Tex Thornton - Litton Corp. |
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The first real CEO of Litton Industries was Tex Thornton, a firebrand of an executive who held most of his work experience helping to build up the readiness of America's air force in preparation for its long involvement in World War II. Tex came from Texas, of course, and his father was well known in the oil industry for his innovations in using nitroglycerin to cap oil well fires.
This courageous, almost madly innovative, approach to solving problems was passed to Tex. The young man first found work in Washington working with statistics in the Agricultural Department, a tedious bureaucratic job to say the least, and at first had resigned himself, in the depths of the Great Depression, to climbing the bureaucratic ladder from inside. But then he discovered something about himself. While others could read statistics and understand what they meant reasonably well, Tex had the ability to draw a complete picture with statistics alone. He applied this ability more and more bravely, first adding his own opinions to the direction of things according to statistical reports and gradually growing more pointed. One of his reports came to the attention of Assistant Secretary of War for Air Robert Lowell, who immediately recognized the gift this young man had. Lowell had a problem of his own. He had to take a rickety air force and transform it as quickly as possible into a decent fighting force. He recognized in Thorton the ability and the nerve to do the things that needed to be done. Thornton entered the service of the war office as a second lieutenant, but was made a full colonel in less than a year ? quite possibly the fastest progression ever in US military history. His promotion was very utilitarian, though; he had to be of a high enough rank to do what needed doing. While he served in the war department, Thornton provided training for over three thousand officers and bureaucrats in his methods, and saved untold amounts of money, time, and manpower through finding efficiencies for moving materials and building for the war. While Thornton was involved in the war effort, he came into contact with Charles Litton, whose expertise was not so much inventing new technologies as it was innovating with existing ones and finding manufacturing efficiencies. He was impressed. Though Thornton worked for Ford Motor Company and Howard Hughes after the war, he never forgot Litton's company, and when he became disillusioned with the private sector he approached Litton about working with him. He and Litton worked out a deal: Thornton would purchase Litton Industries for one million dollars, and Litton would hand over control of the company to him. He didn't have the capital up front to invest, so he started talking to potential investors. Lehman Brothers and Clark Dodge nibbled, and together they put together an investment package to sell shares of including preferred and common stocks, and company bonds. Within months, Thornton was able to raise the necessary funds to purchase this ultimately very lucrative company. After this, Litton Industries grew in leaps. Thornton was not an engineer, but he was a brilliant businessman. With him at the helm, Litton Industries acquired business after business. It was one of the first companies to work toward owning its entire supply production chain, and became a model for other industries working toward this goal. Thornton maintained control over Litton Industries until 1961, throughout its best growth years. Not incidentally, as soon as he no longer directed the company, it went into a financial and managerial tailspin that took more than a decade to recover from. |
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