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TWST: What is Korn/Ferry?
Mr. Burnison: Korn/Ferry is in the talent management business, not just
involved in the strategic hiring of executives, but helping our clients
to deploy, develop, retain and reward talent. Despite all the
technological innovations that have been made, one simple truth remains
' people make businesses successful. We are trying to help our customers
focus not just on acquiring talent, but also to be more effective in how
they maximize it. TWST: What are the trends in staffing and resources today? Is there a
good environment or a bad environment as far as Korn/Ferry is concerned?
Mr. Burnison: It's actually a fascinating backdrop. If you look
globally, there are huge changes occurring in the human capital
landscape. Outsourcing has become much more strategic. Furthermore,
there is a growing skills gap and a dramatic demographic shift
occurring. If you look at the number of 35-to 50-year-olds in the
workforce over the next 20 years, the data is staggering. According to
the U.S. Census Bureau, Germany will decline by 21%, France will drop
9.5%, while the US, UK and Australia will be basically flat. The
Conference Board reports that within the next five years, about 40% of
the American workforce will be eligible for retirement. In other words,
there is and will be an ever increasing war for talent, and almost every
study that you look at predicts a shortage of executive age talent in
the workforce over the next decade. These kinds of trends, which we
haven't seen in decades, create what I believe is going to be a major
challenge for many companies. Thus, what we are trying to do is create a
company that can not only recruit top talent, but also perform pre-
employment verification and assessment, implement performance management
systems, offer succession planning consulting, and advise on
compensation and benefits issues. So we have developed a suite of
services that we think are quite relevant, given the social, economic,
and demographic trends that the world is facing over the next decade.
Tickers included in this excerpt: KFY
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not make stock recommendations.
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