Korn Ferry - Earnings Call - Q4 2025
June 18, 2025
Executive Summary
- Q4 FY’25 fee revenue was $712.0M, up 3% YoY (4% cc), with adjusted diluted EPS of $1.32; both Revenue and EPS exceeded S&P Global consensus, driving a clean beat and supportive near-term sentiment. Revenue consensus: $689.9M*; EPS consensus: $1.26*.
- Executive Search delivered standout growth (+14% YoY to $227.0M) with higher engagements billed and improved productivity; RPO and Digital were modest positives, while Consulting declined on longer-duration engagements and slower client consumption.
- FY’25 adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 17.0% (+70bps YoY in Q4) on disciplined cost management; Q1 FY’26 guidance implies fee revenue of $675–$695M and adjusted diluted EPS of $1.18–$1.26, indicating stable momentum into the new fiscal year.
- Management emphasized multi-solution engagement and monetizing Korn Ferry’s IP via Talent Suite and ecosystem partnerships as medium-term catalysts; estimated remaining fees under existing contracts reached ~$1.7B (+12% YoY), underscoring demand durability.
What Went Well and What Went Wrong
What Went Well
- Executive Search strength: Fee revenue +14% YoY to $227.0M; adjusted EBITDA margin +100bps to 23.9%, driven by more engagements billed and higher weighted-average fees; broad-based growth across NA/EMEA/APAC.
- Strong profitability: Adjusted EBITDA $121.1M (+8% YoY), margin 17.0% (+70bps YoY), reflecting cost discipline and productivity gains.
- Demand visibility: New operating metric “estimated remaining fees under existing contracts” totaled ~$1.7B, with ~57% expected to be recognized within the next year (confidence in forward revenue).
- Management quote: “Our strategy is working…The breadth of our solutions provides more durable and synergistic revenue, offering really a growth foundation for tomorrow.”
What Went Wrong
- Consulting softness: Fee revenue down 7% YoY to $169.4M; adjusted EBITDA margin -60bps to 17.2%; mix shifted to larger, multi-year engagements and slower client consumption.
- PSI mixed: Professional Search & Interim fee revenue +1% YoY (Interim helped by Trilogy acquisition) but margin -80bps to 21.0%; permanent placement remained pressured by industry-wide demand slowdown.
- Macro headwinds: Management highlighted a “cost of living crisis,” limited corporate pricing power, lower turnover, and an anemic labor market environment impacting near-term velocity of spend.
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Korn Ferry Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. We have also made available in the investor relations section of our website at kornferry.com a copy of the financial presentation that we will be reviewing with you today. Before I turn the call over to your host, Mr. Gary Burnison, let me first read a cautionary statement to investors. Certain statements made in today's call, such as those relating to future performance, plans, and goals, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Although the company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Actual results in future periods may differ materially from those currently expected or desired because of a number of risks and uncertainties which are beyond the company's control. Additional information concerning such risks and uncertainties can be found in the release relating to the presentation and in the periodic and other reports filed by the company with the SEC, including the company's soon-to-be-filed annual report for fiscal year 2025. Also, some of the comments today may reference non-GAAP financial measures such as constant currency amounts, EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA.
Additional information concerning these measures, including reconciliations to the most direct comparable GAAP financial measures, is contained in the financial presentation and earnings release relating to this call, all of which are posted in the investor relations section of the company's website at www.kornferry.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mr. Burnison. Please go ahead, Mr. Burnison.
Gary Burnison (CEO)
Okay. Thank you, everybody, for joining us. I'm going to have the team get into more details. Overall, our execution has been outstanding. We continue to deliver on all of our financial and strategic objectives. When I look forward, I mean, there's nothing but opportunity. Our strategy is working. The breadth of our solutions provides more durable and synergistic revenue, offering really a growth foundation for tomorrow. For us, it all starts with clients. I just think of, in the quarter, a number of transformative engagements where it's from leading industrial companies to a global semiconductor company where we're helping drive a more nimble organizational structure to financial services, and in particular, an insurance company where we're really creating a data-rich foundation to help build their future talent pipeline, including developing like 2,500 leaders per year. I mean, it's working. The strategy is definitely working.
