Korn Ferry (KFY) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Korn Ferry fourth quarter and fiscal year end April 30, 2024 conference call. (Operator instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded for replay purposes.

女士們、先生們，感謝你們的耐心等待，歡迎參加光輝國際截至 2024 年 4 月 30 日的第四季和財年電話會議。 （操作員說明）謹此提醒，本次電話會議正在錄音以供重播之用。

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 we turn the call over to your host, Mr. Gary Burnison.

我們也在 kornferry.com 網站的投資者關係部分提供了相關資訊。我們今天將與您一起審查的財務簡報的副本。在我們將電話轉給主持人加里·伯尼森先生之前。

Let me first read a cautionary statement to investors. Certain statements made in the call today, 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.

讓我先宣讀一份對投資者的警告聲明。今天電話會議中所做的某些陳述，例如與未來績效、計畫和目標相關的陳述，構成 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。

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.

儘管該公司認為此類前瞻性陳述中反映的預期是基於合理的假設，但投資者仍應注意不要過度依賴此類陳述。由於許多公司無法控制的風險和不確定性，未來時期的實際結果可能與當前預期或期望的結果有重大差異。

Additional information concerning such risks and uncertainties can be found in the release relating to this presentation and in the periodic and other reports filed by the company with the SEC, including the companies assumed to be filed annual report for fiscal year 2024. Also some of the comments today may reference non-GAAP financial measures such as constant currency amounts, EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA.

有關此類風險和不確定性的更多信息，請參閱與本簡報相關的新聞稿以及公司向 SEC 提交的定期報告和其他報告，包括假定提交 2024 財年年度報告的公司。會參考非公認會計原則財務指標，例如固定貨幣金額、EBITDA 和調整後的EBITDA。

Additional information concerning these measures, including reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, is contained in the financial presentation and earnings release relating to this call, both of which are posted in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.kornferry.com.

有關這些措施的更多信息，包括與最直接可比較的GAAP 財務措施的調節，包含在與本次電話會議相關的財務演示和收益發布中，兩者均發佈在公司網站www.kornferry 的投資者關係部分。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Gary Burnison. Please go ahead, Gary.

這樣，我會將電話轉給加里·伯尼森。請繼續，加里。

So Thanks, Leah. Good morning. Good afternoon, everybody. Our team, I'm joined by Bob and Tiffany, and Greg. I'll get into the results in more detail, but the earnings and profitability were really strong in the fourth quarter. They increased year over year and sequentially, we came in with an adjusted EBITDA margin of over 16%, which is our fourth consecutive quarter of profitability improvement.

謝謝，莉亞。早安.大家下午好。鮑伯、蒂芬妮和格雷格也加入了我們的團隊。我將更詳細地介紹結果，但第四季度的收益和盈利能力非常強勁。它們逐年成長，我們的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率超過 16%，這是我們獲利能力連續第四個季度改善。

And in fact, when you adjust for the mix change of us getting into a brand new business line that has a huge market opportunity for us interim. Our adjusted EBITDA margins about 300 basis points higher than pre pandemic levels and the revenues were higher compared to four years ago, probably 35%, 40% higher for sure, much has changed over the last four years, not only in how we live, but also in how we relate to others and how we work.

事實上，當你適應我們進入一個全新的業務線的組合變化時，這對我們來說是一個巨大的市場機會。我們調整後的EBITDA 利潤率比大流行前的水平高出約300 個基點，收入比四年前更高，可能高出35%，肯定高出40%，過去四年發生了很大變化，不僅是我們的生活方式，也包括我們如何與他人相處以及如何工作。

The one thing that hasn't changed, though, is our purpose to enable people and organizations to be more of them in as the premier organizational consulting firm in the world. We're a company that impacts the lives and careers of tens of thousands of people, across thousands of organizations, a company that continues to innovate and align our business to help our clients perform and transform a company Korn Ferry that sits at the intersection of a client's business strategy, their talent to ultimately drive superior performance.

然而，有一點沒有改變，那就是我們的目標是讓人們和組織成為世界上首屈一指的組織顧問公司。我們是一家影響數以千計的組織、數以萬計的人的生活和職業生涯的公司，是一家不斷創新和調整業務以幫助我們的客戶實現和轉型的公司。才能最終推動卓越績效。

It's clear that our strategy is working the cyclically sensitive talent acquisition offerings are being buoyed by growth and stability from our diversified offerings, particularly consulting, although that's complemented by digital. They've both generated very, very solid performance during the year. It all begins with data, 109 million assessments we've done, 6 million professionals developed, a million people put to work more than 10,000 success profiles. Compensation information on 30 million professionals covering 30,000 organizations around the world.

很明顯，我們的策略正在發揮對週期性敏感的人才招募服務的作用，我們的多元化服務（特別是諮詢服務）的成長和穩定性正在推動我們的發展，儘管數位化服務對此進行了補充。他們在這一年中都取得了非常非常穩定的表現。這一切都始於數據，我們已經完成了 1.09 億次評估，培養了 600 萬名專業人員，100 萬人投入了超過 10,000 份成功檔案。涵蓋全球 30,000 個組織的 3,000 萬專業人員的薪資資訊。

And more importantly, our incredible colleagues, we transform that data into unique and scalable insights and compelling solutions for our clients. And nowhere is that more pronounced than in our marquee and regional account program, which represents 37% of our portfolio for the fiscal year. And these accounts benefit from the breadth and depth of all things Korn Ferry from our IP to our full suite of offerings through the expertise of our colleagues.

更重要的是，我們令人難以置信的同事，我們將這些數據轉化為獨特且可擴展的見解以及為客戶提供引人注目的解決方案。這一點在我們的大型和區域帳戶計劃中表現得最為明顯，該計劃占我們本財年投資組合的 37%。這些客戶受益於光輝國際的廣度和深度，從我們的智慧財產權到透過同事的專業知識提供的全套產品。

And to put that into perspective, today the growth from these accounts is outpacing the rest of the company and almost all of our marquee clients use at least three of our business lines, which is a key contributor to our success in cross line of business referrals and we exited the year at about 26% of total fee revenue in cross business referrals.

從這個角度來看，如今這些客戶的成長速度超過了公司的其他客戶，幾乎我們所有的大客戶都至少使用我們的三個業務線，這是我們在跨業務線推薦方面取得成功的關鍵因素年終時，跨業務推薦的費用收入約佔總費用收入的26%。

In everything we do, we are really striving hard to work more interdependent way more horizontally, less vertically, scaling our data insights and offerings. Our purpose, our vision and strategy, I think, really put us at the threshold of even greater opportunity regardless of the environment from one cycle to the next. So with that very high level overview. I will now turn it over to Bob.

在我們所做的每一件事中，我們都在努力以更相互依賴的方式進行橫向而非縱向的工作，從而擴展我們的數據洞察力和產品。我認為，無論一個週期到下一個週期的環境如何，我們的目標、我們的願景和策略確實使我們處於更大機會的門檻。因此，有了非常高水準的概述。我現在將把它交給鮑伯。

Great. Thanks Gary, and good afternoon or good morning. We ended fiscal year '24 on a high note, generating $691 million of fee revenue in the fourth quarter, and that was at the upper end of our guidance. And more importantly, we delivered a really strong earnings and profitability. Adjusted EBITDA over $112 million, a 16.3% margin, and that margins up nearly 300 basis points year over year.

