Cultivating post-acquisition employee engagement: the Danaher business system

Abstract

Purpose

One of major concerns of serial acquirers is to ensure value creation. However, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are well known for the key management problems they generate such as change management, cultural clashes and increased managerial turnover. Despite this, M&As also offer opportunities for integrating best practices. This paper aims to demonstrate how Danaher attempts to cultivate employee engagement in companies it has recently acquired.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper adopts a single-case approach to show how Danaher implements its in-house method – the Danaher Business System – a management system during the take over and the postacquisition phase.

Findings

The findings from this paper demonstrate best practice management and strategies needed to ensure successful M&As. Almost 40 years after serial acquisitions, Danaher is cited as one of the most successful serial acquirers. Its human approach to takeovers has been a central part of this.

Originality/value

This paper offers a concise and clear outline of the management strategies used by Danaher to ensure successful acquisitions relying on Kaizen and LEAN with a strong focus on the human side. During the takeover and postacquisition integration, Danaher’s human approach would appear to be a key differentiating element.

Citation

Durand, M., Hansen, G. and Thomas, M. (2023), "Cultivating post-acquisition employee engagement: the Danaher business system", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 22 No. 5, pp. 159-163. https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-06-2023-0035