Re Maytag & WP...
Two very different business approaches. MT was built on old fashioned, conservative growth, with almost total vertical integration. That translated well to maintaining high quality standards and rapid design changes, but limited flexibility. When MT offered the Dutch Oven, it was contracted out. But having facilities for casting aluminum and making rubber parts meant they did have private contracts not visible to the public. Expansion was paid out of company funds, not floated debt. Fred II basically set the company up for success long after his passing, and MT rode that well into the 1970's. But those were big shoes to fill, and IMO, incompatible leadership and lack of new product in the pipeline killed MT, it just took 20 years for the head to realize the body was dead.
WP took the opposite approach and aligned with the prevailing conglomerate philosophy of the 1950’s (which ended up killing most too-big-to-fail companies later on). Expand as rapidly as you can into as many things as you can and see what sticks (see also Singer TVs, SMC percolators, General Mills computers, etc). Some they got right (Seeger), some they got wrong (Thomas Organs), but three things kept them afloat. Steady government contracts, the Servel Icemaker, and the golden goose: the Sears/Upton contract that filled the coffers.
When things got bad, they were large enough to consolidate production at their more modern plants. Unfortunately, that meant permanent layoffs and plant closures. Horizontal integration slowed development, but lessened financial risk. For many years they didn’t make their own agitators, but provided capital for improvements for their supplier across town. This is how most large corps operate today.
A good example of this corporate dichotomy: Both MT and WP had gov't contracts during the Korea Conflict. When their duties were fulfilled, MT went back to making washing machines. WP saw the opportunity, started a Defense Division, developed a weapons testing range, and their R&D created one of the scariest Vietnam-era weapons I’ve ever read about.