Sinopsys of Theodore Levitt

Theodore's life

Levitt was born in 1925 in Vollmerz. A decade later his family moved to Dayton, Ohio. He served in World War II, received his high school diploma through correspondence school and then earned a bachelor's at Antioch College and a Ph.D. in economics at Ohio State University. His first teaching job was at the University of North Dakota.

In 1959 he joined the faculty of the Harvard Business School. Later that year, he became world renowned after publishing Marketing Myopia in Harvard Business Review where he asks "What business are you in?", a phrase that demands one account for the significance of the job one does.

He is a four-time winner of the McKinsey Awards competitions for best annual article in the Harvard Business Review; winner of Academy of Management Award for the outstanding business books of 1962 for Innovation in Marketing; winner of John Hancock Award for Excellence in Business Journalism in 1969; recipient of the Charles Coolidge Parlin Award as "Marketing Man of the Year," 1970; recipient of the George Gallup Award for Marketing Excellence, 1976; recipient of the 1978 Paul D. Converse Award of the American Marketing Association for major contributions to marketing and recipient of the 1989 William M. McFeely Award of the International Management Council for major contributions to management.