Lead Change Blog

APRIL 1, 2016

” The books Chip has found most helpful for his professional life include Watership Down by Richard Adams, Marketing for Business Growth by Ted Levitt, and The Purple Cow by Seth Godin.

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Levitt Godin Customer Loyalty Consultative 150

LDRLB

AUGUST 13, 2012

A team of economic researchers led by Harvard University’s Roland Fryer (and including Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame) recently flipped the incentive model on its head and tested on one of the most incentive-resistant professions in America: schoolteachers. A recent economic paper might have found such as way.

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Incentives Creativity Levitt Drucker 133

Mills Scofield

APRIL 15, 2012

Saul quotes Theodore Levitt (Harvard Business School Professor), “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.” Yet few are really good at truly understanding what the customer needs. That’s why there are many inventive organizations, but few innovative ones.

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Kaplan Business Model Levitt Christensen 151

Strategy Driven

JUNE 6, 2013

Levitt and. Levitt and Stephen J. Evaluation & Control Program Recommended Resources book review business book business management evaluation and control freakonomics Stephen Dubner Steven Levitt strategydriven' Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. by Steven D. About the Book.

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Resources Levitt Incentives Analysis 50

Innovation Excellence

AUGUST 4, 2020

Theodore Levitt illustrated the difference best when he said, “People don’t want to buy a ¼ inch drill; they want a ¼ inch hole!” This may sound good, but it’s a misbelief caused by confusing product solutions with customer needs. Get this right or suffer high failure rates and missed opportunities.

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Levitt Technology Innovation System 76

Innovation Excellence

AUGUST 4, 2020

Theodore Levitt illustrated the difference best when he said, “People don’t want to buy a ¼ inch drill; they want a ¼ inch hole!” This may sound good, but it’s a misbelief caused by confusing product solutions with customer needs. Get this right or suffer high failure rates and missed opportunities.

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Levitt Technology Innovation System 75

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 4, 2021

The actor, writer, and director discusses the role mindfulness plays in his art and how he leads his team.

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Levitt Gordon Team 19

Strategy Driven

MARCH 30, 2011

The marketing orientation focuses the purpose of the firm towards serving customer needs profitably – an orientation supported by the late greats Peter Drucker and Theodore Levitt.

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Price Strategy Discount Levitt 50

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 3, 2011

In January 1980, Harvard's Ted Levitt wrote an article titled " Marketing Success Through Differentiation of Anything." Levitt argued that products were more complicated to consumers than most manufacturers considered. He pointed out that the basic product qualities (i.e., a phone needs to make a call) get a product to market.

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Levitt Succession Wireless Franchising 16

Harvard Business Review

JULY 11, 2011

It's hard to overestimate the influence Ted Levitt's "Marketing Myopia" has had on the world of marketing and beyond. Why has "Marketing Myopia" lasted so well over a 50-year-period when so many management big ideas have gone the way of the failed industries Levitt cites in his classic? Its clarity and its ambition.

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Levitt Marketing Library Maturity 14

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

Some fifteen years ago, in a period that seemed full of change and uncertainty in marketing, I asked my colleague Ted Levitt where he saw our field heading. Levitt, who had a marvelous talent for speaking in epigrams, responded, "The future of marketing will be more like its past than anyone imagines."

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Levitt Marketing Uncertainty Price 16

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 13, 2014

In 1960, marketing legend Ted Levitt provided perhaps his seminal contribution to the Harvard Business Review : “ Marketing Myopia.” To avoid that, Levitt exhorted leaders to ask themselves the seemingly obvious question – “What business are you really in?”

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Levitt Christensen Competitive Advantage Welch 15

First Friday Book Synopsis

APRIL 30, 2011

Webber is an award-winning, nationally-recognized editor, author, and columnist. In 1995, he launched Fast Company magazine, a fresh, dynamic entry in the business magazine category. Headquartered in Boston, MA, the magazine became the fastest growing, most successful business magazine in history.

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Magazine Company Succession Edvinsson 103

First Friday Book Synopsis

JANUARY 30, 2013

Simon Pont is a writer, commentator and brand-builder. Hollywood movie studios, Icelandic investment banks, British chocolate bars and Middle Eastern airlines figure amongst his time on the inside of Adland. He is the author of The Better Mousetrap: Brand Invention in a Media Democracy, and a novel, Remember to Breathe.

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Simon Airlines Brand Banking 89

First Friday Book Synopsis

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

Thursday September 15th, 2011: The Financial Times and Goldman Sachs today announced the shortlist for the seventh annual Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award (www.ft.com/bookaward), which aims to identify the book providing the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues. The shortlist is: [.].

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Books Levitt Energy Finance 89

First Friday Book Synopsis

MARCH 2, 2011

After having read and reviewed so many business books, I now share brief comments about what I consider to be the 25 most valuable business insights and the books in which they are either introduced or (one man’s opinion) best explained. Here are the third five: 11. Leadership: In essence, leaders attract followers so that [.].

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Review Books Leadership Mintzberg 85

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 22, 2016

The term was coined by the late Harvard Business School marketing professor, Theodore Levitt, in a 1960 article by the same name (republished in 2004). ” As Levitt used to tell his students, “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill. Levitt suggests that leaders ask themselves: What business are we really in?

