Information about Theodore Levitt

Theodore Levitt (b. March 1 1925, Vollmerz, Main-Kinzig-Kreis, Germany – d. 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 coining the term globalization.In 1983 he proposed a definition for corporate purpose: The purpose he said is to create and keep a customer. His words are an authoritative and insightful statement about the purpose of an enterprise. They go far beyond the hackneyed belief that business exist only to make money.

Early life

Levitt was born in 1925 in Vollmerz and in 1959, he was accepted at 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 purports the significance behind the job one does.^[1]

Role in Developing Term Globalization

In 1983 he is widely credited with coining the term globalization through the article he wrote at the Harvard Business Review entitled "Globalization of Markets", which appeared in the HBR in its May-June issue. 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 into the mainstream business audience. Between 1985 and 1989, he headed the Harvard Business Review as an editor.^[1]

He is the author of The Marketing Imagination, a best-selling author whose works have been translated into eleven languages. He is also the author of numerous articles on economic, political, management, and marketing subjects.

Honors/Accolades

He is 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

Professor Emeritus Levitt died at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts on June 28 2006 from cancer.

Books and Articles

• Creativity Is Not Enough, Harvard Business Review, 1963.
• Thinking about management, 1991, New York : Free Press
• Levitt on marketing, 1991,Boston, Mass. : Harvard Business School Press
• The marketing imagination , 1986, New York : Free Press (New, expanded ed.)
• After The Sale Is Over, Harvard Business Review, September-October 1983, p. 87-93.
• The marketing imagination, 1983, New York : The Free Press
• The Globalization of Markets, Harvard Business Review, May-June 1983.
• Marketing Intangible Products and Product Intangibles, Harvard Business Review, May-June 1981, p. 94-102.
• Marketing Myopia, Harvard Business Review, 1960.
• Marketing for business growth, 1974, New York : McGraw-Hill, First ed. published in 1969 under the title: The marketing mode.

See also

• Globalization
• Harvard Business Review

References

Additional

• Theodore Levitt Dead at 81 JUNE 29, 2006 Businessweek online
• Theodore Levitt, 81, Who Coined the Term 'Globalization', Is Dead New York Times July 6, 2006
• 'Globalisation' inventor dies at 81, Friday 7 July 2006, NDTV.com