Windows of the Mind Not Product Lists

“One window looked out on space: what role should Litton play in its further exploration? Another window looked out on the atmosphere: where would the company's role fit into better mastery of that more familiar, yet vast medium? An- other window looked out on the earth itself and down into the oceans: what should Litton be doing to improve the human condition in that most familiar medium of all?”

“In taking a look at each of those years, crowded with ac- tion, crisis, and decision, I shall continue to emphasize the growth—less of Litton than of Thornton—to new dimen- sions. How did he cope with the tiger of his own creation whose tail he could not let go of even if he had wanted to? He did so by further shifting his mental focus from close- ups, as they say in Hollywood, to the long-shot view of Litton's future course. The days of the close-up, in the sense of familiarity with each of Litton's products, were rapidly passing in 1959. There were simply too many products thousands—for one man to keep in his head. Shareholders must have found this swelling list of sophisticated products in the annual reports incomprehensible. But each of them was falling into place in keeping with the long-shot views which Tex was commanding through larger windows of the mind—windows through which he gazed on long horseback”