Senior Partner – Transformation — Cold-Chain Division

The mandate

A cold-chain division has acceptable consolidated revenue but inconsistent economic performance beneath it. Facilities report high occupancy while some temperature zones lose money; customer contracts recover storage but not labour variability; and transport, handling and energy costs are allocated too broadly to support good decisions. Management needs to reset the network without unsettling product integrity or treating every underperforming site as a simple closure candidate.

The Senior Partner – Transformation will lead an advisory programme that turns the economics into operational choices. The partner will work with the division leadership, facility managers and functional experts to define customer, service and site profitability; identify structural interventions; and establish management routines that persist after the engagement. Quality and regulated release decisions remain with authorised client officers, and the advisory team must never blur that line.

This newly created mandate is focused on realised improvement, not a theoretical optimisation model. The network handles temperature-sensitive inventory whose qualification, relocation and customer approval can make an apparently attractive consolidation impractical. The partner must combine financial precision with respect for those constraints.

Scope and operating context

Based onsite in Chicago, the role influences approximately 800 employees and material partners across the United States and wider international operating region. The client perimeter includes chilled, frozen and controlled-ambient facilities; specialist chambers; handling and value-added services; transport interfaces; energy and refrigeration assets; inventory systems; and third-party capacity.

Customers buy different combinations of pallet positions, throughput, labour, monitoring, validation, packaging and emergency access. Inventory dwell and handling frequency vary substantially. Revenue per occupied position can therefore mislead, especially where one customer drives repeated touches, small orders or strict response windows.

The programme must also recognise network asymmetry. A low-return site may provide essential geographic redundancy or a validated capability that cannot be recreated quickly. A profitable facility may depend on deferred maintenance, favourable energy arrangements or management effort that is not visible in reported cost.

First-year agenda

The first twelve weeks will establish a reconciled economic and operating baseline. The partner will connect contracts, invoices, customer activity, labour, energy, refrigeration, facility, transport, quality and capital records. A representative sample will be traced from commercial term through actual work and general ledger so allocation choices do not masquerade as operational fact.

Customer profitability will be constructed by service consumption. Storage will be separated by temperature class and occupancy pattern; handling by receipt, pick, case, pallet and exceptional activity; and value-added labour by actual driver. Energy and refrigeration expense will reflect zone and operating demand where measurable. Assumptions will be documented where direct attribution is not practical.

Contracts will be compared with delivered scope. Unpriced change, minimum-volume shortfalls, peak labour, emergency work, monitoring, packaging and transport accessorials will be identified. Account plans will distinguish recoverable leakage from a proposition that is structurally mispriced. The partner will help leaders choose renegotiation, redesign or managed exit rather than launching a blanket price increase.

Facility economics will include the role each site plays in the network. Capacity, temperature capability, customer compatibility, lease or ownership, maintenance backlog, labour market, energy exposure, transport access, licences and recovery function will be modelled together. Scenarios will consider consolidation, zone conversion, selective investment, third-party overflow and closure.

No transfer scenario will assume that product can simply move. The team will state validation, customer approval, lane qualification, inventory mapping, available thermal capacity, implementation labour and dual-running requirements. Quality leaders must approve handling and release conditions; their refusal cannot be translated into an unexplained programme delay.

A first wave of no-regret measures will target billing accuracy, labour scheduling, energy controls, maintenance prioritisation, slotting and customer change governance. Each measure will have an operational owner, baseline and cash path. Savings created by deferred maintenance, reduced monitoring or unsafe staffing will be excluded.

Commercial governance will be strengthened for new and renewed business. Proposals must specify volume ranges, temperature and handling assumptions, reserved capacity, energy exposure, capital, implementation and change mechanisms. Facility leaders will sign operating feasibility before offers are binding. Finance will show downside economics rather than only the bid case.

The partner will establish a monthly network performance forum organised around decisions. Leaders will review customer contribution, zone capacity, service, quality, labour, energy, maintenance and cash together. Variance explanations should lead to action; they should not become an elaborate narrative defending the budget.

Organisation work will focus on accountability for cross-site outcomes. Central commercial, network, engineering and quality teams need defined authority relative to facility general managers. The partner will identify roles that duplicate escalation without owning a decision and strengthen scarce capabilities in pricing, industrial engineering, refrigeration and data.

Stakeholder management will be tailored to consequence. Customers affected by material change will receive evidence, options and credible transition timetables. Employees and representatives will be engaged before workforce decisions become irreversible. Landlords, utilities and third-party operators will be involved where their commitments determine feasibility.

Transformation controls will protect the source of value. Benefits will be verified through invoice, cost, working-capital or avoided-capital evidence and adjusted for volume, weather and mix. Interdependent measures cannot claim the same saving. Shortfalls will prompt correction or closure, not repeated rebasing that preserves a green status.

By the end of the first year, the division should possess transparent customer and facility economics, a board-approved network path and delivered early value that has not weakened quality. Structural actions should have approved product-transition plans, and client leaders should be able to run the performance system without the advisory team chairing every meeting.

Leadership responsibilities

The Senior Partner reports to the Global Managing Partner and regional partner council and is accountable for client impact, programme quality, team leadership and engagement economics. They will maintain direct dialogue with the client sponsor and appropriate board members when difficult network or customer choices arise.

They will integrate finance, operations, quality, engineering, commercial and workforce specialists into a single transformation narrative. Technical constraints must be understood rather than filed as dependencies. The partner will spend meaningful time in facilities and expect senior team members to do the same.

The role includes transferring capability to client leaders. Analytical models, governance and decision rules should be understandable and maintainable after exit; proprietary complexity cannot be used to manufacture adviser dependence.

Measures of success

The client will measure verified contribution, cash, working capital, energy and labour improvements alongside customer retention and capital avoidance. Network indicators include profitable temperature-zone utilisation, maintenance risk, validated recovery capacity and implementation progress for approved site actions.

Quality and service measures include temperature excursions, inventory accuracy, product holds, response performance and repeat deviations. Programme success also requires strong client ownership and reliable benefit evidence. Headcount or site count alone will not qualify as value.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring more than 28 years in senior transformation, cold-chain or controlled-network leadership. They need first-hand experience of customer profitability, network redesign and realised benefit delivery where product movement was constrained by validation or quality authority.

The partnership will seek examples of overturning misleading facility economics, renegotiating complex logistics contracts and deciding to retain an apparently weak site because its network role justified it. Fluency in operational finance, refrigeration and energy drivers, workforce transition and board governance is expected.

The successful partner will be rigorous, patient with technical evidence and unsentimental about unsupported commercial narratives. They must be able to challenge a chief executive and still earn trust on a facility floor.

Compensation and appointment terms

The base range is USD 500,000 to USD 750,000, with annual incentive and long-term participation. Reward will reflect verified value, product protection, sustainable client capability, responsible practice contribution and leadership development. Final arrangements will consider comparable transformation scale and substantiated deferred partnership value.

Confidentiality

The client remains unnamed because customer economics, product categories, facility options and performance gaps are confidential. Access to network detail follows verification of identity, competing engagements and confidentiality obligations. Applicants must not submit client rate cards, product records, site models or privileged transaction material.