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Jordan Shlosberg
Heidrick & Struggles was founded in 1953 by Gardner Heidrick and John Struggles. It is the fourth largest executive search firm with revenues of $613m and has its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. It operates in over 30 countries with more than 2,500 employees.
History of Heidrick & Struggles
The company was initially named Heidrick, Struggles, Sims & Company, and it was established to provide executive search services to clients in various industries. In 1967, the company was rebranded to Heidrick & Struggles after the departure of Richard Sims.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Heidrick & Struggles expanded its reach and established a presence in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. In the 1990s, the company went public and started trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
In 2002, Heidrick & Struggles acquired Highland Partners, a California-based executive search firm, which helped to expand its presence in the technology sector. The company continued to grow through acquisitions and partnerships, including its 2014 acquisition of London-based JCA Group, which added to its leadership consulting capabilities.
Major Milestones of Heidrick & Struggles
- 1953: Heidrick & Struggles is founded in Chicago by Gardner Heidrick and John Struggles
- 1967: The company is rebranded to Heidrick & Struggles
- 1970s-1980s: Heidrick & Struggles expands its reach to Europe, Asia, and Latin America
- 1999: The company goes public and starts trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange
- 2002: Heidrick & Struggles acquires Highland Partners to expand its presence in the technology sector
- 2014: The company acquires London-based JCA Group to add to its leadership consulting capabilities
The future of Heidrick & Struggles
Heidrick & Struggles are planning to diversify their offering away from Executive Search, expanding into further organizational consulting work, on-demand talent (these are fractional and interim) C-Suite, as well as software that helps large corporations deliver people strategy.
Financial Information
Heidrick & Struggles is a publicly listed company , with a market capitalization of over $500m with a strong, steady and growing profitability margin.
Heidrick & Struggles have seen consistently increasing profit over the last decade (albeit less than their peers)
Compared to Korn Ferry, Heidrick has half as many consultants, however their productivity (revenue generated) is nearly twice Korn Ferry.
Berg vs Heidrick & Struggles
Berg Search provides subscription talent services to ambitious growth companies. We've supported C-suite hires from a CEO at a fintech company to various marketing and technology executives at numerous series A companies
Our innovative pricing makes us 80% cheaper than executive search firms such as Heidrick & Struggles and we focus solely on ambitious growth companies.
Reputation
Heidrick & Struggles is one of the 5 largest executive search firms, known colloquially as the SHREK firms. They provide a broad set of services for large multinationals which includes executive search, recruitment, and consultancy (which helps improve leadership performance).
Their business model focuses on large firms and given the average placement costs more than $100k, they are only accessible to these large firms.
Berg is a younger firm and is less well-known. The starting point of every great business.
Process
Both companies utilise a similar executive search approach. Heidrick & Struggles has a large database because of its age which means they have a larger initial list to choose from. However, despite this large list, you must wait three weeks to receive a shortlist.
Berg has a smaller database but puts significantly more resources into each search. Using three times as many people, Berg will reach out to the market, engage passive candidates and deliver the first tailored list in 10 days.
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