Services
People and Performance
Stronger people. Stronger performance.
Business performance requires leaders who can execute, talent processes that build capability, and people prepared to drive results.
CBS People and Performance helps organizations strengthen these capabilities while providing experienced leadership when critical capacity is needed.
For more than 25 years, CBS has improved throughput, delivery, quality, and margin inside manufacturing, aerospace and defense, and private equity–backed businesses. Across engagements in 13 countries, one pattern holds: process improvements only last when the leadership and workforce running the process can carry them.
People and Performance brings that side of the business into the same operational discipline. Our consultants bring decades of experience running plants, supply chains, and business units. They identify the leadership, talent, and cultural constraints on performance, address them alongside your team, and step into critical leadership roles when the business needs capacity now.
When results stall, the root cause often goes beyond equipment and process.
Driving growth and profitability requires strong leadership and a high-performing organization. While that sounds straightforward, it becomes increasingly difficult when your business is under pressure. You may be falling behind on customer deliveries, losing your competitive edge, and facing escalating day-to-day challenges. In these situations, leaders often get pulled into reactive firefighting, while critical roles remain unfilled and organizational capabilities lag behind.
CBS brings more than 25 years of experience developing the leadership and organizational capacity your business needs, and that work starts with interim management. Whether you’re addressing leadership gaps, strengthening your leadership bench, or preparing your organization for what’s next, CBS can step in quickly and help you regain momentum with practical, executive-ready support.
Our services include:
How CBS approaches people and performance
People and Performance complements CBS’s operational consulting. Process work improves how the operation runs; people work strengthens the leaders and teams who run it. When the two are done well together, the results multiply, and they are measured in the numbers operations leaders already own.
Anchored to operating and financial results
Every engagement starts with the business case: the throughput, delivery, quality, cost, or margin gap the organization needs to close. Leadership, talent, and change work is scoped against those measures, not against activity.
Progress is reviewed with the executive team against operational and financial metrics, so the people work is measured by the same numbers as the rest of the business.
In practice: KPI baselines at kickoff, weekly steering reviews, joint reviews with finance.
Led by executives who have run the operation
CBS consultants are operational executives, many with 30 years or more in leadership roles. They have been plant managers, general managers, and vice presidents of operations, supply chain, quality, and engineering, and they have carried the P&L through ramps, turnarounds, relocations, and integrations.
That experience earns credibility on the floor and in the boardroom, and it means advice comes from people who have made the same calls under the same pressure.
In practice: leaders matched to the role, the industry, and the operating environment.
On site, working alongside your leaders
We work where the work happens. Our consultants and interim executives are on site with your team, running daily performance routines with the leadership team and the front line, coaching leaders in the moment, and making decisions with the people who have to carry them out.
When an incumbent leader stays in the role, our executive can work side by side with them, improving results while building that leader’s capability.
In practice: daily management routines, side-by-side coaching, in-person readiness work.
Built to sustain the gains
The measure of an engagement is what the business can do after it ends. We build the leadership bench, the talent systems, the KPIs, and the operating cadence that keep performance moving, and when a permanent leader is part of the plan, we prepare that transition from day one.
That is how a cultural change takes hold: continuous improvement becomes the way the business runs, not a program attached to it.
In practice: succession pipelines, leader development plans, operating cadences owned by your team.
Ways to engage
Each capability can be engaged on its own or combined. Interim leadership often starts with a single call; consulting work most often runs alongside a CBS operational excellence, supply chain, or private equity engagement.
Interim Management
3 to 12 months · site, functional, and executive roles
When a critical seat is open, a transition is putting results at risk, or the business needs transformation led from the inside, CBS places an experienced executive in the role. Our interim leaders take full ownership of the function and start delivering results immediately, leading the team through turnaround, growth, or transformation against agreed milestones. When a permanent leader is part of the plan, they prepare and onboard that leader so the gains carry forward.
Leadership Development
Frontline supervisors through plant and functional leaders
Performance scales with the capability of the people leading it. We assess the strengths and gaps of the leaders who run the operation, from frontline supervisors to plant and functional managers, then develop them through coaching, mentoring, and structured programs tied to their operational goals, so development shows up in results, not just in training hours.
Change Management and Readiness
Built into every CBS engagement
Change succeeds or stalls with the people asked to adopt it. Our change readiness assessment uses confidential interviews with leaders, managers, and hourly employees across every department and line to show where change will land, where resistance sits, and who needs support to lead it. The findings shape the change strategy, communications, and the network of change agents who carry it forward.
Talent Management
Attract, develop, and retain the workforce the plan requires
We evaluate how the business finds, develops, and retains talent, then redesign the system around the demand it actually faces. That includes competitive labor-market analysis, new acquisition channels, faster hiring cycles, and staffing models built on customer demand rather than instinct.
Human Capital Assessment
Often run alongside a CBS operational engagement
A fact-based view of the people factors behind performance. We analyze turnover, absenteeism, and labor data, assess leadership health and alignment, and connect what we find to the operating metrics it affects. The result is an executive readout with a prioritized plan, and a clear answer to the question owners ask after an acquisition: do we have the right people in place?
