NEW YORK — Edelman has struck a partnership with consultancy RHR International that will enable the agency to offer high-level executives leadership development that traditionally hasn’t been part of the firm’s corporate advisory offerings.

Under the partnership, Edelman and RHR will work jointly on helping companies undergoing transformation to succeed despite the odds against them, said Jim O’Leary, Edelman’s global practice chair.

The alliance gives Edelman new ability to offer leaders advisory services particular to that goal through RHR; The deal also opens the door for RHR to steer clients to Edelman, which offers services in areas including employee engagement, crisis management and business transformation.

“The data from management consulting firms show nine out of 10 companies are in some form of transformation, but most (more than three out of four) of those are failing,” O’Leary said.

Helping companies through all aspects of those transformations is particularly critical now as they are using this time to accelerate that process, he said. “Transformative times require transformational leadership,” he said.

The partnership will be co-led by Adam Gerstein, Edelman’s business transformation leader, and  RHR senior partner Paul Ofman.

“Edelman and RHR both work with clients’ during watershed moments in their histories and we’ve seen the transformative effect the two firms have on leaders and teams,” said Gerstein. “Together we will combine our strengths to help leaders unlock the full potential of their business strategy and their people.”