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Royal Little, the shrewd Rhode Island entrepreneur who is widely regarded as the inventor of the modern conglomerate, the highly diversified breed of corporation that became the rage on Wall...

Little, often referred to as “the Father of Conglomerates,” was famous for his “unrelated diversification” theory. He built one of the world’s largest and most successful conglomerates. Starting as a textile manufacturer, by the mid-1960s he had acquired nearly 70 different companies outside the textile industry (including companies ...

Royal Little’s remarkable combination of vision, energy and meticulous planning ability might never have reached full potential but for his uncle, Arthur D. Little, who rescued him from a one-room school house in rural California and arranged for him to attend a private school in the Boston area and then go on to Harvard.

Royal Little (March 1, 1896 – January 10, 1989) was the founder and chair of Textron, and is considered to be the father of conglomerates. [citation needed] Little graduated from Noble & Greenough School in 1915 and from Harvard University in 1919, despite having been on academic probation.

In the process of seeking to become the nation's most important textile tycoon, Royal Little (1896-1989) created Textron, the nation's first modern conglomerate corporation, and set the pattern which scores of others followed.

Royal Little, 92, a founder and retired board chairman and chief executive officer of Textron Inc. who is credited with inventing the modern corporate conglomerate, died Jan. 12 at his home in ...

About Company History TEXTRON THROUGH THE DECADES Textron started as a small textile company in 1923, when 27-year-old Royal Little founded the Special Yarns Corporation in Boston. Sales that first year were just $75,000.