ZRG Acquires Leading Culture Consulting Firm Walking The Talk

Culture Visionary Carolyn Taylor Will Continue to Lead Walking the Talk

NEW YORK, July 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ZRG, recognized as the fastest growing global executive search firm two of the past four years, today announced the acquisition of Walking the Talk, a top consulting and advisory firm focused on culture transformation.

Walking the Talk is a world leader in enhancing performance results by aligning culture with strategy. Since the company started 11 years ago, culture has landed firmly on the agenda of most executive teams and boards of directors. As pioneers in this field, understanding the impact culture has on growth, performance and reputation, Walking the Talk has grown to become the largest consulting firm solely focused on the culture agenda. The firm operates globally and has supported clients on dozens of engagements, which can last anywhere from a few months to a few years.

“Hiring top talent that aligns with a clients culture objective has been a key success factor for ZRG. With the addition of Walking the Talk, we will expand our consulting and talent solutions capabilities, thereby helping our clients address challenging topics like change management and culture transformation,” said Larry Hartmann, CEO of ZRG.

“Walking the Talk’s intellectual property developed by Carolyn Taylor and the team will enhance our ability to understand, measure and assess culture contribution at multiple levels,” he added. “We see great power in the combination of our two businesses.”

ZRG, a portfolio company of RFE Investment Partners since 2018, has already begun incorporating Walking the Talk’s intellectual property and cultural insights into its Zi platform. This new and improved combined toolkit enables ZRG to bring more rigor, more data and more thoughtfulness to each client’s hiring decisions.

“We see tremendous opportunity to continue to expand our service offerings globally as part of ZRG,” Carolyn Taylor, CEO of Walking the Talk remarked. “We intend to use our expertise in the field of culture, behavior and mindset to enhance ZRG’s ability to select the best candidates for clients, evaluating their contribution to the client’s culture goals.”

“Now, as a key component of the ZRG team we will be in a better position to meet emerging client needs. It will be exciting to see our advisory work extend into hiring, in a measured way,” she added. “With ZRG’s data-driven tool kit we are confident that we can keep making an impact for our clients, while broadening the scope of how that impact translates to business performance.”

Hunt Scanlon Ventures facilitated the introduction of ZRG Partners and Walking The Talk.

About Walking the Talk
For over a decade Walking the Talk has grown to become the preeminent firm in the field of culture advisory. The firm services a wide range of clients focusing exclusively on culture and how leaders can use culture to influence and drive business performance. Through the application of its proprietary tools and intellectual property Walking the Talk has made a tremendous impact on its clients helping them navigate day to day interactions as well as transformative business events. Service lines such as target culture mapping, culture surveys, diagnostics and other capabilities allow Walking the Talk to repeatedly deliver the very best advisory solutions to its clients on every engagement.

About ZRG
Over the past four years, ZRG has been the leader in top line growth and increasing market share through its talented workforce and its investments in industry leading innovations and talent acquisition tools supporting its clients in making better informed and timely talent decisions. The proprietary collaborative Zi platform with its integrated Z Score, Compensation Tools, Interview Insights, and Culture Fit Score have accelerated the hiring process more than 30% with better decision making. Since 1999, ZRG’s data-driven approach to executive and professional search has changed the way its clients think about acquiring top talent. For over 20 years, clients have trusted ZRG to recruit top talent around the world. Today, ZRG is recognized as the fastest-growing global search firm and provides a full suite of retained executive management and customized talent solutions through its locations in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

About RFE
RFE Investment Partners is a private equity firm focused on making control investments in established small market companies located in the United States. RFE is a long-standing Connecticut-based firm founded in 1980 with over 40 years of experience investing in the lower middle market. RFE’s investment strategy is to transform its portfolio companies from the lower end of the market to fully professionalized and market leading middle market companies. RFE is currently investing out of Fund IX. For more information, visit www.rfeip.com.

Contact: John Mooney, Over The Moon PR, (908) 720-6057, john@overthemoonpr.com