It demonstrates that the ongoing investments that we're making to extend our offerings and our solutions and expand our impact are powering performance for clients. That's what it's all about. I mean, the success in our business was evident during the quarter again. Fee revenue was up 4%. New business was up 3%, both of those in constant currency. Fundamentally, this business has changed over the last several quarters and years. Our evolution towards synergistic fee revenue sources, driven really by large-scale client engagements, has changed the fundamental composition and the scale of our business. We've got 10 and 20-year CAGR growth rates of more than 10%. 77% of our clients buy two or more of our solutions, more than 1/2 buy three. We've got large, repeatable clients of scale. The Marquee and Diamond accounts for us represent almost 40% of our fee revenue.
We've raised our dividends six times in five years. We've got a balanced approach to capital. 26% of our top line is driven through inside sales, inside referrals. This thing's working. As I look forward to this year ahead, we're going to continue to innovate. We're going to put a strong focus on technology, AI, and more importantly, offerings that drive organizational performance for our clients. Our enterprise talent, data analytics, and insights are helping clients understand whether they have the right talent in the right roles that align with their strategic priorities. In the quarter, we completed the fourth product release of Talent Suite in the last year or so. With each release, our organizational and talent products enable us to be more deeply embedded with our clients as we bundle our services and IP. That IP is immense.
Billions of data points, 108 million assessments to take in, rewards data on 28 million people, 31,000 companies, engagement data on 38 million people, culture and benchmark. That is on 7 million respondents over 500 organizations. I mean, I could go on and on and on. This IP is immense. Our intention is to license that to create knowledge transfer, to change a lot of lives and the destination of our clients. As we close out another fiscal year, it is gratifying to see our success in arguably a very difficult economic environment and a testament to the evolution of our firm. It is all made possible through our talented colleagues. We are truly a global consulting firm that powers performance.
That is why the world's most forward-thinking companies across every major industry turn to us for a shared commitment to lasting impact and the bold ambition to be more than. With that, Bob, I'll turn it over to you.
Bob Rozek (CFO)
Great. Thanks, Gary. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. Listen, it was a great fourth quarter, one that exceeded expectations, especially in light of the current operating environment. Before I begin my remarks, I would be remiss if I did not thank all of my Korn Ferry colleagues whose determination and dedication made these results and our full-year results possible. Our fourth quarter performance is yet another data point validating how our strategy is producing industry-leading results. As the universal demand for great talent continues to grow, we are uniquely positioned to fulfill our clients' talent needs with scope and scale across all industries and geographies. In addition to the detailed results and data points found in our earnings presentation posted on our website, here are a few company-wide and solution-specific highlights for the quarter.
Our Marquee and Diamond accounts remained strong at 39% of our consolidated fee revenue in the fourth quarter. Our cross-solution referrals also remained strong. We exited the year at 26% of our consolidated fee revenue being referred amongst our solution areas. We continued to invest in commercial capacity by increasing our Senior Client Partner population by approximately 25 net new hires. Executive Search grew for the fourth consecutive quarter, was up 15% year-over-year at constant currency. Digital subscription and licensed new business in the fourth quarter grew to 40% of the total digital new business. That is up from 37% in the prior year quarter, continuing to add more stability and predictability to our fee revenue base. RPO continued to build for future growth with $119 million of new business awards. 77% of that amount are attributed to new logos.
Our average hourly bill rates in consulting and the interim portion of PSI remained strong at $454 an hour and $131 an hour, respectively. Turning to overall company results for the fourth quarter, consolidated fee revenue was $712 million, growing 4% year over year at constant currency. Earnings and profitability also continued to grow on a year-over-year basis. Adjusted EBITDA grew 8% to $121 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin grew 70 basis points to 17%. Our adjusted diluted earnings per share grew 5% to $1.32. As Gary mentioned, at constant currency, total company new business grew 3% year-over-year, including RPO, and grew 5% year over year, excluding RPO. You will note in our earnings presentation posted to our website, we have disclosed a new operating metric, estimated remaining fees under existing contracts. That is an additional proof point demonstrating the effectiveness of our diversification strategy.
This operating metric represents the estimated amount of remaining fees associated with existing contracts for services and solutions yet to be delivered to our clients. At the end of the fourth quarter, this totaled approximately $1.7 billion and was up 12% year over year. Of this amount, we estimate that approximately 57% or $977 million will be recognized as fees within the next year, with the remaining 43% or $734 million estimated to be recognized beyond the next four quarters. Now, certain of our solutions, such as Executive and Professional Search firm placements, have shorter duration contracts, which result in fee revenue being recognized in the next quarter or so. However, a much larger portion of our estimated remaining fees under existing contracts is from our other solution areas, which have longer duration contracts, which give us more durable and resilient future fee revenue streams.
