– Firm Launches the "Korn/Ferry Advantage" to Assess Mission-Critical
Leadership Competencies and Mitigate the Costs of Failure –

DELHI, July 2, 2008 – Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY), a premier global provider of talent management solutions, today announced the launch of the Korn/Ferry Advantage to help address India’s ongoing talent crisis. The Korn/Ferry Advantage is a proprietary, research-based, competency-driven approach to talent management that provides companies and search consultants with a common language and framework throughout the recruitment process in order to increase the alignment between an organization’s strategic hiring needs and the candidates’ true potential. This unique methodology helps to substantially mitigate the chances of a candidate “misfit” and is based on research showing that talent management practices have the greatest return on investment when aligned with key success indicators.

“With increasing pressure on Indian companies to deliver world-class results in record time, hiring managers need to change their mindsets about how they identify and attract the best performers and take a holistic view not only of executives’ education and work history but also their career motivations and ‘soft’ skills,” said David Everhart, Asia Pacific Managing Director of Korn/Ferry’s Leadership Development Solutions division. “Functional and technical skills are important, but do not distinguish superior from average performance. In fact, research shows that 50% of a person's success is based on their leadership style, which includes both ‘intellectual intelligence’ and ‘emotional intelligence’.”

He added: “As Indian companies globalize, the ‘war for talent’ is intensifying. The cost of replacing an executive is already a minimum of 1.5 times their wage and productivity. Corporate India’s focus on relieving attrition and recruiting replacement executives at ever higher salaries is costing the country upwards of USD 10.8 billion per year . Shifting that focus to a more careful assessment of potential hires could reduce the burden.”

“In today's market, the reality is companies that do not invest in identifying and developing the best and brightest risk losing them to competitors who do,” said Deepak Gupta, Managing Director of Korn/Ferry in India. “More than ever, executives are transitioning between organizations. Management needs to realign their expectations about what they want newcomers to achieve - and how quickly. Evaluating an incumbent’s core competencies and getting serious about supporting them through the first months of an assignment are critical to ensuring a seamless transition.”

“The days when unprepared headhunters casually interviewed candidates and made decisions based on their gut feelings and a CV are long gone,” said Nina Chatrath, Senior Consultant with Korn/Ferry’s Leadership Development Solutions division. “We partner with clients to thoroughly diagnose the job specifications to align their strategy and culture with an executive’s deeper motivations and thought processes. When this alignment occurs, the probability of a successful placement is much greater.”

About the Korn/Ferry Advantage
For nearly 20 years, Lominger International, a Korn/Ferry company, has collected competency data on tens of thousands of executives and managers from around the world. The Leadership Architect® Library of 67 competencies and career stallers and stoppers helps Korn/Ferry consultants evaluate as much as 85 percent of the skills that lead to effective management and leadership.

In addition, Korn/Ferry helps companies benchmark their team's leadership and behavioural competencies against “best-in-class” profiles from its proprietary database of 1.2 million people who have been assessed across all major job functions, levels and industries worldwide in recent years. Using both instruments, professionals are measured on how they make decisions, and which of their leadership characteristics may be underused or overused, thus foretelling potential performance or cultural-fit issues. After executives are placed, they can be onboarded with a customized, research-based development plan to maximize the company’s investment.

About Korn/Ferry International in India
With more than 80 offices in 39 countries, Korn/Ferry International (Korn/Ferry) is a premier global provider of talent management solutions and has been ranked the number one executive search firm in the world for the past three years. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the Firm has operated in India since 1995, and currently has offices in Gurgaon, Mumbai and Bangalore, from which it serves an extensive client base nationwide.

Today, led by 13 partners and a large support team, Korn/Ferry India provides industry specialization across the financial, consumer, industrial, life-sciences and technology markets, as well as functional expertise in recruiting CEO and Board members. These trusted advisors deliver personalized service, strategic guidance and world-class leadership to local companies and multi-national corporations alike, leveraging a sophisticated network of more than 500 consultants around the globe.

In early 2008, Korn/Ferry was a proud partner of the “Lead India” campaign, a nationwide talent search organized by the Times Group to identify a ‘leader chosen by the public to lead the country.’ Utilizing its behavioral assessment and development tools, Korn/Ferry conducted assessments of the leadership styles, thinking styles and emotional competencies of the finalists.

For more information on the Korn/Ferry International family of companies, visit www.kornferryasia.com.