Theodore Levitt

Ideation is not a synonym for innovation, conformity is not its simple antonym, and innovation is not the automatic consequence of "creative…

— Theodore Levitt

The true purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer, not to make you money.

— Theodore Levitt

An industry begins with the customer and his or her needs, not with a patent, a raw material, or a selling skill

— Theodore Levitt

A consistently highly creative person is generally irresponsible.

— Theodore Levitt

A powerful force drives the world toward a converging commonality, and that force is technology. … Almost everyone everywhere wants all the…

— Theodore Levitt

People don't want quarter-inch drills. They want quarter-inch holes.

— Theodore Levitt

Organizations, by their very nature are designed to promote order and routine. They are inhospitable environments for innovation.

— Theodore Levitt

The purpose of a business is to get and keep a customer. Without customers, no amount of engineering wizardry, clever financing, or…

— Theodore Levitt

Experience comes from what we have done. Wisdom comes from what we have done badly.

— Theodore Levitt

Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.

— Theodore Levitt

A product is not a product unless it sells. Otherwise it is merely a museum piece.

— Theodore Levitt

Ideas are useless unless used.

— Theodore Levitt

A powerful new idea can kick around unused in a company for years, not because its merits are not recognized, but because…

— Theodore Levitt

Organizations exist to enable ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

— Theodore Levitt

Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned…

— Theodore Levitt

What is often lacking is not creativity in the idea-creating sense but innovation in the action-producing sense, i.e. putting ideas to work.

— Theodore Levitt

Though progress starts with the imagination, only work can make things happen. And work itself works best when fueled, again by the…

— Theodore Levitt

The fact that a consistendy highly creative person is generally irresponsible in the sense that we have used this term is in…

— Theodore Levitt

Anything in excess is a poison.

— Theodore Levitt

Every major industry was once a growth industry. But some that are now riding a wave of growth enthusiasm are very much…

— Theodore Levitt

Kodak sells film, but they don't advertise film; they advertise memories.

— Theodore Levitt

Ideas can be willed, and the imagination is their engine.

— Theodore Levitt

Ideas are useless unless used. The proof of their value is in their implementation. Until then, they are in limbo.

— Theodore Levitt

People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want to buy a quarter-inch hole!

— Theodore Levitt

Sustained success is largely a matter of focusing regularly on the right things and making a lot of uncelebrated little improvements every…

— Theodore Levitt