Acceptance and Respectability of Global Marketing

Photo courtesy:  ©Laurel J. Delaney

Revisiting the work of one of my favorite thought leaders who was an academic at Harvard Business School for some 30 years and started teaching marketing there at a time when, legend has it, he had never previously read a book on the subject.

That's my theory about everything, you must jump right in to master something. Similar to taking your business global!

Learn more about Theodore Levitt (they need to spell his name right) here.  And just a tad more on what folks say about him:

Levitt is sometimes credited with coining the term “globalization” in a 1983 article, “The Globalization of Markets."  Although the term had undoubtedly been in use before—The New York Times said it was used in other senses “at least as early as 1944”—it was Levitt who first popularized (marketed?) it as referring to the spread of corporations around the globe.

Related articles:

Managing Brands in Global Markets: One Size Doesn't Fit All

Global Managers:  Is There Such a Thing Anymore? 

Note:  They've corrected the misspelling of Levitt's name from Leavitt to Levitt (6/4/12 at 11:24 a.m. CDT)

Global Managers: Is There Such a Thing Anymore?

Photo credit: Laurel Delaney

Death of a salesman.  The Death of the Global Manager?  Not so fast and not so sure here.  I don't believe defining managers as "global" is a dead concept.

Meanwhile, Julia Hanna makes her case with:  The Death of the Global Manager for HBS Working Knowledge.  As always, the comments are more telling than anything.  Add yours if you like.

But let's not forget one of my favorite Harvard Business articles that I pulled (dusted off) from my library shelf:  The Globalization of Markets (pictured) by Theodore Levitt. Oh if Theodore were alive today ... what would he say?

And there's Customizing Global Marketing (1986)