We have also introduced fee revenue by geography: the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. We are an organization that puts clients first, and we engage with our clients holistically as Korn Ferry. We look to our regional and local colleagues as the point of integration and execution. Now, looking at the three regions, fee revenue in the Americas was essentially flat year over year at constant currency. We saw growth in exec search and RPO. EMEA fee revenue grew 9% year over year at constant currency. Saw growth in exec search and pro-search and interim there. APAC fee revenue grew 8% year over year at constant currency, primarily driven by growth in exec search and RPO. Finally, our capital allocation continues to remain balanced. For all of fiscal 2025, we returned $173 million to shareholders through combined share repurchases and dividends.
We invested $44 million in M&A and invested $62 million in capital expenditures focused on Talent Suite, our technology platforms, productivity tools, and related product enhancements. Now, turning to our outlook for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, assuming no further changes in worldwide geopolitical conditions, economic conditions, financial markets, or foreign exchange rates, we expect fee revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 to range from $675 million-$695 million. Our adjusted EBITDA margin to range from approximately 16.8%-17.2%. Our consolidated adjusted diluted earnings per share to range from $1.18-$1.26. Finally, we expect our GAAP diluted earnings per share in the first quarter to range from $1.16-$1.24. Now, our accomplishments in fiscal 2025 underscore our ongoing commitment to remain focused on controlling what we can, leaning into growth opportunities where we see them, and driving operational excellence.
Additionally, as our firm continues to evolve, we will remain relentlessly focused on client service. Korn Ferry is a global consulting firm that powers client performance. We are well positioned for the next step in our evolution, and I am more confident and excited than I have ever been about what this company can become. With that, we would be glad to answer any questions you may have.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. If you have a question, please press *1 on your telephone keypad. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, simply press *1 again. One moment for your first question. Your first question comes from the line of Trevor Romeo of William Blair. Your line is open.
Trevor Romeo (Analyst)
Hey, everyone. Thanks so much for taking the questions. Great performance despite the tough environment. I guess I just wanted to dial in a bit on any color you might have on new business trends and, I guess, revenue trends by month over the last several months, especially with the tariff announcements in April and everything that's kind of transpired since then, business confidence still being a bit lower. Just any indication of how trends and your conversations have changed the past few months would be really helpful, especially if you've seen any areas of incremental weakness since then.
Gary Burnison (CEO)
I mean, there's always uncertainty. That's the only thing that's certain. The conversations ebb and flow, and you have something that happens with Israel and Iran, and you have a different conversation. It seems like it's happening more and more these days. In terms of new business, I mean, May was actually stronger than April. April was about the same as March. February was pretty good. The conversations change. Essentially, when I look at the firm as a whole, it's pretty impressive, particularly in this market, which I would consider a recession for the last seven quarters.
Trevor Romeo (Analyst)
Yes, that makes sense, Gary. Thank you. I guess I just wanted to maybe dig in on Executive Search a little bit. I think you talked a lot about the peak 65 demographics. I think a lot of the executive surveys we see are showing high levels of turnover. In this quarter, I think the 15% growth was quite a bit stronger than we had been seeing. Was there anything specific that changed this quarter for the search business? Some of it share gain or something like that? What would you kind of expect in terms of the next few quarters for that?
Gary Burnison (CEO)
I do not think you can look at it necessarily quarter-to-quarter. There is going to be ebbs and flows. I think when you look at it over the long term, the firm has delivered 10-11% growth year in, year out as one business. That has been pretty remarkable. I think that speaks to the solutions and the offerings that we have. Clearly, when you look quarter-to-quarter, you will find at some points, consulting is up, search is down, digital is flat, RPO is up. The point here is to have a well-rounded set of solutions that drive organizational performance, that drive human performance. I think Korn Ferry is just starting out. Yes, if you look at any particular moment, there are different things that you would point out. Clearly, we are in an environment now where there are demographic factors at play big time.
