Korn Ferry, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of organizational consulting services worldwide. The company offers consulting services for talent strategies, organizational structures, and workforce capabilities; and develops, integrate, and commercializes with Korn Ferry Talent suite, as well as enabling technology across Korn Ferry's other solution areas. The company operates cloud human resources platforms comprising Korn Ferry Architect, …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Margins Consistently Above PeersGross margin at 88.1% (top 10%) and operating margin at 12.8% (top 5%) indicate strong pricing power.
ROIC Sustainably Above PeersROIC at 77.8th percentile exceeds peers and WACC, demonstrating superior capital allocation.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Korn Ferry ranks #2 of 23
scored companies in Staffing & Employment Services by moat score — the top 9%.
The widest moat in the group is Barrett Business Services, Inc. (BBSI)
at 82/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near KFY in Staffing & Employment Services
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 54
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 69
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 84
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 77
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 79
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
Korn Ferry (KFY) scores 75 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #2 of 23 scored companies in Staffing & Employment Services, the top 9%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 22 companies in Staffing & Employment Services. Its strongest defense is Capital Efficiency (84/100) and its weakest is Cost Advantage (54/100).
How does Korn Ferry compare with other Staffing & Employment Services companies?
Korn Ferry ranks #2 of 23 scored companies in Staffing & Employment Services by moat score. The widest moat in Staffing & Employment Services is Barrett Business Services, Inc. (BBSI) at 82/100. The companies ranked closest are Barrett Business Services, Inc. (BBSI) at 82 just above it and Kforce, Inc. (KFRC) at 71 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 22 companies in Staffing & Employment Services. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Korn Ferry scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Korn Ferry?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and KFY scores: Pricing Power (79), Cost Advantage (54), Customer Stickiness (69), Capital Efficiency (84), Resilience (77), Scale & Market Position (79). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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