偉大的。謝謝加里，下午好或早安。我們以高調結束了 24 財年，第四季度產生了 6.91 億美元的費用收入，這處於我們指導的上限。更重要的是，我們實現了非常強勁的獲利和獲利能力。調整後 EBITDA 超過 1.12 億美元，利潤率為 16.3%，較去年同期成長近 300 個基點。

Additionally, our adjusted fully diluted earnings per share were $1.26, and GAAP fully diluted earnings per share were $1.24. As Gary indicated, the fourth quarter marked a full year of quarter sequential margin expansion, and it really highlights our strong cost management and improvements in our consultant and execution staff productivity.

此外，我們調整後的完全稀釋每股收益為 1.26 美元，GAAP 完全稀釋每股收益為 1.24 美元。正如加里所指出的那樣，第四季度標誌著全年季度利潤率連續增長，這確實凸顯了我們強大的成本管理以及顧問和執行人員生產力的提高。

Overall, fiscal '24 was another example of the success of our long-term diversification strategy and really a clear demonstration of the relevancy of our solutions. Additionally, our growing earnings power in today's environment, which is pretty challenging also demonstrates the resilience of our business model and the diligent execution of our strategy by all of our colleagues.

總體而言，24 財年是我們長期多元化策略成功的另一個例子，並且確實清楚地證明了我們解決方案的相關性。此外，在當今充滿挑戰的環境下，我們不斷增長的獲利能力也證明了我們業務模式的彈性以及我們所有同事對我們策略的勤勉執行。

Now let's take a step back and look at the pieces that really helped shape the year. One of our key growth drivers, marquee, and regional accounts, which represents over $1 billion or 37% of our FY24 total fee revenue grew 3%, even though our overall business was down 3% for the full year over year. These accounts include many of our largest clients with several accounts exceeding $10 million in annual fee revenue.

現在讓我們退後一步，看看那些真正幫助塑造這一年的作品。我們的主要成長動力之一——大帳篷和區域帳戶（占我們 2024 財年總費用收入的 37%）增長了 3%，儘管我們的整體業務全年同比下降了 3%。這些帳戶包括我們許多最大的客戶，其多個帳戶的年費收入超過 1000 萬美元。

And only the accounts are clients that are consuming multiple lines of our business. Two of our lesser growth segments, consulting and digital, both reached all-time highs in fee revenue for all of fiscal '24, underscoring both relevance and durability of their solution sets. Additionally, our full year average bill rate for consulting increased 11% year over year, and we exited the year at $437 per hour.

只有帳戶才是消耗我們多條業務的客戶。我們的兩個成長較慢的領域——諮詢和數位領域——在整個 24 財年的費用收入都創下了歷史新高，凸顯了其解決方案集的相關性和耐用性。此外，我們全年的平均諮詢費用年增了 11%，年底時的價格為每小時 437 美元。

Now across the business consultant and execution staff productivity continued to improve our productivity in the fourth quarter, measured by fee revenue per headcount was up 31% versus the third quarter of FY20, which is a quarter right before the pandemic hit.

現在，整個業務顧問和執行人員的生產力在第四季度繼續提高，以人均費用收入衡量，與 20 財年第三季（即疫情爆發前的一個季度）相比，成長了 31%。

And finally, fee revenue generated by cross line of business referrals was about 25% of total fee revenue in FY24, and it grew sequentially in both Q3 and Q4. And as Gary mentioned, we exited the year at about 26%. All of these are important factors that helped drive stability in our fee revenue. Despite the cyclical moderation in the talent acquisition market. And there were also key factors in driving the improvement in our earnings and profitability throughout fiscal year '24.

最後，跨業務線推薦產生的費用收入約佔 2024 財年總費用收入的 25%，並且在第三季和第四季連續成長。正如加里所提到的，我們今年的成長率約為 26%。所有這些都是有助於推動我們費用收入穩定的重要因素。儘管人才招募市場出現週期性放緩。還有一些關鍵因素推動了我們整個 24 財年收入和獲利能力的改善。

Last, I'd like to provide an update on our capital deployment. Return of capital to shareholders has been a priority for Korn Ferry. And in fiscal '24, we returned $107 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. In the fourth quarter, we repurchased approximately $23 million worth of stock, about 365,000 shares, which brought our total share repurchases for FY24 to about 930,000 shares.

最後，我想提供有關我們資本部署的最新情況。向股東返還資本一直是光輝國際的首要任務。在 24 財年，我們透過股利和股票回購向股東返還了 1.07 億美元。第四季度，我們回購了價值約 2,300 萬美元的股票，約 365,000 股，這使得我們 2024 財年回購的股票總數達到約 93 萬股。

In addition to the 83% increase in our dividend earlier this year, our Board has just approved another increase in our dividend of $0.04 per share about 12% increase. Net brings our quarterly dividend to $0.37 per share, which is actually double what it was at the beginning of the year. All of our capital allocation initiatives really speak to the confidence we have in the outlook for our business and our future earnings power. Now I'm going to turn it over to Gregg, who will take you through some overall company financial highlights.

除了今年稍早我們的股息增加 83% 之外，我們的董事會剛剛批准再次增加股息 0.04 美元每股，約增加 12%。 Net 使我們的季度股息達到每股 0.37 美元，實際上是年初的兩倍。我們所有的資本配置措施確實顯示了我們對業務前景和未來獲利能力的信心。現在我將把它交給格雷格，他將帶您了解一些公司的整體財務亮點。

Okay. Thanks, Bob. Fee revenue in the fourth quarter grew to $691 million with a seasonally strong and stable demand for consulting and digital, complementing seasonally strong and stabilizing revenue for our permanent placement talent acquisition solutions. By line of business consulting fee revenue grew 4% year over year.

好的。謝謝，鮑伯。由於對諮詢和數位化的季節性強勁且穩定的需求，第四季度的費用收入增長至 6.91 億美元，補充了我們永久安置人才獲取解決方案的季節性強勁且穩定的收入。按業務線劃分，諮詢費收入較去年同期成長 4%。

Digital was flat and fee revenue for our talent acquisition solutions of Executive Search, Professional Search and interim and RPO combined were down 10% year over year, but up 1% sequentially. Within talent acquisition, Executive Search was down 6% year over year and flat sequentially. The permanent placement portion of PSI was down 10% year over year and up 7% sequentially.

數位化業務持平，我們的高階主管獵人頭、專業搜尋以及臨時和 RPO 人​​才招募解決方案的費用收入年減 10%，但較上季成長 1%。在人才招募方面，高階主管獵人頭年減 6%，與上一季持平。 PSI 的永久安置部分較去年同期下降 10%，較上季成長 7%。

RPO was down 10% year over year and up 10% sequentially. While the interim portion of PSI was down 18% year over year, but down only 8% sequentially. Consolidated new business in the fourth quarter, excluding RPO, was down 2% year over year at constant currency. Like fee revenue, stable new business growth in consulting, digital and executive search was offset by slower demand for professional search and interim solutions.

RPO 年減 10%，季增 10%。雖然中期 PSI 年減 18%，但季減 8%。以固定匯率計算，第四季合併新業務（不包括 RPO）年減 2%。與收費收入一樣，諮詢、數位和高階主管獵人頭領域新業務的穩定成長被專業獵人頭和臨時解決方案需求放緩所抵消。

At constant currency consulting new business was flat year over year. Digital was up 4%, Executive Search was up 1% and Professional Search and interim was down 12% with permanent placement stable and essentially flat year over year and interim off 14%. For RPO, new business in the fourth quarter was strong at $128 million, which includes $61 million of renewals and extensions and $67 million of new logo wins.

以固定匯率計算，新業務較去年同期持平。數字成長 4%，高階主管搜尋成長 1%，專業搜尋和中期下降 12%，永久職位穩定，年比基本持平，中期下降 14%。對於 RPO 來說，第四季度的新業務強勁，達到 1.28 億美元，其中包括 6100 萬美元的續訂和延期以及 6700 萬美元的新徽標贏得。

As Bob said, earnings and profitability were higher in the fourth quarter driven by strong cost control and greater consulting and execution staff productivity across all lines of business.

