Business Quote by Theodore Levitt
“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 keep a company going.”
About This Quote
Source Book: Marketing Management by Theodore Levitt, 1960
A business exists to serve customers; without them, all internal expertise is useless.
In simple terms: Customers are the purpose of business.
Key Takeaway
Focus on creating and retaining customers.
Themes
business
customer focus
value creation
Mood
pragmatic
analytical
Type
business
strategic
When to use this quote
- product launches
- service improvements
- retention campaigns
Key Concepts
marketing
customer loyalty
strategic planning
Questions to Reflect On
- How can you balance customer needs with employee satisfaction?
- What metrics truly reflect customer value?
A Different Perspective
Overemphasis on customers can ignore employee wellbeing.
![“[S]ometimes, when you are a food person, the possible irrelevance of what you are doing doesn’t cross your mind until it’s too late. (Once, for example, when I was just starting out in the food business, I was hired by the caper people to develop a lot of recipes using capers, and it was weeks of…” quote by Nora Ephron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d79/nora-ephron-1217_business_s-ometimes-when-you-are-a-food-person-th_980.jpg)
![“If the State does not acquire supremacy over [vast private] enterprises, it becomes their puppet, and they become the real State.” quote by Bertrand Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/bad/bertrand-russell-69_acquire_if-the-state-does-not-acquire-supremacy_1379.jpg)