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He left early to keep his successor
The fourth era
Joyce had led Danaher through its third era, a run of moves that spun off the industrial businesses and added about $43 billion of acquisitions in life sciences and diagnostics. The fourth era called for a different skill set: going deep in life sciences and diagnostics and building a strategy around early-stage investing, which shows what the gold standard of business will look like 10 to 15 years out.
The decision
Joyce and the founders both knew Rainer Blair was the best person to architect it. Joyce did not want to risk running out the clock on Blair, who could have taken a job somewhere else. So he stepped aside before he otherwise would have.
A Level 5 choice
Mitch Rales calls this a level five choice, a term from Jim Collins for a leader who makes all the difficult decisions, brings strategic acumen, and gives everyone else the credit once they are implemented. Joyce put the enterprise ahead of himself, and Rales has been grateful to him ever since for making the choice that was best for Danaher rather than what would have been ideal for him.
How did Jim Collins identify level five leaders?
In Good to Great, published in 2001, Collins and his research team looked for companies whose stock returns beat the market for fifteen years after a long stretch of ordinary results. They found eleven. The leaders of those companies combined personal humility with intense professional will, and Collins named that combination Level 5 leadership. It sits at the top of his five-level hierarchy, above levels such as capable manager and effective leader.
Why is leaving the CEO job so hard?
A chief executive's identity, status, and daily routine are tied to the role, and few have a defined next chapter. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management studied how long-serving chief executives leave in his 1988 book The Hero's Farewell. He described four types of exits, labeled monarchs, generals, ambassadors, and governors, based on how they let go of power. Monarchs, in his scheme, leave only at death or by force.
How do life sciences tools differ from diagnostics?
Life sciences tools are the instruments and supplies researchers use to study biology and to make drugs, such as filtration systems and gene synthesis equipment. Diagnostics are the tests that detect disease or measure a patient's condition, from blood tests to molecular assays. Both run on laboratory instruments and consumables, so a company can serve both with shared technology. Diagnostic tests are regulated as medical devices in many countries, while research tools usually are not.
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