正如鮑伯所說，由於強有力的成本控制以及所有業務線諮詢和執行人員生產力的提高，第四季度的收益和盈利能力有所提高。

Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter grew $14 million or 15% year over year and was up $111 million or 10% sequentially to over $112 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin grew to 16.3% in the fourth quarter. It has now improves sequentially for four consecutive quarters. Adjusted fully diluted earnings per share in the fourth quarter were $1.26, up $0.25 or 25% year over year and up 18% sequentially. Fully diluted earnings per share measured by GAAP were $1.24 in the fourth quarter.

第四季調整後 EBITDA 年成長 1,400 萬美元，成長 15%，季增 1.11 億美元，成長 10%，超過 1.12 億美元。第四季調整後 EBITDA 利潤率成長至 16.3%。目前已連續四個季度連續改善。第四季調整後完全稀釋每股收益為 1.26 美元，年增 0.25 美元，或 25%，比上一季成長 18%。第四季以 GAAP 衡量的完全攤薄每股收益為 1.24 美元。

The fourth quarter was positively impacted by a lower tax rate of 24.6%, which benefited both adjusted and GAAP fully diluted earnings per share by approximately $0.04 to $0.05. Our investable cash position at the end of the fourth quarter grew $110 million sequentially to $606 million. Our capital allocation continues to be balanced.

第四季受到 24.6% 較低稅率的正面影響，調整後每股盈餘和 GAAP 完全稀釋收益均增加約 0.04 至 0.05 美元。截至第四季末，我們的可投資現金部位環比成長了 1.1 億美元，達到 6.06 億美元。我們的資本配置繼續保持平衡。

For all of fiscal '24, we deployed $172 million of cash investing, $47 million in capital expenditures, using $19 million for debt service and returning $107 million to shareholders and combined dividends and share repurchases. That I'll turn the call over to Tiffany to review our operating segments in more detail.

在整個 24 財年，我們部署了 1.72 億美元的現金投資，4,700 萬美元的資本支出，使用 1,900 萬美元用於償債，向股東返還 1.07 億美元，並結合股息和股票回購。我將把電話轉給蒂芙尼，更詳細地審查我們的營運部門。

Thanks, Gregg. Starting with KF Digital, global fee revenue in the fourth quarter was $91 million, which was flat year-over-year at actual rates and up 1% at constant currency. Digital subscription and license fee revenue in the fourth quarter was $33 million which was approximately 36% of fee revenue for the quarter and up 3% year over year.

謝謝，格雷格。從 KF Digital 開始，第四季的全球費用收入為 9,100 萬美元，以實際匯率計算與去年同期持平，以固定匯率計算成長 1%。第四季的數位訂閱和授權費收入為 3,300 萬美元，約佔該季度費用收入的 36%，年增 3%。

Global new business for KF Digital was $104 million with $39 million or 37% of the total tied to subscription and license sales.

KF Digital 的全球新業務為 1.04 億美元，其中 3,900 萬美元或總收入的 37% 與訂閱和授權銷售相關。

The overall pipeline for digital remains strong as we head into the next fiscal year. For consulting fee revenue in the fourth quarter was $182 million, which was up approximately 4% year over year at actual rates and up 5% at constant currency and an all-time high for the segment. Fee revenue growth was strongest in assessment and success, which increased 10% year over year.

當我們進入下一財年時，數位化的整體管道仍然強勁。第四季顧問費收入為 1.82 億美元，以實際匯率計算年增約 4%，以固定匯率計算成長 5%，創該領域的歷史新高。評估和成功的費用收入成長最為強勁，年增 10%。

Consulting's average hourly bill rate remained in line with the previous quarter and is up $47 an hour or 12% from one year ago. Adjusted EBITDA margins continued to improve, increasing 110 basis points sequentially and by 380 basis points year over year, driven by a mix of higher billing rates and increased utilization rates. Additionally, global new business for consulting in the fourth quarter was essentially flat year over year and strongest in North America with 5% growth.

顧問公司的平均每小時帳單費率與上一季持平，每小時上漲 47 美元，比一年前上漲 12%。受計費率提高和利用率提高的共同推動，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率持續改善，季增 110 個基點，年增 380 個基點。此外，第四季度全球諮詢新業務基本上與去年同期持平，其中北美地區成長最為強勁，成長了 5%。

Total fee revenue in Professional Search and interim in the fourth quarter was $129 million, down $23 million or 15% year over year. Breaking down the quarter year over year softness in fee revenue was driven by industry-wide slowdown in the interim business. Interim fee revenue was $73 million for the quarter, which was down $16.5 million or 18% year over year and down 11% when excluding a one-time client engagement wind-down.

第四季專業搜尋和中期的總費用收入為 1.29 億美元，年減 2,300 萬美元，即 15%。分季來看，費用收入較去年同期疲軟是由全業中期業務放緩所致。本季中期費用收入為 7,300 萬美元，年減 1,650 萬美元，或 18%，如果不包括一次性客戶參與終止的情況，則下降 11%。

Despite the slowdown in demand, interims average hourly bill rate has increased to $129 per hour which is up $5 an hour or 4% from one year ago, reflective of the added value of being part of the broader Korn Ferry ecosystem. Professional Search and permanent placement fee revenue of $56 million was down $7 million or 11% year over year.

儘管需求放緩，中期平均每小時帳單費率已升至每小時 129 美元，比一年前上漲 5 美元，或 4%，反映了成為更廣泛的光輝國際生態系統一部分的附加價值。專業搜尋和永久安置費收入為 5,600 萬美元，年減 700 萬美元，即 11%。

That was up $4 million or about 8% sequentially. Also professional search consultant productivity is up both year over year and sequentially to approximately 670,000 annualized. New business for the combined segment during the quarter was down 12% year over year, but essentially flat sequentially.

比上一季增加了 400 萬美元，約 8%。此外，專業獵人頭顧問的生產力也逐年上升，年化季化比達到約 67 萬人。該季度合併後業務部門的新業務年減 12%，但與上一季基本持平。

Moving on to recruitment process outsourcing. New business for the fourth quarter was $128 million, comprised of $67 million of new logos had $61 million of renewals and extensions. Fee revenue in the fourth quarter totaled $89 million, which was down 111% or 10% year over year at actual rates and at constant currency, but up $8 million or 10% sequentially.

轉向招募流程外包。第四季的新業務為 1.28 億美元，其中包括 6,700 萬美元的新標誌以及 6,100 萬美元的續訂和延期。第四季的費用收入總計 8,900 萬美元，以實際費率和固定匯率計算，年減 111% 或 10%，但環比增長 800 萬美元，即 10%。

Fee revenue was impacted by a moderation in hiring volume within the existing base of contracts as well as recruiter vapor hoarding conditions, which have continued in the market. Although the timing of new business can be lumpy, we believe RPO was well positioned to benefit from client hiring returned to more normalized levels. Our pipeline remains strong as RPO continues to renew existing clients and win new business with a differentiated service offering in the marketplace.

費用收入受到現有合約基礎上招聘量放緩以及市場上持續存在的招聘人員蒸氣囤積狀況的影響。儘管新業務的時機可能不穩定，但我們相信 RPO 處於有利地位，可以從客戶招聘恢復到更正常化的水平中受益。隨著 RPO 不斷更新現有客戶並透過市場上的差異化服務贏得新業務，我們的管道依然強勁。

Finally, global fee revenue for Executive Search in the fourth quarter was $199 million, down 7% at actual and 6% at constant currency. Global demand for Executive Search has been stable with each of the last four quarters of fee revenue near $200 million. Additionally, consulting productivity continues to improve, contributing a higher EBITDA, almost $46 million and an adjusted EBITDA margin 22.9%.

