The Center for Leadership Excellence

What The Center for Leadership Excellence does

The Center for Leadership Excellence (CLE) is a privately-held, woman-owned human resources services firm headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, that has operated continuously for over five decades under the related brand Career Consultants. The firm delivers a broad portfolio of professional services across leadership development, career transition, executive search, culture consulting, and early-career preparedness. Its core offerings include Career Transition & Outplacement Services, Leadership and Intervention Coaching, Leadership Training Programs, Corporate Consulting on Culture & Leadership, Executive Search and Staffing, the Emerging Leaders Academy, the Advancing Women Program, and College & Early Career Preparedness Coaching. CLE also monetizes complementary intellectual property including the "What It Takes to Shatter Glass" book authored by CEO Jessica Gendron and on-demand courses hosted on a LearnWorlds e-learning platform.

CLE's technology stack centers on a third-party LearnWorlds-powered learning platform for course distribution, a proprietary candidate database housing tens of thousands of passive executive and professional candidates, and a proprietary Culture Marker Assessment tool that benchmarks organizational culture across DEI, leadership 360, and business-unit dimensions. The firm operates as a member of OI Global Partners, a network of over 1,000 career coaches across 225 locally-owned offices in 28 countries on five continents, which extends CLE's geographic reach for outplacement engagements far beyond its Indiana base. The company has completed over 100,000 executive and professional searches and supported over 250,000 individuals through outplacement programs since 1981.

Revenue is generated through five primary mechanics: professional services fees (coaching, training, search, consulting), per-employee outplacement pricing tiered by departing employee salary ($1,500 at $50K, $2,500 at $75K, $5,000 at $100K), subscription/recurring revenue from self-paced online courses, one-time book sales at $18.95 MSRP with volume discounts for corporate buyers, and keynote speaking engagements. GTM is relationship-led B2B direct sales targeting HR departments, business leaders, and corporate learning buyers across industries including pharma, healthcare, financial services, homebuilding, not-for-profits, and engineering, with additional consumer-facing distribution via e-commerce. The firm also targets individual consumers, college students, and women professionals as secondary segments.

Name

The Center for Leadership Excellence

Legal name

The Center For Leadership Excellence & Career Consultants

Website

https://cleindy.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1981

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Center for Leadership Excellence is a privately-held, woman-owned HR services firm headquartered in Indianapolis that delivers executive search, outplacement, leadership coaching, culture consulting, and career preparedness services to corporate clients, women professionals, and college students.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Leadership Development and Career Consulting Services

NAICS

Professional and Management Development Training (61143), Educational Support Services (611710), Business Schools and Computer and Management Training (6114)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Talent Management & Leadership Advisory (Succession, Performance, Culture) (BPACAJAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Executive Outplacement (C-Suite & Senior Leaders) (BPACAOAC), Executive Leadership & C-Suite Development (EDABAAAA), C-Suite & Senior Executive Coaching (EDABANAA), Public Sector, Education & Nonprofit Leadership Search (BPACAAAI)

Keywords

• Leadership development
• Executive coaching
• Outplacement services
• Executive search
• Culture consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Carmel

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Professional Coaching Services: Leadership and intervention coaching delivered to leaders seeking to elevate their skills, focusing on communication, vision-setting, and relationship-building. Provides personalized one-on-one coaching to address specific leadership needs.
2. Leadership Training Programs: Targeted leadership training programs focusing on enhancing communication, relationship-building, and other skills essential for building strong teams and optimizing individual and team outcomes.
3. Outplacement Services: Career transition and outplacement services working with employers to support individuals through job loss with personalized coaching, job search assistance, and emotional support until employment is secured. Services provided through OI Global Partners network of over 1000 career coaches globally.
4. Executive Search and Staffing: Search and staffing services placing executives, mid-managers and professional level talent. Specializes in building diverse talent pools and recruiting passive candidates not actively on the job market. Has completed over 100,000 searches.
5. College Career Preparedness Programs: Specialized career development programs for college students delivered on campuses and to student groups, covering resumes, interviews, networking, negotiating offers, and job search strategies.
6. Online Courses: On-demand e-learning courses available through their learning platform covering job search topics: Identifying Target Job, Resume Writing/ATS, LinkedIn Networking, Interview Prep, and Negotiation.
7. Book Sales: Sale of 'What It Takes to Shatter Glass' book by Jessica Gendron at MSRP $18.95, with bulk order discounts for groups (10-24 copies: 10% off, 25-49: 20% off, 50+: 25% off).
8. Corporate Culture Consulting: Corporate consulting on culture and leadership, collaborating with organizational leaders to develop strategies that foster belonging, engagement, and shared values.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Center for Leadership Excellence is a professional services firm that delivers leadership coaching, leadership training, corporate culture consulting, outplacement, executive search and college career preparedness programs to corporate clients and individual professionals. Its offerings are anchored by a proprietary Culture Marker Assessment and supported through an e-learning platform and a passive-candidate talent database. The firm complements its services with published books and on-demand online courses for individuals seeking career advancement.

