Theodore Levitt Quotes

25 quotes in 392 categories

• Just as energy is the basis of life itself, and ideas the source of innovation, so is innovation the vital spark of all human change,…
• Ideas can be willed, and the imagination is their engine.
• Nothing drives progress like the imagination. The idea precedes the deed. The only exceptions are accidents and natural selection.
• The oil industry is a stunning example of how science, technology, and mass production can divert an entire group of companies from their main task.…
• Kodak sells film, but they don't advertise film; they advertise memories.
• Organizations, by their very nature are designed to promote order and routine. They are inhospitable environments for innovation.
• Ideas are useless unless used. The proof of their value is in their implementation. Until then, they are in limbo.
• A consistently highly creative person is generally irresponsible.
• Ideas are useless unless used.
• Organizations exist to enable ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
• People don't want quarter-inch drills. They want quarter-inch holes.
• The true purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer, not to make you money.
• The purpose of a business is to get and keep a customer. Without customers, no amount of engineering wizardry, clever financing, or operations expertise can…
• A powerful force drives the world toward a converging commonality, and that force is technology. … Almost everyone everywhere wants all the things they have…
• All organizations are hierarchical. At each level people serve under those above them. An organization is therefore a structured institution. If it is not structured,…
• Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values…
• You want to dig your well where you have the best chance of finding water with the least amount of digging
• Experience comes from what we have done. Wisdom comes from what we have done badly.
• Customers buy 1/4 holes, not 1/4 bits.
• Every major industry was once a growth industry. But some that are now riding a wave of growth enthusiasm are very much in the shadow…

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