最後，第四季獵人頭全球費用收入為 1.99 億美元，以實際匯率計算下降 7%，以固定匯率計算下降 6%。全球對高階主管獵人頭的需求一直穩定，過去四個季度的費用收入均接近 2 億美元。此外，諮詢生產力持續提高，帶來更高的 EBITDA，接近 4,600 萬美元，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率為 22.9%。

I will now turn the call back over to Bob, to discuss our outlook for the first quarter of fiscal '25.

我現在將把電話轉回鮑勃，討論我們對 25 財年第一季的展望。

It's great. Thanks, Tiffany. In recent months, new business growth trends have continued to be a little bit choppy in the fourth quarter new business improved each consecutive month, starting in February and concluding with April up 4% year over year, which kind of brought the full quarter essentially in line with our expectations. Starting fiscal year '25 may new business was also essentially in line with our expectations.

這很棒。謝謝，蒂芙尼。近幾個月來，新業務成長趨勢持續有些波動，第四季度新業務連續每個月都有所改善，從2 月開始到4 月結束，同比增長4%，這使得整個季度基本上實現了增長。從 5 月 25 日財政年度開始，新業務也基本上符合我們的預期。

Assuming normal historical seasonal patterns, we fully expect new business in June to grow sequentially and for July to be essentially flat to slightly down with June. Additionally, in line with normal seasonality, we're expecting both consulting and digital. The growth for Q1 to be down sequentially, but to remain stable measured year over year. And for our talent acquisition services, we expect a normal Q4 to Q1 seasonality given what we're seeing in the current market conditions today.

假設歷史季節性模式正常，我們完全預期 6 月的新業務將環比成長，而 7 月的新業務將與 6 月基本持平或略有下降。此外，根據正常的季節性，我們預計諮詢和數位化。第一季的成長將環比下降，但比去年同期保持穩定。對於我們的人才招募服務，鑑於我們目前的市場狀況，我們預計第四季度到第一季的季節性是正常的。

Now assuming no further changes in worldwide geopolitical conditions economic conditions, financial markets, foreign exchange rates, we expect fee revenue in the first quarter of fiscal '25 to range from $655 million to $675 million. Our adjusted EBITDA margin to remain approximately 15.8% to 16.2%, and our consolidated adjusted diluted earnings per share to range from $1.7 to $1.17. And finally, our GAAP diluted earnings per share to range from $1.5 to $1.15.

現在假設全球地緣政治條件、經濟狀況、金融市場、外匯匯率沒有進一步變化，我們預計 25 財年第一季的費用收入將在 6.55 億美元至 6.75 億美元之間。我們調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率維持在約 15.8% 至 16.2% 左右，調整後的綜合稀釋每股收益在 1.7 美元至 1.17 美元之間。最後，我們的 GAAP 攤薄每股收益為 1.5 美元至 1.15 美元。

Now in closing, we continue to focus on the execution of our strategy, which obviously is becoming the preeminent organizational consulting firm. We have a tremendous opportunity ahead and going to continue to drive initiatives that will generate growth. First continuing to focus our go-to market and our marquee and regional accounts really looking to drive more clients at scale, continuing to drive top line synergies with our cross line of business referrals.

最後，我們繼續專注於我們策略的執行，這顯然正在成為卓越的組織諮詢公司。我們面臨著巨大的機遇，並將繼續推動能夠帶來成長的舉措。首先，繼續專注於我們的目標市場以及我們的大客戶和區域客戶，真正希望大規模地吸引更多客戶，繼續透過我們的跨業務推薦來推動頂線協同效應。

We recently enhanced and expanded the incentives. We're going to continue to capitalize on both our core and integrated solution and how relevant they are in today's world, continue to execute on initiatives to drive growth for digital, including the creation of one delivery platform to improve client consumption and consulting execution efficiency and with a continued focus on large subscription and license deals.

我們最近加強並擴大了激勵措施。我們將繼續利用我們的核心和整合解決方案以及它們在當今世界的相關性，繼續執行推動數位成長的舉措，包括創建一個交付平台以提高客戶消費和諮詢執行效率並繼續專注於大型訂閱和授權交易。

As Gary mentioned, we want to maximize the unique client-specific insights that were able to draw from our rich repository of data. In last developing what we call the next level of one Korn Ferry consultants. These are fee earners who are skilled at bringing all of our firm's resources to help our clients solve their most pressing human capital needs.

正如加里所提到的，我們希望最大限度地利用我們豐富的資料儲存庫中獲得的針對客戶的獨特見解。在最後的開發中，我們稱之為光輝國際顧問的下一個層級。這些是收費者，他們善於利用我們公司的所有資源來幫助我們的客戶解決他們最迫切的人力資本需求。

The world that we live in today is full of contradicting uncertainties and challenges. As a management team, we are relentlessly focused on influencing what we can control, including balancing the maintenance of our cost base and productivity to maintain our profitability while making appropriately timed investments to position the firm for long-term growth.

我們當今所處的世界充滿了相互矛盾的不確定性和挑戰。作為管理團隊，我們堅持不懈地致力於影響我們可以控制的事情，包括平衡成本基礎和生產力的維持，以維持我們的盈利能力，同時進行適當的定時投資，以使公司實現長期增長。

As I always say, we're at the beginning of what's going to be a very long ballgame and I truly believe our best is yet to come. With that, we would be glad to answer any questions you may have.

正如我常說的，我們正處於一場漫長比賽的開始，我堅信我們的最佳狀態尚未到來。因此，我們很樂意回答您的任何問題。

(Operator instructions)

（操作員說明）

George Tong, Goldman Sachs.

喬治唐，高盛。

Hi thanks. Good morning. You talked about cyclical moderation in the talent acquisition market. Can you elaborate on trends that you're seeing in your cyclically sensitive businesses?

你好謝謝。早安.您談到了人才招募市場的周期性調節。您能否詳細說明您在週期性敏感業務中看到的趨勢？

I would say that it's been the good news is what we shared that in the last quarterly call was that we would expect that RPO would see some improvement, which it did. And as you know, depending on what part of employment services you're talking about, comparables could be down anywhere from 8% or 9% to 28%.

我想說的是，好消息是我們在上一季電話會議中分享的內容是，我們預計 RPO 會出現一些改善，事實確實如此。如您所知，根據您所談論的是就業服務的哪一部分，可比價格可能會下降 8% 或 9% 到 28%。

Clearly, what we've seen over the last several months is definitely stabilization. And some improvement in RPO and also, as we talked about last quarter, we thought we would see some improvement in perm, in professional recruiting.

顯然，過去幾個月我們看到的情況肯定是穩定的。 RPO 有所改善，而且正如我們上個季度談到的那樣，我們認為在專業招聘方面我們會看到燙髮方面的一些改善。

So what you've seen is our Professional Search business up sequentially, Executive Search is essentially flat over the last several months. RPO, although down year over year it was it's definitely improved and new business has been flat sequentially. And the other thing we talked about with the RPO businesses, we thought we would see a shift more towards new logos and that actually materialized though in the quarter.

因此，您所看到的是我們的專業獵頭業務連續成長，而高階主管獵人頭業務在過去幾個月中基本上持平。 RPO，雖然同比下降，但確實有所改善，並且新業務連續持平。我們與 RPO 業務討論的另一件事是，我們認為我們會看到更多向新徽標的轉變，而這實際上在本季度實現了。

That's helpful context. And then with respect to profitability, you delivered over 16% EBITDA margins in the quarter, which meaningfully outperformed your guidance. Can you talk about what drove the outperformance versus your initial expectations and how sustainable these margins are?

