Serial Acquirers

Fourteen case studies in compounding. Each company built a different machine — operational excellence, radical decentralisation, employee ownership, capital allocation discipline — but all compound at 15-35% annually for decades.

The case studies

The AMETEK Formula — One of the eight companies Mark Leonard studied. Four growth strategies, applied methodically for decades. 18% CAGR since 2000.

The ASSA ABLOY Method — The gentle conqueror. Buy local leaders, integrate as mergers among equals. 400 acquisitions, 30 years of consistency.

The Bergman & Beving Legacy — The mother company. One metric invented in 1981, six listed offspring today. SEK 180 billion in combined value.

The Constellation Model — Hurdle rate discipline and decentralised capital allocation. Small deals done well beat large deals done adequately. 36% CAGR since 2006.

The Danaher System — Operational excellence codified. Learn from the source, systematise improvement, compound for decades. 21% CAGR for 40 years.

The Diploma Model — Federated value-add distribution. Operating companies acquire businesses themselves. 15% CAGR for 15 years.

The Halma Discipline — Incremental portfolio reshaping beats big strategic moves. A 27-year case study. 18% CAGR since 1997.

The Heico Playbook — Treat employees as owners, then make it literal. Family business, decentralised operations, shared wealth. 23% CAGR since 1990.

The Indutrade Model — Technology trading origins, Swedish trust culture. King in your own country. 15% EPS CAGR since 2005.

The Judges Approach — Six people at HQ, 4.8x EBIT multiples. The turnaround specialist who learned what breaks companies. 25% CAGR since 2003.

The Lifco Way — The Swedish tradition: radical decentralisation, permanent ownership, numbers over storytelling. 28% CAGR for a decade.

The Roper Model — One metric, no budgets, sixty people at HQ. Cash flow compounding as religion. 19% CAGR under Jellison.

The TransDigm Equation — Three value drivers, PE DNA in public markets. The most controversial compounder. 36% IRR since 1993.

The Vitec Approach — The engineer’s acquirer. Kaizen over Berkshire, active modernisation over hands-off. The Constellation contrast. 27% CAGR since IPO.

Common patterns

Despite different approaches, these companies share structural similarities:

Decentralisation. Corporate headquarters stays small — 6 to 60 people running billions in revenue. Operating companies keep autonomy. The centre allocates capital; subsidiaries run operations.

Permanent ownership. None of these companies flip acquisitions. The time horizon is forever. This changes what you optimise for and creates deal flow advantages with founders who care about legacy.

Discipline on price. Hurdle rates that don’t bend. Walking away from deals that don’t clear the bar. The patience required is uncomfortable, but it compounds.

Simple metrics. Cash flow (Roper), ROIC + organic growth (Constellation), three value drivers (TransDigm), year-over-year profit growth (Lifco). Complexity gets stripped away.

Where they differ

Operational involvement. Danaher transforms acquisitions through DBS. Roper, Lifco, and Judges leave them alone. The bet is different: can you add more value through improvement, or does interference destroy more than it creates?

Sector focus. Constellation buys only vertical market software. TransDigm buys only aerospace aftermarket. Halma and Lifco are sector-agnostic — they bet on the operating model, not the industry.

Integration. Danaher integrates heavily. Everyone else integrates minimally or not at all. The synergy question again: real value, or value destroyed through complexity?

Pricing philosophy. TransDigm prices to value, extracting maximum willingness-to-pay from locked-in customers. Heico competes on price, winning share through being the affordable alternative. Both work.

These case studies are part of Field Notes — observations from inside acquisitions, transformations and turnarounds.