Product overview

The Center for Leadership Excellence is a service-based leadership development and career consulting firm offering a portfolio of interconnected programs. The core offerings include Career Transition & Outplacement Services (personalized coaching with certified career coaches), Leadership Training Programs, Leadership and Intervention Coaching, Corporate Consulting on Culture & Leadership (featuring the proprietary Culture Marker Assessment), College & Early Career Preparedness Coaching, and Advancing Women Programs. Additional services include Search and Staffing Services, the Emerging Leaders Academy, and Keynote Speaking. The firm also publishes books including 'What It Takes to Shatter Glass' by Jessica Gendron. Services are delivered through a network of over 1000 Career Coaches globally via OI Global Partners.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Search and Staffing Practice: Executive search and staffing services for executives, mid-managers, and professional level talent
• Outplacement Services
• Culture Marker Assessment

Products and services

• Career Transition & Outplacement Services Personalized coaching services delivered to individuals during job loss, helping them navigate job searches, refine career goals, and secure roles. Combines certified personal career coaches with data and employment trends, delivered through the OI Global Partners network of 1,000+ career coaches globally.
• Leadership Training Programs Targeted group leadership training programs focusing on enhancing communication, relationship-building and other skills essential for building strong teams and optimizing individual and team outcomes. Sold to corporate clients and cohorts of leaders.
• Leadership and Intervention Coaching Personalized one-on-one coaching engagements for leaders seeking to elevate their leadership skills, with a focus on improving communication, vision-setting and relationship-building. Sold to individual leaders and to organizations developing senior or emerging talent.
• Corporate Consulting on Culture & Leadership Culture and leadership consulting engagements in which CLE collaborates with organizational leaders to develop strategies fostering belonging, engagement and shared values. Includes the proprietary Culture Marker Assessment (with DEI Markers, Leadership 360 Culture Markers and Business Unit Culture Markers variants).
• College & Early Career Preparedness Coaching Specialized career development programs for college students and early career professionals covering target career identification, resumes, ATS optimization, networking, interview prep and negotiation. Delivered on campuses and to student groups including fraternities and sororities.
• Advancing Women Programs Programs that equip women with tools, strategies and confidence to advance in their careers, while helping organizations create more diverse leadership and talent pipelines and educating individuals to become stronger allies in the workplace.
• Search and Staffing Services Executive search and staffing services placing executives, mid-managers and professional-level talent. Specializes in building diverse talent pools and recruiting passive candidates not actively on the job market, drawing on a database of tens of thousands of candidates.
• Emerging Leaders Academy Structured training program designed for developing leaders to build essential leadership competencies. Delivered as a cohort-based academy.
• Keynote Speaking Keynote speaking engagements delivered by CLE experts on leadership, culture and career development topics for conferences, corporate events and student audiences.
• Online Courses (e-learning) Self-paced on-demand courses delivered through the CLE learning platform (cle.learnworlds.com) covering job-search topics: Identifying Your Target Job, Getting Through ATS Filters, Networking in Your Job Search, Interview Prep, and Negotiating.
• What It Takes to Shatter Glass (Book) Book by Jessica Gendron offering an empowering perspective on women in business, combining inspirational storytelling with actionable tools to help women advocate for themselves and ascend to leadership roles. Sold individually at $18.95 MSRP and through bulk orders with tiered discounts (10-24 copies 10% off, 25-49 copies 20% off, 50+ copies 25% off, with free shipping).

Quantifiable outcome

• 83% of Americans would have improved opinion of organizations providing outplacement services (Harris Poll)
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• OI Global PartnerscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCareer Consultants is a proud part of OI Global Partners, which is comprised of more than 1000 Career Coaches globally providing a wide range of services from 225 locally-owned offices in 28 countries and on 5 continents. This partnership enables CLE to provide national and international outplacement capabilities, responding to termination of one employee or entire business units in multiple locations.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Spencer Stuart: Spencer Stuart is a premier global executive search and leadership advisory firm, directly comparable to CLE's Search and Staffing practice and adjacent culture consulting work.
• Korn Ferry: Korn Ferry is a global executive search and organizational consulting firm that competes across both CLE's executive search and leadership/culture consulting practices at the enterprise end of the market.
• FranklinCovey: FranklinCovey is a global leadership and performance consulting firm offering training content and programs, comparable to CLE's leadership training, Emerging Leaders Academy, and keynote speaking.
• Heidrick & Struggles: Heidrick & Struggles is a global executive search and leadership consulting firm that overlaps with CLE across executive search, leadership advisory, and culture services for enterprise clients.

Direct peers

• Right Management (ManpowerGroup): Right Management is a global outplacement and career transition firm and a direct competitor to CLE's Career Transition & Outplacement Services, particularly through the OI Global Partners network where both firms operate.
• DDI (Development Dimensions International): DDI is a global leadership development firm offering assessments, training, and coaching, directly comparable to CLE's leadership training programs and Culture Marker Assessment work.
• Lee Hecht Harrison (LHH): LHH is one of the largest dedicated outplacement and career transition providers globally, directly comparable to CLE's outplacement offering and overlapping in leadership development and coaching.
• Center for Creative Leadership (CCL): CCL is a leading nonprofit specializing in leadership development research, training, and coaching, directly comparable to CLE's leadership training, coaching, and executive development offerings.

Emerging players

• BetterUp: BetterUp is a tech-enabled coaching and leadership development platform that competes with CLE's coaching and emerging leaders offerings at lower price points and with broader digital scale.
• CoachHub: CoachHub is a digital coaching platform serving enterprises globally, an emerging tech-enabled competitor to CLE's leadership coaching practice with comparable executive coaching outcomes at lower per-engagement cost.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cmi-strategy
• Xx.com/cle_indy

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Center for Leadership Excellence