這是有用的背景。然後就盈利能力而言，您在本季度實現了超過 16% 的 EBITDA 利潤率，這明顯超出了您的指導。您能否談談是什麼推動了業績優於您最初的預期以及這些利潤率的可持續性如何？

Well, how sustainable depends on the economic environment that we're hand and we've guided for this next quarter at the midpoint, we think revenue, we're guiding down 5%, 6% year over year, midpoint of the guide, and we're guiding to a 16% EBITDA margin at that revenue level.

嗯，永續性的程度取決於我們手頭上的經濟環境，我們為下個季度的中點提供了指導，我們認為收入同比下降了 5%、6%，指導的中點，在該收入水平上，我們的目標是EBITDA 利潤率為16%。

One of the things we're really proud of is the fact that the revenue's up 35%, 40% since the pandemic, that was an all-time high by the way, pre-pandemic revenue levels was an all-time high for Korn Ferry at that point. And our revenue now is 35%, 40% higher. And our profitability, once you adjust for the mix change getting into a bigger market of interim is up 300 basis points.

我們真正感到自豪的一件事是，自大流行以來，收入增長了 35%、40%，這是歷史新高，順便說一句，大流行前的收入水平是科恩的歷史新高那時就渡輪了。現在我們的收入成長了35%、40%。一旦調整進入更大的臨時市場的組合變化，我們的獲利能力就會上升 300 個基點。

So at this level of revenue, it's certainly sustainable. And at the same time, we're investing and returning cash to shareholders. As Bob said, we've doubled the dividend now, over the last year and we continue to systematically repurchase stock.

所以在這個收入水準上，它肯定是可持續的。同時，我們正在投資並向股東返還現金。正如鮑伯所說，我們現在已經將股息比去年增加了一倍，並且我們繼續有系統地回購股票。

Got it. Very helpful. Thank you.

知道了。很有幫助。謝謝。

Mark Marcon, Baird.

馬克馬爾孔，貝爾德。

Hey, Gary, Bob, Gregg, Tiffany. Hey congrats on a really nice margin performance and sustaining the profitability. One, I'm going to take George's question, but flip it around a little bit. So you're able to do these margins while you know revenue is still kind of choppy, the outlook is still kind of choppy. How should we think about the margins when things eventually end up, I know being a little bit more stable?

嘿，加里、鮑伯、格雷格、蒂芬妮。嘿，恭喜您取得了非常好的利潤率表現並維持了獲利能力。第一，我要回答喬治的問題，但稍微翻轉一下。因此，當您知道收入仍然不穩定、前景仍然不穩定時，您就可以實現這些利潤。當事情最終變得更加穩定時，我們應該如何考慮利潤？

Well, stables a relative term. If there are economic tailwinds, you're going to see a couple of hundred basis points of margin improvement for sure. And that's kind of what, that's been our kind of long term guide. We think in this kind of environment where most economies are still producing jobs that we can comfortably operate the firm at 15.5%, 16% EBITDA margins, and we're guiding towards the higher end of that for this next quarter, Mark.

好吧，穩定了一個相對術語。如果出現經濟順風，您肯定會看到利潤率提高幾百個基點。這就是我們的長期指南。我們認為，在大多數經濟體仍在創造就業機會的這種環境下，我們可以輕鬆地以 15.5% 和 16% 的 EBITDA 利潤率運營公司，並且我們正在指導下一季度的更高水平，馬克。

Great. And then, you've had a lot of success with regards to changing the incentives. And it's been something, Gary, that you worked a long time on in terms of getting the cross-selling motion up. When you think about where we are today relative to our aspirations for, two to five years from now in terms of that cross-selling motion, what inning are we in? How much better can we become do you think?

偉大的。然後，您在改變激勵措施方面取得了很大成功。加里，您為推動交叉銷售行動花了很長時間。當您考慮我們今天相對於我們兩到五年後的交叉銷售動議的願望時，我們正處於哪個階段？您認為我們可以變得更好嗎？

So I think we're like in the second inning. I mean, we're not we're not crawling anymore, but we're not running. We've just started to walk. I think we can do a lot more of that. We have to think much more horizontally. The interesting thing is we know when we first met Mark in and at that point, when we got into this leadership business, we were doing engagements sizes of $5,000 or $6,000. I mean the interesting thing now is the pivot towards transformational consulting engagements.

所以我認為我們就像第二局一樣。我的意思是，我們不是不再爬行，而是不再奔跑。我們才剛開始走路。我認為我們可以做更多這樣的事。我們必須更加橫向思考。有趣的是，我們知道當我們第一次見到馬克時，當我們進入這個領導力業務時，我們的業務規模為 5,000 或 6,000 美元。我的意思是，現在有趣的事情是轉向轉型諮詢業務。

Probably 40% of our new business this year are million engagements. And so what comes with that is definitely more stability, the ability to leverage and to deploy leverage having real impact on clients. But I'll tell you, we were at the beginning and we have to move from cross referrals to more integrated solutions.

今年我們新業務的 40% 可能是 100 萬次互動。因此，隨之而來的肯定是更高的穩定性、利用和部署對客戶產生真正影響的槓桿的能力。但我會告訴你，我們才剛開始，我們必須從交叉推薦轉向更整合的解決方案。

But if I look at some of the work we're doing and it's definitely the beginning, I mean the consulting and digital businesses have clearly been a huge, huge differentiator for Korn Ferry. So I think we can do more on that quote, cross referral percentage and could that be 35%?

但如果我看看我們正在做的一些工作，這絕對是一個開始，我的意思是諮詢和數位業務顯然是光輝國際的一個巨大的差異化因素。所以我認為我們可以在報價、交叉推薦百分比方面做更多的事情，可以是 35% 嗎？

Yeah, it could be 35% for sure. But we have this. We have to continue to innovate in terms of the solution sites and continue to modify how we reward our colleagues.

是的，肯定是 35%。但我們有這個。我們必須在解決方案網站方面繼續創新，並繼續修改我們獎勵同事的方式。

In markets, but just maybe a little bit more context in that. So if you look at the consulting new business in FY24 for the full year versus FY23 engagements that are kind of close to or above $1 million. Those were up 36% year over year. So you can see that the strategy clearly working in terms of the push towards no more point solutions, but really selling integrated solutions that help solve climate clients, human capital needs.

在市場上，但可能只是在這方面有更多的背景。因此，如果你看看 2024 財年全年的顧問新業務與接近或超過 100 萬美元的 23 財年業務量。這些數字年增 36%。因此，您可以看到，該策略顯然正在推動不再提供單點解決方案，而是真正銷售有助於解決氣候客戶和人力資本需求的全面解決方案。

And then on Professional Search and interim, and then I'll jump back in the queue. But on Professional Search, in general know for everybody who follows the space, it's been a tough market and particularly on the interim side, we've been seeing declines across the board.

然後是專業搜索和臨時搜索，然後我會跳回到隊列中。但在專業搜尋方面，每個關注該領域的人都知道，這是一個艱難的市場，特別是在中期方面，我們看到了全面下滑。

I'm wondering, do you think on the interim side that things are stabilizing and how would you characterize the differences between your various interim businesses and so what they're seeing from a top line perspective, but yet you're able to maintain and improve the margins, which is pretty amazing what are you doing to get the margins up while the revenues declining as much as it is.

我想知道，您是否認為臨時方面情況正在穩定下來，以及您如何描述各個臨時業務之間的差異以及他們從頂線角度看到的情況，但您仍然能夠維持和提高利潤率，這真是令人驚奇，在收入大幅下降的情況下，你正在做什麼來提高利潤率。

And it's doing the same thing for everybody and then as a follow up to that, how given the current economic environment, how does that impact your desire in the short term to make investments in interim or permanent?

