Capability as the Product

“The goal transcended what is commonly implied by the term "conglomerate." Conglomeration—mere bigness and diversity—represented one means of gaining a commanding position in several industries. Tex's goal was to fit all the pieces together that were needed to manufacture a single product. That product was capability: to accumulate the resources to move in any direction, in any industry, in any part of the world, and if need be to create new "industries" (for want of a more precise word) where none existed.”

“The master plan, of which Tex has never lost sight, was all there in the germ: to build a company of literally un- limited growth potential, diversified enough and managed skillfully enough to take on any job that could be mastered by the application of advanced technology, in a new age of stupefying rapidity of change.”