CS International

What CS International does

CS International is a privately held, founder-led management consulting firm headquartered in New Braunfels, Texas, founded in 1995 by Mike Carnell, a Six Sigma pioneer who began his career at Motorola. The firm delivers operational improvement, business excellence, and continuous improvement engagements centered on Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, and Toyota Production System methodologies. Its stated differentiator is building "stand-alone" client capabilities — i.e., embedding operational improvement skills internally so clients do not require ongoing consultant presence after the engagement concludes. CS International applies an Assess-Design-Execute three-phase engagement framework across six primary verticals: Consumer Goods, Automotive, Metals/Mining/Energy, Industrial, Private Equity, and Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals. The firm claims delivery across six continents and 19 countries outside the US, with named audited outcomes including $400M at General Electric, $95M at Navistar, $63M at BHP Base Metals, and $33M at Lonmin.

The business model is professional services: engagements are individually scoped, quote-based, and structured as multi-year contracts with enterprise clients. CS International employs 11-50 people, operates a direct sales model with no disclosed channel partners or resellers, and acquires clients through relationship-based consultative selling, thought-leadership content (publications and blog), and inbound inquiries via website, phone, and email. The senior team includes named principals Mike Carnell (Founder), Ulices Calderon (Subject Matter Expert, ex-Dell Master Black Belt), Val Larsen (Partner, Organizational Development), Dave Antis (VP of Private Equity Operations, ex-Celerant/AlliedSignal/Motorola), and Consuelo Esnaola (Director of Marketing & Business Development). The firm has no disclosed funding, no parent company, no subsidiaries, no M&A activity, and no AI/ML or software product offerings — it is a pure-play human-delivered consulting practice.

Name

CS International

Legal name

CS International

Website

https://csinternationalconsulting.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1995

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

CS International is a privately held management consulting firm, founded in 1995 and headquartered in New Braunfels, Texas, delivering Lean, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement engagements to enterprise clients across automotive, metals/mining/energy, industrial, consumer goods, private equity, and healthcare verticals globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New Braunfels

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, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Management Consulting Services: CS International generates revenue through professional consulting engagements delivering operational improvement, business excellence, and continuous improvement programs. Engagements are individually constructed based on each customer's unique requirements, with deliverables including operational efficiency improvements, merger/acquisition support, core business practice strengthening, and long-term cost savings. Revenue is derived from consulting fees for assessments, design, planning, and execution phases of business improvement programs.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

CS International is a full-service management consulting firm that delivers operational improvement and business excellence engagements using Lean, Six Sigma, and Toyota Production System methodologies. The firm builds stand-alone capabilities within client organizations so they can sustain improvements without ongoing consultant presence, and serves enterprise clients across automotive, consumer goods, metals/mining/energy, industrial, private equity, and healthcare/pharmaceuticals sectors globally.

Product overview

CS International is a management consulting firm offering advisory and implementation services rather than a software product. They provide a unified set of consulting offerings centered around business excellence, operational improvement, and continuous improvement methodologies including Lean, Six Sigma, and Lean Six Sigma programs. Services include Change Management, Operations Improvement, Business Excellence, New Product/Process Roll-Out, and World Class Manufacturing engagements. The firm operates as a services firm with individual consultants delivering engagements rather than a platform with distinct software modules.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Management Consulting Services Full-service management consulting services focused on operational improvement, business excellence, continuous improvement (Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, Toyota Production System), process waste elimination, supply chain optimization, and organizational capability building. Delivered to enterprise clients across automotive, consumer goods, metals/mining/energy, industrial, private equity, healthcare/pharmaceuticals, financial services, retail, and government sectors globally.

Quantifiable outcome

• General Electric: $400M audited financial benefits after 2 years
• +11 more outcomes

Named customers40 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Accenture: Accenture operates large-scale operations consulting and digital transformation practices serving the same enterprise verticals (automotive, manufacturing, healthcare, financial services) as CS International, including dedicated continuous improvement offerings.
• Bain & Company: Bain's Operations and Performance practices serve enterprise clients on transformation, supply chain, and continuous improvement engagements comparable to CS International's offerings, though at significantly greater scale and breadth.
• McKinsey & Company: McKinsey operates one of the largest operations and transformation practices globally, competing for enterprise operational improvement mandates that CS International targets. Overlapping in process improvement and Lean transformations across multiple industries.
• Deloitte Consulting: Deloitte's Operations Transformation and Industry 4.0 practices target many of the same enterprise clients and improvement themes (Lean, Six Sigma, supply chain) as CS International, with substantially larger scale and broader capability portfolios.
• Alvarez & Marsal: A&M's Operations and Performance Improvement practice is a direct competitor in operational turnarounds, value creation, and private equity portfolio company work—overlapping with CS International's PE-focused engagements.
• Kearney: Kearney's Operations Performance Improvement practice delivers lean operations and supply chain transformation to large enterprises, directly comparable in methodology and target verticals (automotive, consumer goods, industrial) to CS International.
• Boston Consulting Group: BCG's Operations and Manufacturing practices compete directly with CS International on Lean/operational excellence mandates for industrial, automotive, and consumer goods enterprises globally.

Direct peers

• Slalom Consulting: Slalom is a mid-sized consulting firm with significant operations excellence and transformation practices serving mid-market and enterprise clients across similar verticals to CS International, functioning as a comparable boutique-to-mid-tier alternative.
• TBM Consulting Group: TBM Consulting Group is a long-standing boutique operations consulting firm focused on Lean, continuous improvement, and supply chain transformation. Highly comparable to CS International in methodology (Lean/Six Sigma/TPS), target customer (enterprise manufacturing/operations), and boutique positioning.
• Celerant Consulting: Celerant Consulting is an operations and private equity consulting firm where CS International's Dave Antis previously served as SVP for 8 years. Direct overlap in operational excellence, Lean deployment, and PE value-creation services to enterprise clients.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cs-international-inc.

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 CS International