There is also demands for a different type of leader today from, say, five years ago. All of those things are at play. What I look at is the overall firm performance and our profitability and the growth that we are able to achieve for shareholders and our colleagues.
Trevor Romeo (Analyst)
Okay, great. Nothing particular for this quarter on Executive Search. I'll jump back in the queue. Just wanted to quickly mention thanks for all the new disclosures. I think that'll give investors a better view into your visibility. Thanks, everyone.
Gary Burnison (CEO)
Good.
Operator (participant)
Your next question comes from the line of George Tong of Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
George Tong (Analyst)
Hi, thanks. Good morning. Could you provide an update on what you're seeing with sales cycles? Also, how client spending behaviors may be different across segments. Across the various segments, where are you seeing any changes or macro sensitivity or any type of purchasing pattern differences? Any update there would be helpful.
Gary Burnison (CEO)
I think number one, there's a cost of living crisis. I've said this for a long time, and it's very clear in America, there's a cost of living crisis. That is a serious issue. It is beyond companies for many months were able to raise prices, shrink packaging, volume went down. That hasn't been the case for seven quarters. Companies are across the board, growth is elusive. They're having to cut costs. It's now been happening for seven quarters pretty consistently, for example, in the United States. I look at that environment, and given everything that's going on, it's still going to be a challenging environment going forward. For me, that's the biggest issue. Secondly is the leadership team, the people that got you here may not get you there.
We're on the precipice of just incredible change. Growth is elusive. That has big, big ramifications on a workforce in terms of what that means in the future.
George Tong (Analyst)
Got it. Okay, that's helpful. Could you talk about how new business, quarterly new business performed in the Consulting segment and then overall for Digital? I know you provide a total subscription and license new business, but total new business for Digital and total new business for Consulting, what the year-over-year change was?
Gary Burnison (CEO)
Yeah, I tend to look at the firm in total, and that was up like 5%. I will say that broadly speaking, what's happening is in the consulting area, as you know, the engagements are getting bigger. I think that now about 25% of our new business is engagements that are seven figures and above. Those are having a much longer time to implement. I mean, these could be three, four, five-year leadership development journeys that take time to really work their way through. I mean, I think of one that is tens of millions of dollars that we originated two and a 1/2, three years ago. The truth is we're only kind of 25% through all the cohorts. It definitely takes time. There are a couple of factors at play.
I think one is the firm is going to continue to move towards powering clients' performance, which on the consulting side would be more transformative engagements that will probably take longer to implement. That is number one. Number two is companies are slashing costs. I mean, you see it everywhere. That is definitely impacting some of our solutions. When it comes to digital, I'm very, very proud of this fourth release of the Talent Suite. I think that's going to be something that, as we look back five years from now, that's going to be an absolute game changer. Hopefully, by the end of this calendar year, it'll be seamlessly integrated to at least one major CRM provider.
When you look at the digital, it's been very, very consistent in terms of new business, which it's not like it's gone up 15%, but it's not like it's gone down 10%. I mean, it's been very, very consistent. What I would argue has been a recessionary environment for seven quarters.
Bob Rozek (CFO)
Hey, Gary, I think you said a little bit of specificity there. So, George, the Digital business year-over-year is up 4%, constant currency, and Consulting is flat. That just, as we talked about in the Consulting world, the impact of the larger engagements and consumption impacting revenue, but the demand for our services and solutions remains strong.
George Tong (Analyst)
Yes, makes sense. Thanks very much.
Operator (participant)
Your next question comes from the line of Mark Marcon of Baird. Your line is open.
Mark Marcon (Analyst)
Hey, good morning or good afternoon, depending on where you are. Congrats on the strong result. Gary, I just wanted to pick up on a few of the things that you were mentioning before. One specifically with regards to the fourth release of the Talent Suite. Can you talk a little bit about, from a user perspective, what are the big differences that a user will end up seeing, and what gives you the confidence that we could end up seeing a fairly decent uplift there with this fourth release?
Gary Burnison (CEO)
I mean, the confidence is that people still make businesses successful. I think the big difference, hopefully, that customers will see over the next several months is seamlessness and the ability to toggle between learning and development, between setting competitive pay packages to identifying roles, the right kinds of success profiles for certain roles. I would hope that it is across the spectrum of hiring, developing, rewarding, motivating. Across those dimensions of a workforce, I would hope that there is increasing seamlessness from a user experience. That has not been the case in the past where people would have to spot, say, a pay package. I think that is going to be, I think it is going to be unique in the marketplace. The data that we have is really second to none. Yeah, I do have a lot of confidence in it.
