatives. The company’s unique model delivers the right independent talent on demand by blending proprietary data and technology with a dedicated Talent Solutions team. In February 2023, the company acquired Atreus Group GmbH (‘Atreus’), a leading provider of executive interim management in Germany, allowing the company to establish and grow the company’s on-demand talent presence in continental Europe.
Heidrick Consulting. The company partners with organizations through Heidrick Consulting to unlock the power of their people. The company’s tools and experts use data and technology designed to bring science to the art of human capital development and organizational design. The company’s services allow its clients to accelerate their strategies and the effectiveness of individual leaders, teams and organizations as a whole. In April 2023, the company acquired businessfourzero, a next generation consultancy specializing in developing and implementing purpose-driven change, which complements the company’s existing culture shaping services to offer a broader, more robust set of leadership advisory solutions.
Heidrick Consulting offers the company’s clients impactful approaches to human capital development through a myriad of solutions, ranging from leadership assessment and development, team and organization acceleration, digital acceleration and innovation, diversity and inclusion advisory services, and culture shaping. Applying the company’s deep understanding of the behaviors and attributes of leaders across many of the world’s premier companies, the company guides its clients as they build a thriving culture of future-ready leadership. These premium services and offerings, which complement the company’s Executive Search expertise, significantly contribute to its ability to deliver a full-service human capital consulting solution to the company’s clients.
The company’s consulting services generate revenue primarily through the professional fees generated for each engagement, which are generally based on the size of the project and scope of services. The company’s Heidrick Consulting teams have pivoted to create new digital solutions for Leadership Assessments, Team Acceleration, and Organization and Culture Acceleration that can be delivered virtually.
The company provides senior-level executive search and consulting services to its clients worldwide through a network of 61 offices in 30 countries. The company operates its Executive Search services in three geographic regions, each of which is reported as a separate reporting segment: the Americas (which includes the countries in North and South America); Europe (which includes the continents of Europe and Africa); and the Asia Pacific (which includes Asia and the region generally known as the Middle East). The company’s On-Demand Talent and Heidrick Consulting reporting segments operate globally.
Americas Executive Search. As of December 31, 2023, the company had 213 consultants in the company’s Americas segment. The largest offices in this segment are located in New York, Chicago, and Boston.
Europe Executive Search. As of December 31, 2023, the company had 124 consultants in the company’s Europe segment. The largest countries in this segment are the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.
Asia Pacific Executive Search. As of December 31, 2023, the company had 77 consultants in the company’s Asia Pacific segment. The largest countries in this segment are Australia, China (including Hong Kong), and the United Arab Emirates.
On-Demand Talent. The largest countries in this segment are the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Heidrick Consulting. As of December 31, 2023, the company had 89 consultants in the company’s Heidrick Consulting segment. The largest countries in this segment are the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates.
Within the Financial Services sector, the company’s business is diversified amongst a number of industry sub-sectors, including Asset & Wealth Management, Consumer & Commercial Finance, Commodities, Corporate and Transaction Banking, Global Markets, Hedge Fund, Infrastructure, Investment Banking, Insurance, Private Equity Investment Professionals and Real Estate.
The company services its clients with global industry interests and needs through unified global executive search teams who specialize in industry practices. This go-to-market strategy allows the company to leverage its global diversity and market intelligence and is designed to provide better client service.
Global Functional Practices. The company’s Executive Search consultants also specialize in searches for specific ‘C-level’ functional positions, which are roles that generally report directly to the chief executive officer.
The company’s Global Functional Practices include Chief Executive Officer & Board of Directors; Human Resources Officers; Financial Officers; Digital Officers; Technology Officers; Legal, Risk, Compliance & Government Affairs; Marketing, Sales and Strategy Officers and Supply Chain and Operations Officers.
The company’s team of Executive Search consultants may service clients from any one of the company’s offices around the world. For example, an executive search for a chief financial officer of an industrial company located in the United Kingdom may involve an executive search consultant in the United Kingdom with an existing relationship with the client, another executive search consultant in the United States with expertise in the company’s Industrial practice and a third executive search consultant with expertise in recruiting chief financial officers. This same industrial client may also engage the company to perform skill-based assessments for each of its senior managers, which could require the expertise of one of the company’s leadership advisory consultants trained in this service.
Client Base
For many of the company’s clients, the company’s global access to and knowledge of regional and functional markets and candidate talent is an important differentiator of the company’s business. The company’s clients generally fall into one of the following categories: Fortune 1000 companies; major U.S. and non-U.S. companies; middle market and emerging growth companies; private equity firms; governmental, higher education and not-for-profit organizations; and other leading private and public entities.
Clients and Marketing
The company’s consultants market the firm’s executive search and consulting services through two principal means: targeted client calling and industry networking with clients and referral sources. These efforts are supported by proprietary databases, which provide the company’s consultants with information as to contacts made by their colleagues with particular referral sources, candidates and clients. In addition, the company benefit from a significant number of referrals generated by the company’s reputation for high quality service and successfully completed assignments, as well as repeat business resulting from the company’s ongoing client relationships.
In the support of client calling and networking, the practice teams, as well as individual consultants also author and publish articles and white papers on a variety of leadership and talent topics and trends around the world. The company’s consultants often present research findings and talent insights at notable conferences and events as well. The company’s insights are sometimes acknowledged by major media outlets and trade journalists. These efforts aid in the marketing of the company’s services as well.
Competition
The company’s competitors include Egon Zehnder International, Korn Ferry, Russell Reynolds Associates, and Spencer Stuart.
Seasonality
There is no discernible seasonality in the company’s business, although as a percentage of total annual net revenue, the first quarter (year ended December 2023) is typically the lowest.
Regulation
Certain aspects of the company’s business are subject to the EU's and U.K.'s General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’). The company has a global privacy program to facilitate its ongoing efforts to comply with global privacy regulations, including GDPR and other rapidly emerging privacy and data protection laws in countries, such as Brazil and China, or states in the U.S., such as California.
Research and Development (R&D)
The company’s consolidated R&D expenses were $22.7 million in 2023.
History
Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. was founded in 1953. The company was incorporated as a Delaware corporation in 1968.
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