Conglomerates on trial
Conglomerates have taken a battering from management theorists. But is there something to be said for them after all?
EVERY few weeks 11 men assemble in Dusseldorf and stare at a big chunk of elderly rock. They are the members of the board of VEBA, a highly diversified German company; the rock is an aggregation of stones and pebbles known in geological circles as a conglomerate. The rock is intended to hint to VEBA's board that diversified companies such as theirs are commonly regarded as fossils.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Conglomerates on trial”
From the April 5th 1997 edition
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