July 1, 2022
The Danaher Business System (DBS) sets us apart from every company in the world. DBS is who we are and what we do. It’s a set of tools and processes that help us guide our work, measure how well we execute and create options for doing even better. What does this culture of continuous improvement mean for our people? DBS accelerates associates’ learning and propels their careers. It gives everyone a seat at the table, a common language—and confidence in the value of their work. Read on to find out how DBS can empower you.
Susan Surber, Vice President of DBS for Corporate Human Resources, Danaher
Danaher is made up of 16 independent operating companies, or OpCos—these are companies Danaher bought because they’re doing really well, and to take them to the next level. That’s how I became part of Danaher, and it’s how I learned to use the Danaher Business System (DBS) to generate growth for myself and others. When Danaher acquired Cepheid, I was a sales leader there—my whole career had been in sales. Then, some folks from the DBS Office came in to work their magic with us, and I just loved it. Many in sales believe, “It doesn’t matter how I do it, as long as I make my revenue target.” But I like to see a plan. So I was very drawn to the process and structure of DBS. Not everyone takes to DBS as quickly as I did, but trust me, it’s a game-changer for your career at Danaher.
I ended up working in the DBS Office myself, and now I’m in HR to help Danaher implement DBS more thoroughly at the corporate level. DBS works best not when we push it on OpCos or associates, but when people bring us in and ask, “What’s next and how do we get better?” Any time we’re using DBS, it’s about understanding what people need from us, discovering how we go about doing it and then understanding the impact of what we’re doing. The common language and processes we apply to everything we do helps unify the entire organization and create a common language.
For DBS to work, especially innovating across so many different businesses, we have to be open to different ways of working and learning so we can repackage and repurpose concepts and tools. It’s not plug-and-play as I had originally thought. For example, I had a big “aha moment” with one of Danaher’s Life Sciences OpCos. When I was working in the DBSO, I went to their headquarters ready to set up Funnel Management, a tool I knew really well after working at Cepheid, where we had an instrument and reagents that customers ordered on a regular basis. When I got to this company, which has a made-to-order sales model with thousands of orders a month, I realized Funnel Management wasn’t going to work the way I’d thought. I had to basically unlearn everything I knew and listen to what this team needed and how their business ran. Then I figured out how to use Funnel Management as a framework to get started, knowing it was going to be different from other operating companies.
Now, all of their business is managed through the funnel. It just took me shifting my focus from what we couldn’t control to what we could. As part of this, we installed a “Growth Room” so that they would have visual and Daily Management around all the components of the Commercial Engine, from sales to marketing to operations and how they all interact. Growth Rooms help us see how we’re going to get from where we are to where we want to be. It’s a safe space where we continuously pose the same questions: Where are we, where do we want to go, what’s the impact of what we are doing and what needs to change? And even though this all started out as a push, instead of a pull, that OpCo is currently thrilled with the ability to better predict their business and understand fluctuations that happen.
In the past year and a half, we’ve been using DBS to delve into Diversity and Inclusion (D+I) and make Danaher a place where everybody wants to work—and where current associates don’t want to leave. Whenever we’re looking to make a breakthrough change, whether it’s with a product or a hiring practice, we do it by implementing Policy Deployment. We’re not actually making or deploying new policy, though; we’re figuring out something we don’t already know how to do. And while every OpCo has things they’re doing well, we want to take D+I much further and really look at opportunities to improve recruiting and retention. When we dove in, every single OpCo started identifying gaps. Then, instead of assuming we knew what the root causes were, we used DBS to dig deeper, understand the issues and pose data-driven solutions.
Just like with the work in that OpCo I mentioned earlier, constant feedback and regular monitoring are important components of the kind of problem-solving we do to arrive at a Policy Deployment breakthrough. Keeping an eye on impact helps us visualize the trend quickly and start to pivot when it’s needed. Talking to people, or using Voice of Customer, is an important monitoring tool we continuously apply. It’s a matter of making sure we understand what people are saying before, during and after the process. It’s a way to get that constant feedback and eventually see the change we’re aiming for.
At every level, the expectation at Danaher is that people are developing as leaders. DBS is the most certain way to grow in your career. It’s who we are and how we do what we do. Not everyone gets it right away, but I’ve found that patience and persistence are sometimes all it takes for DBS to show its value. And it’s definitely true that people using DBS are more likely to advance their careers than those who don’t use these tools.
When we map our talent, a process we call “chess-boarding,” we use DBS and the Danaher Go program—the set of guiding principles for internal career transitions—to look at where people are, what their potential next role is and what opportunities are open at other OpCos or within their current organization. These principles help reinforce core behaviors with DBS values interwoven throughout. These are meant to help us deliver results, instill trust, apply insights and win as a team. It’s a way for people to advance their development, capabilities, knowledge and understanding.
We are early in the journey, but my current focus is to make sure Human Resources is using DBS in a way that drives business impact. Bringing in DBS helps to create the sort of operating rigor that leads to strategic action. We’re asking, “Do we have enough leaders in the talent pipeline? Do we have a good funnel, both internal and external? Are we developing appropriately?” When everything’s a priority, nothing is a priority, and you end up being very tactical. Now I’m actually taking the Growth Room tool, meant for the commercial space, and I’m repurposing it for leadership development, and to track the progress of the HR initiatives we’re developing.