Definitions for "Conglomerates"
Just as the joke about property values says only three things matter, "location, location and location", so many investors say only three things matter in making companies successful, "management, management and management". There is much truth in this but, in the 1980s investors became carried away and backed active managements almost regardless of what they were doing. This led to a fashion for conglomerates like BTR, Williams Holdings, Hanson Trust and Tomkins whose shares rose massively in value as supposedly high-powered management teams acquired masses of unrelated businesses to which they applied their superior management skills. It started well but the unwieldy behemoths that were created have all ended up being broken up by new managements in search of the new mantra of focus.
are made up of particles of gravel size, sandstones of particles of sand size and shale of microscopic minerals.