Figgie International Inc history

By 1970 sales were at $365 million; profit was $8.6 million.

The company expanded its international business, acquiring Fred Perry Sportswear, a British firm, in 1973.

The company's data processing department became its Systems Management Group; its insurance department became Waite Hill Holdings--both free-standing profit centers still responsible for internal service but expected to take on outside clients too. Its domestic divisions exported more and by 1980 offshore sales were almost $150 million.

But while other conglomerates reduced themselves to a few top performers, Figgie International (so renamed in 1981) stayed the diversified course.

By 1987 revenues had topped $919 million and profits were more than $42 million, for a four-year rise of over $200 million and $17 million, respectively.

To thousands of his employees at the Ohio conglomerate near Cleveland, Harry Figgie had earned his place in the February 1989 pages of Fortune for a piece on America's Toughest Bosses.

Ahead was another "sobering year" which Figgie International was entering "buttoned down with a very cautious approach." One could only hope, said Harry Figgie in his usual pointed fashion, that in the election year 1992 "the politicians [would] not do too much damage to the weak recovery."

Despite spending more than $75 million for advice, Figgie International had barely escaped bankruptcy in 1994.