Mark Marcon (Analyst)
That's great. Bob, just to clarify something. When you mentioned Digital was up 4% and Consulting was flat, was that in terms of new business looking for the last quarter?
Bob Rozek (CFO)
Yes, yeah, it was.
Mark Marcon (Analyst)
Okay.
Bob Rozek (CFO)
New business in Q4.
Mark Marcon (Analyst)
Right. And the timing of the release, I mean, would you expect that Digital would start seeing a pickup in the second half of this fiscal year? Specifically, you mentioned potentially we could end up getting attached to some bigger packages. Could you talk a little bit more about that?
Gary Burnison (CEO)
Timing is, I mean, that's very, very hard to predict. Look, certain part of this is dependent on the macro environment that we're in. Would I expect to see something at the end of this calendar year? Probably not. Would I expect to see some in the next calendar year? Absolutely.
Mark Marcon (Analyst)
Okay, great. Gary, you mentioned a different type of leader. Could you expand on that? You have lots of conversations with thought leadership, thought leaders across the board. What are boards looking for now in terms of different types of leaders?
Gary Burnison (CEO)
I think the ability, number one, there's the kind of age-old things of strategy and vision and financial acumen and courage and confidence. All of our research would point to that. I mean, we also would be a very, very strong component given the change, I mean, really profound changes at our doorstep. I think the single biggest change is for a CEO to embrace ambiguity. There's a difference between embracing ambiguity and thriving in ambiguity than feeling ambiguity. I think we're entering a period of time. I laugh at some of these articles that have been written over the last few days about how AI is going to replace jobs. That's not the point. The point is there won't be enough workers to work in those jobs.
The fact is this incredible imbalance, the low birth rates over the last 20 years are going to create a situation where there is a big imbalance of supply and demand of labor. That gets filled through technology across the board, either immigration or technology. I think as we think about this and we are assessing clients' ability, their leadership capacity to deal with, say, AI, I mean, the thing that's coming screaming off the page is the ability to embrace ambiguity. You see it now almost day to day, week to week. I'm sure every generation has said it. What we're seeing today, it's incredible. I think that is the huge, huge difference about somebody that's going to lead an organization for the next five years than maybe somebody who did it 10 years ago.
Mark Marcon (Analyst)
Great. Can you talk a little bit about on the Executive Search side, you saw some really good growth in the international markets. Along with that, you ended up seeing a pretty big pickup in terms of consultant productivity. I mean, you're up to an average of $1.6 million per, which is terrific. What are you seeing in terms of the top end of that? What's been driving that increase in terms of productivity? What's been driving the international growth to a greater extent?
Gary Burnison (CEO)
I would say, Mark, the North American growth has been very good too. Across the board, across the globe, that solution has done very, very well. Part of it is us, and part of it is the market. I do think we have this demonstrated track record with a real strategy, with real solutions that drive a company's performance. Clearly, there are other factors at play. Some of those factors are demographics. Some of those factors are burnout. Some of those factors are a different leadership team that's needed over the next 5 or 10 years than the past 10 years. I mean, all of those things are at play here. It's hard for me to pick out which one of those is more important than the other.
Mark Marcon (Analyst)
That's fair. Obviously, we've been dealing with all sorts of changes. It's obviously too early to tell, and nobody knows exactly what's going to happen. Just in terms of the latest international news item, do you think that's going to have any sort of real impact in the very short term with regards to the confidence? Obviously, it's going to depend on how it plays out. If it plays out where it's just kind of in the background, do you think people are starting to just ignore things, or do you think it's going to create more hesitancy?
Gary Burnison (CEO)
I think you're right. It depends on where this goes. I mean, even if it's at this level and it's sustained, that's not good. Loss of life, this is not good overall. It just adds to everything else that's happened over what seems like seven or eight quarters now of all sorts of different kinds of news. That is very, very hard to predict. I've said this before. I think a fundamental issue is the cost of living crisis. When you have a gallon of milk, a carton of eggs, prices, when all those things are up 50%, and people talk about inflation moderating to 2%, it's a joke. It's an absolute joke because that's on a base of up 50%. Wages have gone up, but they haven't gone up that much. Ultimately, a country either has to tax more, spend less, or grow.
