What Business Are You in?

05/13/2013

The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn...and change.
Carl Rogers

In his classic article, "Marketing Myopia," reproduced in HBR's 10 Must Reads: The Essentials (Harvard Business Review, pp. 153-180, 2011), Theodore Levitt talks about the importance of knowing exactly what business you are in. He cites this example:

"Hollywood barely escaped being totally ravished by television. Actually, all the established film companies went through drastic reorganizations. Some simply disappeared. All of them got into trouble not because of TV's inroads, but because of their own myopia.... Hollywood defined its business incorrectly. It thought it was in the movie business when it was actually in the entertainment business. 'Movies' implied a specific, limited product. This produced a fatuous contentment that from the beginning led producers to view TV as a threat. Hollywood scorned and rejected TV when it should have welcomed it as an opportunity — an opportunity to expand the entertainment business."

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