它為每個人做同樣的事情，然後作為後續行動，考慮到當前的經濟環境，這對您短期內進行臨時或永久投資的願望有何影響？

We would continue to make investments. In interim, we made a conscious decision about almost a year ago that we were going to modify the -- where we were placing emphasis on our Professional Search business. And so if you were to look at the data on the number of consultants we have in that business, you would find that it's down significantly. And we made portfolio switches and we said, okay, let's go to this industry versus that industry.

我們將繼續進行投資。在此期間，我們大約在一年前做出了一個有意識的決定，我們將修改我們重點關注的專業搜尋業務。因此，如果你查看我們在該業務中擁有的顧問數量的數據，你會發現它顯著下降。我們進行了投資組合轉換，我們說，好吧，讓我們進入這個行業而不是那個行業。

That was absolutely a conscious decision that we made and that's paid off the interesting thing about that. The temp penetration rate now is 1.7%. The 25 year average is 1.86%. I think the next three to five years are going to -- I think there's going to be major talent issues.

這絕對是我們做出的一個有意識的決定，並且得到了有趣的結果。目前臨時工滲透率為1.7%。 25年平均值為1.86%。我認為未來三到五年將會出現重大的人才問題。

I know it's so called peak 65 where over the next four to five years as kind of a last of the baby boomers are retiring or should be retiring statistically and you could lose 4 million people a year in the United States alone for maybe it's higher. The economy right now is producing about 1.8 million jobs at this run rate. So there's really some imbalances when you look out three, four, five years, that could bode very, very well.

我知道這就是所謂的“65 高峰”，在接下來的四到五年裡，嬰兒潮一代的最後一批人將會退休，或者應該在統計上退休，僅在美國，每年就可能失去400 萬人，而且這個數字可能更高。按照目前的運行速度，經濟目前正在創造約 180 萬個就業機會。因此，當你展望三年、四年、五年時，確實存在一些不平衡，這可能是非常非常好的兆頭。

Your question around the interim, we saw it first, a decline in technology interim. We've got to definitely stabilize. Then over the more recent months, we saw a decline in finance and accounting. The temp penetration rate, it's been falling for 27 months and counting -- generally when you see a fall in temp employment, it generally means that it's going to have an impact on the labor market.

你關於過渡時期的問題，我們首先看到的是技術過渡時期的衰退。我們必須穩定下來。然後在最近幾個月，我們看到財務和會計領域出現下滑。臨時工滲透率已經連續 27 個月下降，而且還在持續下降——一般來說，當你看到臨時工就業人數下降時，這通常意味著它將對勞動市場產生影響。

If you just look back historically and those lag times have definitely become longer, assuming there's not some major event. I'm not so sure this is going to turn upside down. I just think there's tremendous demographic pressure on the other end here, and I think it's the case for the not only the United States but some other countries.

如果你回顧歷史，假設沒有發生重大事件，那麼這些滯後時間肯定會變得更長。我不太確定這會顛倒過來。我只是認為另一端存在巨大的人口壓力，我認為不僅美國如此，其他一些國家也是如此。

We would absolutely we are going to make investments in the interim business, for sure. We've seen the power of the Korn Ferry brand and the number of cross referrals we've had, it's up but much, much bigger market opportunity. Clearly the margin profile is different. We're going to stay towards the higher end this quarter, we did the average rate was like $129 an ounce. We're going to work for sure going to stay at the upper end. But it's there's more market opportunity there for Korn Ferry.

我們絕對會投資臨時業務，這是肯定的。我們已經看到了光輝國際品牌的力量和我們擁有的交叉推薦的數量，它正在上升，但市場機會要大得多。顯然，保證金情況是不同的。本季度我們將保持在較高水平，我們的平均價格約為每盎司 129 美元。我們肯定會努力保持在高端。但對於光輝國際來說，那裡有更多的市場機會。

Hi, Mark. It's Bob. I can touch on the -- you asked the question about how you make those businesses profitable, and we talked about this is the past. So we have an incredible integration playbook, right? When you look at these companies, when we buy them, they're adjusted EBITDA somewhere around 8% and we built a company that's plug and play. So we have common systems, common processes, common controls across the globe.

嗨，馬克。是鮑伯。我可以談談——你問瞭如何讓這些企業獲利的問題，我們談到這已經是過去的事了。所以我們有一個令人難以置信的整合手冊，對吧？當你看看這些公司時，當我們購買它們時，它們的調整後 EBITDA 約為 8%，我們建立了一家即插即用的公司。因此，我們在全球範圍內擁有共同的系統、共同的流程、共同的控制措施。

And a lot of these businesses we buy, they're underinvested maybe not as well managed. And we just literally pick them up and plug them into our systems and our processes. And so by doing that, it allows us to bring the EBITDA margin up into the kind of 12%, 13%, 14% range relatively quickly. And then as the go-to-market activities become more and more integrated and we start to see the referral activity elevate the top line. That's when you really see the juice happening.

我們購買的許多企業投資不足，可能管理不善。我們只是簡單地拿起它們並將它們插入我們的系統和流程中。因此，透過這樣做，我們可以相對快速地將 EBITDA 利潤率提高到 12%、13%、14% 的範圍。然後，隨著上市活動變得越來越一體化，我們開始看到推薦活動提高了收入。那是你真正看到果汁發生的時候。

That's great. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

那太棒了。非常感謝。欣賞它。

Tobey Sommer, Truist Securities.

托比·索默（Tobey Sommer），Truist 證券公司。

Yeah, good morning. This is Jack Wilson on for Tobey. I'll maybe just to start out, so that continued momentum in new business and digital, is that a product of sort of a change in the market or changing what you're doing? Could you just dig into that a little bit?

是的，早安。這是托比的傑克威爾森。我可能只是開始，所以新業務和數位化的持續勢頭，是市場變化或改變你正在做的事情的產物嗎？能稍微深入研究一下嗎？

Well, some of it can be lumpy. For sure, so I wouldn't read too much into that. The thing that we would hope is that there's tremendous IP that we could really monetize it. I mean, it's not a small business today, $360 million. It's the most profitable part of Korn Ferry. You can really impact that a client organization can change thousands of people's lives.

嗯，其中一些可能是塊狀的。當然，所以我不會對此進行太多解讀。我們希望有大量的知識產權，我們可以真正將其貨幣化。我的意思是，今天這可不是一筆小生意，價值 3.6 億美元。這是光輝國際最賺錢的部分。您可以真正影響客戶組織可以改變成千上萬人的生活。

So it is one that we strongly believe in. It is one where we are trying to get the entire firm to push those offerings to solve client problems. The offerings are largely centered around organizations, what they do around professional development and learning, which is one of the biggest markets that we could go after. It's anchored around compensation, how organizations compensate people.

因此，這是我們堅信的一件事。這些產品主要以組織為中心，圍繞著專業發展和學習開展工作，這是我們可以追求的最大市場之一。它以薪酬為基礎，即組織如何補償人們。

And it's anchored around a company's sales force, how do they improve their sales effectiveness, but it's also we've got legacy products and digital offerings as well. Around, say, assessment or design how you set up an organization, people can license our intellectual property to do spans and layers and the whole thing.

它以公司的銷售團隊為中心，他們如何提高銷售效率，但我們也有傳統產品和數位產品。比如說，圍繞著評估或設計你如何建立一個組織，人們可以授權我們的智慧財產權來進行跨度、層次和整個事情。

So it is one that we do believe in, we are working very hard to get the entire Korn Ferry to be in the market with those digital solutions.