How an interim engagement works
Every interim engagement is built around the business priority behind it, whether that is holding performance through a leadership change, recovering results, or leading a transformation. The path is consistent from the first conversation to the final handoff.
01 · DEFINE
Agree on the mandate
A conversation with your leadership team about the role, the business priorities, and what results need to look like. Together we agree on scope and milestones.
02 · DEPLOY
Experienced leadership from day one
A proven leader steps in with the industry and operational experience to establish direction, build momentum and drive performance.
03 · DELIVER
Agree on the mandate
The interim leader leads the team and drives improvement in productivity, throughput, delivery, quality, and cost, along with any transformation the business needs.
04 · TRANSITION
Hand off with results intact
When the mandate is complete, ownership passes to your team, or to a permanent leader the interim prepares and onboards, so performance holds after the handoff.
A partnership throughout
We run regular check-ins with your leadership team to assure the best possible performance.
The results clients engage us for
Operational improvement
Higher throughput and productivity, better on-time delivery, shorter lead times, and stronger quality, driven by leaders and teams equipped to sustain them.
Value creation
For owners and investors, leadership that can execute the value creation plan, integrations that protect the deal thesis, and margin improvement that holds through the hold period.
Leadership that executes
An aligned leadership team with clear roles, a stronger bench, and a succession plan for the roles that matter most.
Cultural change
Restoring leadership and direction to strengthen culture, improve productivity and elevate performance across the organization.
Workforce stability
Lower turnover and absenteeism, faster hiring, and staffing matched to customer demand, so capacity is there when the business needs it.
Continuity through transition
Performance held steady through departures, relocations, ramps, and integrations, with a planned handoff when the work is done.
Who we work with
People and Performance serves the executives who own operating results, from mid-market manufacturers to large multi-site enterprises and private equity portfolios.
Operations executives
COO · VP of Operations · General Manager · Plant Manager
Accountable for output, delivery, and cost, and feeling the effect of turnover, leadership gaps, or a team that isn’t executing.
How we help: a clear view of the people constraints on performance, leaders developed against operating KPIs, and interim leadership when a seat opens.
CEOs and presidents
Mid-market and multi-site industrial businesses
Leading growth, a turnaround, or a transformation that depends on leadership capacity the business doesn’t yet have.
How we help: an objective view of leadership team capability, a plan to close the gaps, and experienced executives who can carry the work.
Private equity partners and portfolio leaders
Operating Partner · Deal Partner · Portfolio Company CEO
Under pressure to deliver the value creation plan on the hold-period timeline, often in businesses that weren’t built for that pace.
How we help: post-close leadership assessments, interim executives during transitions and relocations, and the leadership and talent systems a scaling business needs.
Aerospace and defense leaders
Site Leader · Program Director · VP of Operations
Ramping programs, meeting delivery commitments, and building a workforce in a tight, highly specialized labor market.
How we help: talent strategies for hard-to-fill roles, leadership development for fast-growing sites, and interim leaders who understand the regulated environment.
Proof
25+
Years delivering operational results
$100Ms
In client savings
13
Countries · 5 continents
CASE STUDY · PRIVATE EQUITY–BACKED MANUFACTURER
Turning around a PE-backed supplier in about two months
Overview
A profitable, family-built supplier of engineered materials had been acquired by a private equity portfolio company. Earlier process improvements had held, but performance had stopped improving.
Challenge
Orders were falling behind, lead times were growing, and the KPIs had stopped being tracked. On-time delivery had dropped below 60%.
Solution
CBS placed an experienced plant leader to work side by side with the existing plant manager. Together they rebuilt the KPIs, cleared the past-due backlog, focused improvement on the 40 part numbers driving more than 80% of volume, introduced demand-based staffing, and put daily performance reviews in place from the plant manager to the operator.
Results
<60% → 93%+
On time delivery
6+ → <3 wks
Average manufacturing lead time
+50%
Output on a key production line, from 4,000 to more than 6,000 parts per hour
~2 months
From engagement start to turnaround
“We contacted CBS on a Friday after unexpectedly losing our VP of Operations and VP of Supply Chain midstream of a complex distribution facility relocation. The next week, CBS had seasoned operational leaders in place leading the business through the relocation while maintaining customer service during the holiday peak season. What could have turned out to be a disaster quickly turned into one of our most successful relocations.”
MICHAEL D. BORNITZ · PARTNER · LKCM HEADWATER INVESTMENTS
Frequently Asked Questions
Talk to CBS about People and Performance
Whether a critical role just opened, results have stalled, or you need to know if the leadership team can deliver the plan, a conversation with our team is the first step.
What happens next
01
A conversation with a practice leader about what is affecting performance and what the business needs.
02
An on-site assessment, scoped to the operation, the leadership team, and the workforce data.
03
A proposal with defined deliverables and milestones tied to your operating and financial targets.