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2.7.06

A farewell to Theodore Levitt 

Prof ’s passing was reported by Grant McCracken at This Blog Sits at the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics last week and is certainly worth more than a nod to Grant’s blog or the Harvard Business School site.
   Levitt’s name takes me back to my early days at B-school, where I read ‘The Globalization of Markets’, in which the term was apparently coined. He made a convincing argument about the homogenization of markets, one which underpins many business decisions today. For better or for worse, Levitt made us sit up and take notice of the phenomenon. His work on in The Marketing Imagination underpinned some of my own beliefs about and marketing, though I admit I never read the original work, just excerpts cited in other academic articles on the topic. And his allegation in his early ‘Marketing Myopia’, that there are companies that focus on before marketing, but pretend they are the same, still rings true.
   Without Levitt, the would be far poorer, too, as we take his thinking into the 21st century.
   Levitt was 81, and is survived by his wife, Joan, four children, six grandchildren and two sisters.
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I have to admit I've never read Levitt, but owing to your post, this title is next on my reading list. My decision (a few years back) to pursue a b-school degree and get to the core of marketing practice was largely due to the sales & marketing disconnect at the company that employed me. Sounds as if Levitt's book addresses this directly. Thanks for your always-useful posts.  
Hi Monica: Levitt is well worth reading. His views still stand the test of time, and while there are some Levitt-sceptics out there (I’ve read a few blog comments in the wake of his passing), it may be due to the fact that what was once pioneering has become accepted marketing knowledge.  
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