How to Grow Your Business like a CEO with Scott Clawson

🔹 Scott Clawson, CEO of Culligan International

Scott Clawson turned Culligan from a legacy water treatment business into a $3.3 billion global platform operating in over 50 countries—powered by a programmatic M&A engine that has executed 300+ acquisitions. In this episode, he sits down with Kison to share exactly how that machine works.

💡 Things you will learn:
🔹 How to build and scale a decentralized M&A engine across geographies
🔹 The critical role of strategic focus, pipeline ownership, and integration playbooks
🔹 Why cultural alignment and seller trust drive long-term M&A success
🔹 What to look for when choosing a private equity partner—and how they can unlock growth
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💡 Episode Timestamps
[03:00] – The Culligan turnaround story
[06:00] – Finding purpose and shifting strategy
[08:30] – How Culligan maps a global market
[13:30] – Building the M&A engine: people, pipeline, and playbooks
[17:00] – Scaling programmatic M&A across 50+ countries
[25:00] – Structuring the M&A org and decentralized execution
[29:00] – Building seller trust and sourcing proprietary deals
[33:00] – How Culligan stays buyer-led at scale
[38:00] – The role of the Head of Corp Dev in a programmatic model
[41:00] – Choosing the right PE partner: Advent vs. BDT MS
[46:00] – Balancing capital allocation between organic and inorganic growth
[48:00] – The risk of overrelying on synergies and underinvesting in capability
[51:00] – Advice for CEOs building a repeatable M&A model
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Website: MAscience.com
Linkedin: / mascience
Kison's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kisonpatel
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M&A Science is the #1 podcast for M&A tips, techniques, and strategies for success. We bring you behind the scene stories and proven techniques of real-life M&A deals.

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