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Levitt Marketing Transportation Industry 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

Consider another example made famous in Levitt and Dubner's Freakonomics. She'd probably have accepted it graciously. The offer of a gift rather than payment indicates that social and not market norms are in play. A daycare center decided to impose a $3 fine when parents were late picking up their children.

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Motivation Levitt Letter Business Objectives 20

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 28, 2010

Levitt and Dubner, they of Freakonomics, offer a slightly more sophomoric example when they point out that the "average" adult in a global sample has one breast and one testicle. Wouldn't it make sense to manufacture a lukewarm tea that everyone is guaranteed to like? Problem, of course, is that it doesn't make any sense to do so.

Disaggregation 16

Disaggregation Levitt Analysis Short-term 16

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.

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Real Estate Levitt Incentives Price 11

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 16, 2012

There certainly is no shortage of candidates from our nine decades of publishing — from Ted Levitt's "Marketing Myopia" to Michael Porter's "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy.". And so, in that spirit, we've asked several prominent readers to identify the most valuable idea they have learned from the pages of HBR.

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Levitt Porter Management Metrics 11

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 11, 2012

It serves as a great introduction to other works by modern writers like Malcolm Gladwell and Steven Levitt, who translate theories from the social and physical sciences into everyday life. Richard Tedlow, Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built.

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Books Cialdini Christensen Collins 22

First Friday Book Synopsis

OCTOBER 3, 2011

Harvard Business Review on Reinventing Your Marketing Various Contributors Harvard Business Review Press (2011) How to use innovative thinking to improve how you create or increase demand for what you offer Those who aspire to maximize the impact of their marketing initiatives will find the material in this HBR book invaluable. It is one of [.].

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Review Marketing Books Innovation 70

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 11, 2012

It serves as a great introduction to other works by modern writers like Malcolm Gladwell and Steven Levitt, who translate theories from the social and physical sciences into everyday life. Richard Tedlow, Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built.

Books 21

Books Cialdini Christensen Collins 21

Harvard Business Review

MAY 11, 2017

Theodore Levitt's classic theory -- in under two minutes. The brands that remove obstacles and encourage progress along their customers’ journeys are the ones that win repeat visits, repeat purchases, and word-of-mouth referrals. Related Video. The Explainer: Marketing Myopia.

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Levitt Real Estate Video PR 15

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 26, 2014

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner note that most street-level drug dealers earn modest wages at best — they may neglect their schoolwork, and some take straight jobs in addition to make ends meet. In this way, the industry parallels drug dealing. Hear me out.

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Development Levitt Real Estate IPO 12

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 14, 2017

The late economist and marketing professor Theodore Levitt famously said “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.” It requires significant changes in business models, staffing and management approach. But we believe it’s the only option.

Health Care 12

Health Care Levitt Competitive Advantage Pharmaceuticals 12

Joseph Lalonde

MARCH 14, 2018

Michael Levitt, CEO of BreakfastLeadership.com. Incidentally, I never start the day with text, email, phone, Facebook , TV, or news of any kind. Those can come later but it’s not the way I want to start my day with a spirit of reverence and awe!

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Succession Self-aware Learning-by-Doing Follow-up 316

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 18, 2016

In 1960, Harvard professor Theodore Levitt published a landmark paper in Harvard Business Review that urged executives to adapt by asking themselves, “What business are we really in?” Which brings us to something else Theodore Levitt said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.”

Company 8

Company Levitt Succession Agility 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 5, 2016

Grove’s 1980 question remains as ruthlessly relevant to C-suites as Ted Levitt’s 1960 classic, “What business are you in?” Stagnant growth in its core PC market recently led Intel to announce layoffs of roughly 12% of its workforce. ” or my “Who do you want your customers to become?”

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Levitt Disaggregation Kaizen Call Center 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 21, 2014

Decades ago, Harvard professor Theodore Levitt popularized the rationale behind why people buy quarter-inch drill bits: “People don’t want quarter-inch bits. They want quarter-inch holes.”

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Levitt Early Adopters Productivity Products 10

Harvard Business Review

MAY 6, 2014

The classic example, attributed to HBS professor Ted Levitt, is that people don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they want something that will make a quarter-inch hole. Briefly, the idea is this: Consumers don’t go to the store to buy products. Making a quarter-inch hole is the job to be done.

Disruptive Innovation 14

Disruptive Innovation Levitt Tools Innovation 14

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 20, 2014

Rachel Levitt* had an ongoing conflict with her coworker, Pia*. Assume that things will change immediately ­— repairing relationships can take time. Forget to involve people in your network who may have heard you complain about the other person. Case study#1: Find a common purpose.

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Levitt Price Class Case Study 15

CEO Blog

NOVEMBER 11, 2010

Googles use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to this sites and other sites on the Internet.

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Blue Ocean Strategy Levitt Charisma Efficiency 189

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."

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Ramaswamy Levitt Prahalad Christensen 10

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 26, 2015

With apologies to Ted Levitt , a new “Marketing Myopia 2.0” The unhappy innovation inference? Your most important customers may not be the people who buy your products but the ones who regulate your company and industry. ” has emerged.

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Disruptive Innovation Levitt Tourism Incentives 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 13, 2017

Theodore Levitt's classic theory -- in under two minutes. 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. “That’s funny,” Hughes said to himself, his curiosity piqued. Related Video.

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Levitt Video Learning-by-Doing Short-term 8