Biography

Ted Levitt was born in Vollmerz, Main-Kinzig-Kreis, Germany, and moved with his family to Dayton, Ohio, in the mid 1930s. His life-plan was interrupted when he became a serviceman in World War II, during which time he obtained his high school diploma through a correspondence course.

Once his military service was over, he committed to an academic career and obtained a bachelor's degree from Antioch College, followed by a PhD from Ohio State University. Levitt saw economics as a vehicle to facilitate his long-term career rather than a vocation, and it was Drucker's work that took him "out of boredom to the marketing concept".

Levitt developed marketing into its modern form, becoming resident professor at Harvard and producing more HBR papers than any resident academic.

He established himself as the recognised doyen of marketing with his paper Marketing Myopia (1960), which gave essential directions to managers in meaningful soundbites.

Two examples are: "Marketing minded firms try to create value-satisfying goods" and "companies don't sell drills, they sell holes". This clear style of presentation is representative of his books.

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