Entity Dossier
entity

Shareholders

Strategic Concepts & Mechanics

Decision FrameworkFacts Then Decision Then Action — No Faltering
Capital StrategyPlow Cash Back Into Acreage
Strategic PatternCapability as the Product
Signature MoveWindows of the Mind Not Product Lists
Relationship LeverageNegotiate From Their Chair First
Decision FrameworkSmall Solution Scaled to Big Problem
Cornerstone MoveOne Building Block Then Mosaic Outward
Cornerstone MoveStock From His Own Hide to Hook the Best Fish
Signature MoveOutwork Them Past Midnight
Signature MoveLet Fresh Ideas Prove Themselves Before Shooting
Operating PrincipleFifty-Foot Rope for Thirty-Foot Drowning
Signature MoveGrab Authority or Lose It

Primary Evidence

"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"

Source:Someone Has to Make It Happen; The Inside Story of Tex Thornton, the Man Who Built Litton Industries

Appears In Volumes