Royal Little (March 1, 1896 – January 10, 1989) was the founder and chair of
Textron
Textron Inc. is an American industrial conglomerate based in Providence, Rhode Island. Textron's subsidiaries include Arctic Cat, Bell Textron, Textron Aviation (which itself includes the Beechcraft, and Cessna brands), and Lycoming Engin ...
, and is considered to be the father of
conglomerates.
Little graduated from
Noble & Greenough School in 1915 and from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1919, despite having been on academic probation. He soon began working for various textile firms, before founding Special Yarns Corporation in 1923 on $10,000 () in borrowed money, whose name he changed to Textron in 1944. Little spent much of his time acquiring other textile firms, and was successful in his efforts. By 1947, the company reported sales of $125 million (equivalent to $ billion in ).
By the 1950s, realizing that the textile industry was not consistently viable, Little began to acquire firms in other industries, beginning the modern conglomerate. Throughout the decade, Textron acquired assets in pneumatic tools,
antennas
In radio engineering, an antenna or aerial is the interface between radio waves propagating through space and electric currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver. In transmission, a radio transmitter supplies an ...
, plastics,
plywood,
aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
,
helicopters
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
,
chain saw
A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable gasoline-, electric-, or battery-powered saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. It is used in activities such as tree felling, limbing, bucking, pruning, ...
s, and leather, among others.
Little retired in 1960, at which time Textron was one of the top 100 companies in the country. Other corporations, in following Textron's model, attempted to diversify their holdings in industry. In his retirement, he wrote ''How to Lose $100,000,000 and Other Valuable Advice'' in 1979.
Little died at his home in the Bahamas in 1989. At his request, there was no funeral.
Royal Little was the nephew of
Arthur Dehon Little
Arthur Dehon Little (December 15, 1863 – August 1, 1935) was an American chemist and chemical engineer. He founded the consulting company Arthur D. Little and was instrumental in developing chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Insti ...
, the founder of Boston's
Arthur D. Little
Arthur D. Little is an international management consulting firm originally headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1886 and formally incorporated in 1909 by Arthur Dehon Little, an MIT chemist who had discovered acetate. ...
management consulting firm.
Further reading
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References
* http://www.answers.com/topic/royal-little
* http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/343942/Royal-Little
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little, Royal
1896 births
1989 deaths
Harvard University alumni
Noble and Greenough School alumni
People from Wakefield, Massachusetts