Harvard Business Review

MAY 5, 2016

Aggravated and depressed by the decline of their core memory business in the 1980s, Intel’s top management struggled for strategic clarity. Grove’s 1980 question remains as ruthlessly relevant to C-suites as Ted Levitt’s 1960 classic, “What business are you in?” Profitable customers matter most.

Levitt 8

Levitt Disaggregation Kaizen Call Center 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 10, 2011

In their hit book Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner posit that real estate agents don't have the incentive to push for the highest sales price for homeowners. Levitt and Dubner bolster their claim by citing research that reveals when realtors sell their own homes, they remain on the market one week longer and sell for 3% more.

Real Estate 9

Real Estate Levitt Incentives Price 9

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

In 1960, the editor of the Harvard Business Review, Theodore Levitt, wrote that the failure of railroads could be explained in part by the myopic view that they were in the railroad business and not the transportation business, which left them vulnerable to competition from cars, trucks, and planes.

Health Care 16

Health Care Levitt Film Chemicals 16

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 26, 2015

Your most important customers may not be the people who buy your products but the ones who regulate your company and industry. With apologies to Ted Levitt , a new “Marketing Myopia 2.0” ” That’s not cynicism; that’s savvy risk management. ” has emerged. May the best lawyers and lobbyists win.

Disruptive Innovation 8

Disruptive Innovation Levitt Tourism Incentives 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 19, 2015

Edison’s breakthrough was guided by a fundamental insight: any given product is only as powerful as the system in which it is deployed. You get the sense that there’s a broad, bold blueprint beyond any particular product or partnership that Musk is announcing right now. Will it be transformational?

Strategy 8

Strategy Levitt Energy System 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 13, 2017

He noticed they were taking the excess pulp—normally a waste product–and putting it back into a special batch of juice for their personal consumption. Theodore Levitt's classic theory -- in under two minutes. See More Videos > See More Videos > Some managers would have kept moving. Related Video.

Levitt 8

Levitt Video Short-term Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 6, 2014

At a fundamental level, the decisions managers make about revenue and profits fall into two categories—those related to growth and those related to cost reduction. Managers use cost-related data as an objective input for decision making, since they consider it both reliable and reasonably predictable. Cost reduction data are precise.

Disruptive Innovation 11

Disruptive Innovation Levitt Innovation Tools 11

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 15, 2015

A gold-plated product or service. A typical product or service comparison in most industries would show that incumbents usually have the best products in a given market, which reflects their obsession with high-margin customers. ” The concept of a product’s job-to-be-done is not new. Insight Center.

Marketing 8

Marketing Company Levitt Film 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 18, 2015

As Ted Levitt pointed out 55 years ago, companies develop significant myopia over time, only seeing things that are squarely in the mainstream of their market. Creating and managing separate organizations often entails significant investment and management attention, so it makes sense to only do so in specific circumstances.

Disruptive Innovation 8

Disruptive Innovation Christensen Levitt Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 26, 2016

Buyers now have easy-click access to information about products, prices, and other buyers’ opinions and usage experiences. You might assume that wholesale distribution, where firms resell products manufactured by others, is a simple transaction sale. But a lot has changed. Take, for example, the impact of online technology.

Education 8

Education Levitt Retail Training 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 12, 2013

The approach echoes Ted Levitt''s famous comment about selling ¼ inch holes rather than ¼ inch electric drills, and advocates a mindset shift away from selling products to "doing jobs" that solve customers'' problems. To resolve these contradictions, we had begun pleading with students and clients to look for "jobs to be done."

Ramaswamy 8

Ramaswamy Levitt Prahalad Christensen 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 20, 2014

“Most people just lower their expectations because it’s easier than dealing with the real issues at hand,” says Brian Uzzi, professor of leadership and organizational change at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and author of the HBR article, “ Make Your Enemies Your Allies.” This isn’t productive. Look forward, not back.

Levitt 12

Levitt Price Class Case Study 12