因此，我們確實相信這一點，我們正在非常努力地讓整個光輝國際利用這些數位解決方案進入市場。

We're working, quite heavily on a platform and we're also working to create a better ecosystem of partners. Because if you look at, for example, the big four consulting firms, they enjoy an ecosystem of partners that bring them hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue a year.

我們正在努力打造一個平台，並努力創造更好的合作夥伴生態系統。因為如果你看看四大顧問公司，他們享有一個合作夥伴生態系統，每年為他們帶來數億美元的收入。

And we sit here and look at our intellectual property of 109 million assessments, 30 million of comp data and 30 million people. And we say why not us, we think it can be a huge differentiator and we continue to work hard on creating an ecosystem with partners that can make our journey up the next mountain easier.

我們坐在這裡，審視我們的智慧財產權，其中包括 1.09 億份評估、3000 萬份比較數據和 3000 萬人。我們說為什麼不是我們，我們認為這可以成為一個巨大的差異化因素，我們將繼續努力與合作夥伴創建一個生態系統，讓我們的下一座山的旅程變得更容易。

And Jack, this is Bob. Just one other point I would make on that, as you think about the digital business going forward. Gary had mentioned, I had mentioned earlier in consulting selling larger engagements and the same thing is happening in digital. We're now selling $3 million, $4 million, $5 million deals that span multiple years.

傑克，這是鮑伯。當你思考數位業務的未來發展時，我想就此提出另一點。加里提到過，我之前在諮詢銷售更大的業務時提到過，同樣的事情也發生在數位領域。我們現在正在出售價值 300 萬美元、400 萬美元、500 萬美元的跨年交易。

And so Gary mentioned, you might see some choppiness because you can get [$3 million, $4 million] of those in a quarter. And then next quarter, you might get [$5 million, $6 million]. So it is kind of like what you see with RPO or RPO signs a huge contract in one quarter and you'll see the new business spike up.

加里提到，你可能會看到一些波動，因為你可以在一個季度內獲得[300萬美元，400萬美元]。然後下個季度，你可能會得到 [500 萬美元，600 萬美元]。因此，這有點像您在 RPO 中看到的情況，或者 RPO 在一個季度內簽署了一份巨額合同，您會看到新業務激增。

But the to me, the key there is that we are selling larger multi-year deals through $3 million, $4 million, $5 million versus point solutions. And so as you think about that going forward that that will influence what we report as new business as well.

但對我來說，關鍵是我們透過 300 萬美元、400 萬美元、500 萬美元的方式銷售更大的多年期交易，而不是單點解決方案。因此，當你考慮未來的情況時，這也會影響我們報告的新業務。

Yeah. And I think I think, Bob, to the other thing is that intellectual property that chassis, if you will, some of our of our digital capabilities actually fuels on a good part of our RPO business and a good part of our consulting business. And in fact, we use that same IP for the recruiting businesses.

是的。鮑勃，我認為另一件事是智慧財產權，如果你願意的話，我們的一些數位能力實際上推動了我們 RPO 業務的很大一部分和我們諮詢業務的很大一部分。事實上，我們將相同的 IP 用於招募業務。

That's right. It permeates everything we do.

這是正確的。它滲透到我們所做的一切事情中。

Yeah.

是的。

All right. And then maybe one more from me. I think you've previously spoken about using AI as more of a growth driver, then, I guess, a cost reducer. Can you throw some color on sort of are there any specific business lines you see that as a key driver?

好的。也許我還會再寫一篇。我想您之前曾談到將人工智慧更多地用作成長動力，然後，我想，它是一種成本降低器。您能否對您認為有哪些特定業務線視為關鍵驅動因素進行一些說明？

Nobody knows where this thing's going on. We are very concerned about the ethical ramifications. We've developed 6 million people over the last few years, we put somebody in a new job every three months, every three minutes we use IP all over the place where we are spending an awful lot of time to make sure that whatever we do in the area, that we're building a moat around our data.

沒有人知道這件事發生在哪裡。我們非常擔心道德後果。在過去的幾年裡，我們已經培養了600 萬人，我們每三個月、每三分鐘就安排一個人從事新工作，我們在所有地方都使用智慧財產權，我們花費大量時間來確保我們所做的一切在該領域，我們正在圍繞我們的數據建立護城河。

And so we're very systematic there. Yes, we are using it, in some of the coaching, some of the assessments. And over time, we will look at how we can make the entire Korn Ferry more efficient. But that's not in this next quarter. Our primary concerns right now are where can we be disintermediated? What are the ethical issues around this, and let's use it in a couple solution areas. And that's where we are right now.

所以我們在那裡非常系統化。是的，我們在一些輔導、一些評估中都在使用它。隨著時間的推移，我們將研究如何提高整個光輝國際的效率。但這不是下個季度的事。我們現在最關心的是我們可以在哪裡脫中介化？與此相關的道德問題是什麼，讓我們在幾個解決方案領域中使用它。這就是我們現在的處境。

All right. Thank you very much. I'll turn it over.

好的。非常感謝。我會把它翻過來。

Trevor Romeo, William Blair

特雷弗羅密歐、威廉布萊爾

All right. Good morning, team. Thanks so much for taking the questions. I know we've had several margin questions already, but just wanted to ask another one a bit differently given the outperformance there. I think for most of the segments you're running at a lower headcount than you had been kind of a year ago, that type of timeframe yet seeing kind of much better productivity and higher bill rates for a lot of the segments.

好的。早上好，團隊。非常感謝您提出問題。我知道我們已經遇到了幾個保證金問題，但鑑於那裡的表現出色，我只是想問另一個稍微不同的問題。我認為，對於大多數細分市場來說，與一年前相比，您的員工人數較少，在這種時間範圍內，許多細分市場的生產力和帳單率都提高了很多。

So just wondering if you could talk a bit more about which specific productivity initiatives you've implemented recently and which are starting to really pay off now and how much further you can improve on those productivity metrics?

因此，我想知道您是否可以多談談您最近實施了哪些具體的生產力計劃，哪些計劃現在開始真正產生回報，以及您可以在這些生產力指標上進一步改進多少？

Well, what we do think there's room to go, part of the improvement comes from and clearly technology, as Bob indicated, around platforms and the like. And I think he covered that really well. The other though, over time here like take our consulting business. So as we do more impactful, multimillion dollar engagements, the firm will see better scale, better productivity.

好吧，我們確實認為還有空間，部分改進顯然來自於技術，正如鮑勃指出的那樣，圍繞著平台等。我認為他很好地涵蓋了這一點。另一方面，隨著時間的推移，就像我們的諮詢業務一樣。因此，當我們開展更具影響力、價值數百萬美元的項目時，公司將看到更大的規模和更高的生產力。

And I think it's bearing out in the numbers. On the interim side, we definitely want to stay at a certain level and I'm not going to sit there and say you're going to see a gigantic productivity there. We've made some huge, huge strides over the last, 15 months.

我認為這一點在數字上得到了證實。在中期方面，我們肯定希望保持在一定水平，我不會坐在那裡說你會看到那裡巨大的生產力。在過去 15 個月裡，我們取得了巨大的進步。

So I'm not going to sit. I'm not going to say there is a long ways to go there. But I think it's a combination of our technology that we're using and the go-to-market strategy as it relates to consulting and digital.

所以我不會坐著。我不會說還有很長的路要走。但我認為這是我們正在使用的技術和與諮詢和數位相關的進入市場策略的結合。

Okay. Thanks, Gary. That makes a lot of sense. And then just another one kind of on the overall demand environment, some of the green shoots that you talked about last quarter in the cyclical businesses, but maybe specific to search.