Growth is the best option there and the most practical. You would hope that countries have that platform of growth. America has been fortunate that it has grown productivity 2% a year for a long, long time. The first quarter was not great. It was actually down. Over a long period of time, it has grown. I think when you look at these demographic trends without immigration, what it is going to show is there is a serious shortage. For example, in America, millions of workers short. The natural thing that is going to fill that gap is technology. I feel more convicted around that today than I did even a year ago.
Mark Marcon (Analyst)
I appreciate that. One last question, if I may. Just on the balance sheet, can you talk about what the bonus payout is going to be and how we should think about investable cash?
Gary Burnison (CEO)
Bob, you want to do that?
Bob Rozek (CFO)
Yeah. We do not typically disclose too much around the bonus payout for obvious reasons. It is going to be, it will be sufficient to make sure that we are rewarding our real performers. I would say the investable cash, the balance at the end of the year was about $675 million, with about 25%-30% of that in the U.S. We will continue to deploy capital following our balanced approach that we have followed consistently over the past several years now. We are always looking to put the money back into the business first, whether it is hiring individuals, teams, putting money back into the investments that we are making. Gary talked about the Talent Suite. That is a big play for us. Doing M&A this year, we have invested back this past year into Trilogy to expand our interim solution over in EMEA.
We do generate a strong amount of cash. We have returns to shareholders that, as Gary said, we have really leaned in on the dividend. I think the dividend and the buybacks now are pretty balanced, roughly $85 million-$90 million a year each. We will continue to deploy that. To the extent that we have great opportunities from an M&A perspective, we would lean in there. To me, kind of the swing vote would be the share buybacks.
Mark Marcon (Analyst)
Great. Thank you very much.
Operator (participant)
Your next question comes from the line of Tobey Sommer of Truist. Your line is open.
Tobey Sommers (Managing Directors)
Thank you.
In the marketplace, Gary, you've described a labor market where things are tough. Purchasing power is down. Also, employee turnover in the market is now down for, I don't know, probably four consecutive years and actually below pre-COVID levels. Is that something that you monitor and feel like it's needed to kind of drive some more dynamism in the labor market? What kind of macro changes could we look at to see an improvement in the velocity there?
Gary Burnison (CEO)
Yeah, economic growth. I mean, it's not a good—it's at an all-time. I think that you'll know this better than I, but I think in the United States, the kind of annual turnover now is kind of like—I mean, this is the meeting of the bell curve, but I think it's like 8% or 9%. I mean, it's historically very, very low. Why? Because people can't get jobs. And so you've got a very anemic labor. If you're cranking out 100,000 jobs a month or 125,000 or something like that, the labor participation rate's less today than it was before the pandemic. And so people are hesitant to leave a job, even though the best time to look for a job is when you have a job. And companies, they've been very, very reluctant because they—I'm generalizing—but they don't have pricing power.
They've raised prices so much to deal with the supply shock from COVID that there's no more. There's no more that you can raise prices. That's kind of the deal. Yeah, it's actually not a good thing to have this low level of employee turnover from a number of different dimensions.
Tobey Sommers (Managing Directors)
Thank you. I appreciate that. I wanted to ask a question about headcount productivity broadly in the organization from a corporate perspective. What's enabled delivering the higher corporate revenue without increasing internal headcount comparably over the last five years? Is there more to do there? On a go-forward basis, should we think about the company being able to add a point of revenue with less than that in terms of bodies and headcount?
Gary Burnison (CEO)
Yeah, I don't know. I think we've been through a pretty unique time. The big, big wild card is the monetization of our IP, which is a story that we've told forever and ever. That continues to be the single biggest wild card because it's very, very scalable. I read off all the statistics around data. It is very impressive. Hopefully, when we can create something that's more seamless for a user and have a couple of ecosystem partners, and we really put the full weight of the firm behind it, that really does. That's where the scale—that's where the scale really comes in from a shareholder perspective and from a colleague employee perspective. Quite candidly, it's whether you can monetize that IP. In a very difficult market, I look at it and I say, "Am I over the moon? Am I completely happy? No.
