Name Theodore Levitt Role Economist | ||
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Books The Marketing Imagination, Marketing for Business, Thinking About Management, The Globalization of Markets, Innovation in Marketing Similar People C K Prahalad, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Kenneth R Andrews, Joel Kurtzman, Adi Ignatius | ||
Global Markets by Theodore Levitt
Jobs To Be Done - Customers "hire" solutions to get jobs done
Theodore Levitt (March 1, 1925, Vollmerz, Main-Kinzig-Kreis, Germany – June 28, 2006, Belmont, Massachusetts) was an American economist and professor at Harvard Business School. He was also editor of the Harvard Business Review and an editor who was especially noted for increasing the Review's circulation and for popularizing the term globalization. In 1983, he proposed a definition for corporate purpose: Rather than merely making money, it is to create and keep a customer.
Contents
- Global Markets by Theodore Levitt
- Jobs To Be Done Customers hire solutions to get jobs done
- Early life
- Role in developing the term globalization
- Honors and accolades
- Death
- Books and articles
- Additional
- References
Early life
Levitt was born in 1925 in Vollmerz to a Jewish family. A decade later his family moved to Dayton, Ohio. He served in World War II, received his high school diploma through correspondence school and then earned a bachelor's at Antioch College and a Ph.D. in economics at Ohio State University. His first teaching job was at the University of North Dakota.
In 1959 he joined the faculty of the Harvard Business School. Later that year, he became world-renowned after publishing Marketing Myopia in Harvard Business Review where he asks "What business are you in?", a phrase that demands one account for the significance of the job one does.
Role in developing the term "globalization"
He is widely credited with coining the term globalization through an article entitled "Globalization of Markets", which appeared in the May–June 1983 issue of Harvard Business Review. However, as a NYTimes article notes, the term 'globalization' was in use well before (at least as early as 1944) and had been used by economists as early as 1981. However, Levitt popularized the term and brought it into the mainstream business audience. Between 1985 and 1989, he headed the Harvard Business Review as an editor.
He was the author of The Marketing Imagination, and was a best-selling author whose works have been translated into eleven languages. He was also the author of numerous articles on economic, political, management, and marketing subjects.
Honors and accolades
He was a four-time winner of the McKinsey Awards competitions for best annual article in the Harvard Business Review; winner of Academy of Management Award for the outstanding business books of 1962 for Innovation in Marketing; winner of John Hancock Award for Excellence in Business Journalism in 1969; recipient of the Charles Coolidge Parlin Award as "Marketing Man of the Year," 1970; recipient of the George Gallup Award for Marketing Excellence, 1976; recipient of the 1978 Paul D. Converse Award of the American Marketing Association for major contributions to marketing and recipient of the 1989 William M. McFeely Award of the International Management Council for major contributions to management.
Death
Levitt died at the age of 81 years in his home on June 28, 2006 after a long battle with an illness. His memorial was held at his favorite tennis club. He was survived by his wife of 58 years, and by four children.
Books and articles
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