好的。謝謝，加里。這很有意義。然後是整體需求環境的另一種情況，您上季度談到的周期性業務的一些萌芽，但可能特定於搜尋。

And I think your revenue was kind of flattish sequentially, maybe not quite as strong of an uptick as a few of the other competitors may have reported recently. Just kind of wondering if you could speak about the demand environment specific to search, whether you're still seeing those green shoots and whether they're stronger weaker or about the same as last quarter? Thanks.

我認為你們的收入連續一段時間持平，可能不像其他一些競爭對手最近報告的那樣強勁成長。只是想知道您是否可以談談特定於搜尋的需求環境，您是否仍然看到這些萌芽，以及它們是否更強、更弱或與上個季度大致相同？謝謝。

I think they're about the same. I mean what we talked about last quarter was that we would expect to see some uptick in Professional Search. And we said we would see, an improvement in RPM. And that's absolutely happened. As you know, if you step back from all of this, and we're clearly in the middle of a multi quarter reset and companies are adapting to a rate environment that is 2.5 times what it was and people haven't seen this for 25 years.

我認為它們差不多。我的意思是，我們上個季度討論的是，我們預計專業搜尋會出現一些成長。我們說我們會看到轉速的改善。這確實發生了。如您所知，如果您從這一切中退一步，我們顯然正處於多季度重置之中，公司正在適應 2.5 倍的利率環境，而人們已經有 25 年沒有看到過這種情況了。

And I don't see in the near term in the next few months, I don't really see much changing. I think the really encouraging news, though, when you look out at mega trends is what I touched upon a little bit of just take the United States labor force. I mean, it's not going to be too long. And I think right now, 19% of the population is retired in America that could go to 20% at some point for every person that's retired today, you got to workers.

我認為在接下來的幾個月內，我並沒有看到太大的變化。不過，我認為真正令人鼓舞的消息是，當你觀察大趨勢時，我提到的一點只是以美國勞動力為例。我的意思是，這不會太久。我認為現在美國有 19% 的人口退休，到了某個時候，今天退休的人（包括工人）的退休人口比例可能會達到 20%。

That's going to change. And with this peak 65 and baby boomers you look at it and you look at some other countries and you say, wow, there's a real demographic issue there. And so how do you companies deal with that demographic issue. And so part of that is going to be through technology, but part of it is going to be with the kind of services that we actually deliver and that we're building our firm for.

這種情況將會改變。看到 65 歲和嬰兒潮一代的峰值，你再看看其他一些國家，你會說，哇，那裡確實存在人口問題。那麼你們公司如何處理這個人口問題呢？因此，其中一部分將透過技術實現，但一部分將透過我們實際提供的服務以及我們建立公司的服務來實現。

So I look at the mega trend around demographics. And I say that's really, really good news. Again, absent some, unforeseen events that could happen. So I know I look out and say, it's I think there's going to continue to be this concept of labor hoarding, but I'm more encouraged than no longer term on what the demographic trends mean for Korn Ferry.

所以我關注人口統計的大趨勢。我說這真的是個好消息。同樣，沒有一些可能發生的不可預見的事件。所以我知道我會留意並說，我認為這種勞動力囤積的概念將會繼續存在，但我對人口趨勢對光輝國際意味著什麼感到更加鼓舞。

Okay. Great. Appreciate the perspective. Thanks.

好的。偉大的。欣賞這個觀點。謝謝。

Karan Singhania, UBS.

卡蘭辛哈尼亞，瑞銀。

Hi, good morning. This is current on for Josh. So thanks for taking my questions. So I had a question on executive suites, with executive suite, seeing positive new business growth and new engagements given it's going to return to growth in the first quarter? And if so, what regions?

早安.這是喬許的最新作品。謝謝你回答我的問題。因此，我對高階主管套房有一個疑問，考慮到第一季將恢復成長，高階主管套房是否會看到積極的新業務成長和新業務？如果是的話，是哪些地區？

No, this environment we're in a very, very -- every company is in an incredibly difficult environment. There is a fight for growth. There is a fight for relevancy, the winners are going to be those companies that invest in two or three areas that are going to accelerate them through the turn, and that's what Korn Ferry is doing.

不，我們所處的環境非常非常——每家公司都處於一個極其困難的環境中。為成長而戰。存在著一場相關性之爭，獲勝者將是那些投資於兩三個領域並能夠加速其轉型的公司，而這正是光輝國際正在做的事情。

I think the labor market in the United States is not going to change materially. I don't think there's going to be huge adjustments to interest rates. Costs for most Americans have gone up 35% to 40% wages have not gone up that much. And so I think realistically, if you're only looking a quarter, which is quite myopic, I think it's going to be kind of the environment that we're in now does that certainly doesn't say that we can't take market share.

我認為美國的勞動市場不會發生重大變化。我認為利率不會大幅調整。大多數美國人的生活成本上漲了 35% 到 40%，但薪資卻沒有上漲那麼多。所以我認為，現實地說，如果你只關註四分之一，這是相當短視的，我認為這將是我們現在所處的環境，這當然並不意味著我們不能佔領市場分享。

When I look at that things that we're doing around the globe, we have never ever done more high-impact assignments ever. And so I look at that and say, wow, that is incredible. Incredible news, if there is economic tailwind and can Executive Search get on a completely different trajectory? Absolutely. Do we have the best people in the industry? Absolutely. Is there room to go? For sure.

當我審視我們在全球範圍內所做的事情時，我們從未完成過如此具有高影響力的任務。所以我看著它並說，哇，這太不可思議了。令人難以置信的消息，如果有經濟順風，獵人頭能否走上完全不同的軌跡？絕對地。我們擁有業界最優秀的人才嗎？絕對地。有空間可以去嗎？一定。

But if your question is two or three months. Now, it's what you're in the environment you're in and great companies make their best moves in these kinds of economic climates. And that's what we're going to do.

但如果你的問題是兩三個月。現在，這就是你所處的環境，偉大的公司在這種經濟環境下做出了最好的舉動。這就是我們要做的。

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you.

好的。這很有幫助。謝謝。

And speakers, that does conclude our question-and-answer session, and I'll be turning the conference back to you for closing remarks.

各位發言者，我們的問答環節到此結束，我將把會議轉回給你們做閉幕詞。

Okay. Thank you for joining us and for taking an interest. I think we have done. The thing I'm most proud of is that when we say something we do it. And you have an organization that has tremendous colleagues, tremendous reach around the world and a really, really solid leadership team. We're everywhere where you want to be in every industry, and we're building solutions that matter, particularly over the next five years.

好的。感謝您加入我們並對此感興趣。我想我們已經做到了。我最自豪的事情是，當我們說某事時，我們就做到了。您的組織擁有眾多的同事、在全球範圍內的巨大影響力以及一支非常非常堅實的領導團隊。我們無所不在，無論您想在哪個行業，我們都在建立重要的解決方案，尤其是在未來五年內。

So with that, thank you and we'll talk to you next time.

所以，謝謝您，我們下次再聊。

Ladies and gentlemen, this conference call will be available for replay for one week starting today at 2:00 PM Eastern Time running through June 21, 2024, at midnight. You may access the AT&T executive playback service by dialling 866-207-1041 and entering the access code 5486987. International participants may dial 402-970-0847.

女士們、先生們，本次電話會議可重播一周，從東部時間今天下午 2:00 開始，一直持續到 2024 年 6 月 21 日午夜。您可以撥打 866-207-1041 並輸入接入碼 5486987 來存取 AT&T 行政播放服務。

Additionally, the replay will be available for playback at the company's website, www.kornferry.com in the Investor Relations section. And that does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now correct.

此外，重播將在公司網站 www.kornferry.com 的投資者關係部分播放。今天的會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。你現在可以更正了。