Am I totally depressed? No. That is the one thing that can create real financial scale. We have that opportunity. We have had that opportunity, and we are working hard at it. I think looking forward, that is clearly the issue there. On the consulting business, we just have to continue to move towards longer, bigger engagements. The trouble with that is it does impact short-term revenue. It does not look as good necessarily on the outside. The backlog—I look at our backlog, I think in both consulting and digital, they are actually higher than they were a year ago. Look, it has been a unique time. COVID changed everything. I am not going to sit there. We have had a big change in the mix of business. We added a whole new capability with this interim.
That apples to apples, if you adjust back before COVID, you would find that when you take the mix into account, we've increased EBITDA margins like 300 basis points, 350 basis points, something like that. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that we can do that again because there's a whole host of things at play here. Clearly, one big thing you would look at is this Talent Suite and the monetization of our IP.
Bob Rozek (CFO)
Tobey, I would just add from a corporate cost perspective, as we've talked in the past, we've built a company that's plug and place. We have common systems, processes, controls across the globe. Getting scale over time on our corporate function has been relatively—I won't say easy, but it's easier because of the infrastructure that we have in place.
Tobey Sommers (Managing Directors)
Thank you for that. I'd like you to—I know you gave a great answer, Gary, and expansive one, but I would ask you to elaborate a little bit more on kind of really accelerating and changing the digital. You mentioned ecosystem, channel partners. Are there any additional internal changes to drive that acceleration? Things sort of within your span of control sort of to go from the here to the there, as you say, whether it's incentive comp, are you doubling down on the Marquee sales force, internal org structure?
What levers do you have at your disposal?
Gary Burnison (CEO)
I think number one is we have to—we have one business at Korn Ferry. We do not have five businesses. We have one business with five solutions. I think number one is to change the mindset of the organization so that everybody in the firm is actually pushing that. That is number one. Number two is the Marquee and Diamond accounts, for sure. Number three is we have a relentless focus on every single day as a leadership team. When we look at new business that is being opened and the logos, we are actually going through a very systematic and programmatic exercise to look at those logos like I just did an hour ago and say, "Okay, what is the solution there? Have we been able to penetrate with our IP, with digital?" Or it could be interim, could be consulting.
It's a very, very programmatic exercise that we are doing every single day within the leadership team. Those are absolutely come to the forefront. We continue with changing skill set and roles. We have global account leaders. Now we've introduced a new role, client service partner, where we are eliciting even more people that can deliver the entire firm. We're in the early days of that. Yeah, there's a handful of practical things that we absolutely are doing.
Tobey Sommers (Managing Directors)
Thank you very much.
Operator (participant)
Your last question comes from the line of Josh Chan of UBS. Your line is open.
Joshua Chan (Analyst)
Hi, Gary and Bob. Congrats on a good quarter. Just two quick ones for me on Executive Search. I guess, would you classify the business as having really accelerated? Because that's what it looks like externally. You have this similar level of consultants, but your engagements are up a lot sequentially and year-over-year. Is that how you would look at the business in terms of it having accelerated just this quarter?
Gary Burnison (CEO)
I tend not to pay attention to—you can have some significant ebbs and flows depending on the solution. I would not want to get into that. I would just say that over seven or eight quarters, that solution has definitely gained more traction in the market. That is a true—that is a true statement. I think it is part us, but part all these other factors that we have talked about. When you look over time, it has been up and to the right over several quarters, over which I would describe those quarters as a very, very challenging economic environment, being the last seven or so quarters.
Joshua Chan (Analyst)
Okay. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Maybe a quick one for Bob, I guess. Relatedly, does the Q1 guide kind of include continued double-digit growth in Exec search? I guess it's sort of a similar vein of questioning on the guidance there.
Bob Rozek (CFO)
Yeah. We do not—I mean, we just guided the total company number, Josh, but it does anticipate continued—some level of continued growth on a year-over-year basis.
Joshua Chan (Analyst)
Okay. Okay. Great. Thanks for the cover and congrats on the quarter.
Bob Rozek (CFO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
It appears there are no further questions, Mr. Burnison.
Gary Burnison (CEO)
Okay. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for taking the time. I'm really, really proud of our colleagues, particularly in the face of what we all read about every single day. We look forward to talking to you again. I'm very, very excited about what we've got in store for us. This is just the beginning for Korn Ferry. Thank you all. We'll talk to you later. Bye-bye.
Operator (participant)
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