What sets Korn Ferry apart
Korn Ferry is not a traditional strategy consultancy.
It was founded in 1969 by Lester Korn and Richard Ferry as an executive search firm, and grew, through the acquisitions of Hay Group in 2015, Lominger in 2006 and Whitehead Mann in 2009, into a firm whose practice is organized around people and organizations rather than corporate strategy (Wikipedia). The current business has five capability lines – Organization Strategy, Assessment & Succession, Leadership & Professional Development, Total Rewards, and Talent Acquisition – sitting alongside one of the five largest executive search practices globally. Early-career work therefore feeds into project types such as compensation framework design, post-merger leadership structuring, succession assessments and rewards data analysis (visible in the firm's current early-careers postings for Total Rewards interns, Rewards Data associates and Research Analysts), rather than market-entry strategy. For a candidate choosing between Korn Ferry and an MBB-style strategy firm, the distinguishing feature is the HR / talent / leadership focus combined with the search business as a sister practice – a different specialization, and a different early-career skill build, not a smaller version of the same job.