CEO Growth Strategy: How Culligan Scaled 300+ Acquisitions with Scott Clawson

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Jun 9, 2025

Scott Clawson, CEO of Culligan International, has transformed the company into a $3.3 billion global leader through strategic M&A, completing over 300 acquisitions. He shares insights on building a decentralized M&A engine, emphasizing the importance of cultural alignment and seller trust in long-term success. Scott discusses the critical role of private equity partnerships in unlocking growth and details effective integration strategies to avoid bottlenecks. His personal anecdotes and actionable advice provide a fascinating blueprint for successful high-volume M&A.

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ANECDOTE

Beach Inspiration Sparks M&A Shift

Scott Clawson's beach vacation inspired a shift toward drinking water and reducing single-use plastics.
This realization led to rethinking Culligan’s strategy and launching their programmatic M&A engine around 2016.

ADVICE

Hire Dedicated Pipeline Experts

Hire dedicated pipeline people who focus solely on deal sourcing and relationships.
Incentivize them based on deals found and avoid mixing their role with due diligence or integration.

ADVICE

Align Incentives for Growth

Align incentives so business unit leaders benefit from acquisitions enhancing their budget targets.
Reward pipeline teams based on EBITDA acquired at favorable multiples to encourage good deals.

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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.

From beachside inspiration to building a decentralized deal engine, Scott walks us through his journey scaling Culligan’s strategy with support from capital partners like Advent and BDT MSD. He breaks down how to structure pipeline teams, create incentive systems that align corporate and local interests, and keep integration from becoming a bottleneck. If you want a real-world blueprint for high-volume, globally scaled M&A that doesn’t break the business—this episode delivers.

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 Chapters

[03:00] – The Culligan turnaround story

[06:00] – Finding purpose and shifting strategy

[08:30] – How Culligan mapped its global market

[11:00] – Role of Advent and consulting partners in early strategy

[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 MSD

[48:00] – The risk of overrelying on synergies and underinvesting in capability

[51:00] – Advice for CEOs building a repeatable M&A model Questions, comments, concerns?Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.