Chapter One
Theodore Levitt's "The
Globalization of Markets"
An Evaluation After Two Decades
Richard S. Tedlow
Rawi Abdelal
Two decades ago, Theodore Levitt published "The Globalization
of Markets" in the Harvard Business Review. Doing business across
national borders had long been a topic of academic analysis, but
Levitt's article, published in the "magazine of decision makers,"
was aimed separately at business managers. It hit its target.
Levitt himself was "globalized" by 1983. He was world famous
for his provocative pronouncements on the new thinking and new
action needed to propel business management into the new world
it had to create. His articles were widely translated and anthologized,
and the Harvard Business Review made a small fortune selling
his reprints. When Levitt spoke (through the medium of the
printed word), managers listened.
Teaching globalization today, it is not difficult, with the priceless
benefit of hindsight, to see the flaws in Levitt's argument. In the
pages that follow, we make those flaws quite clear. We do, however,
believe that this article remains important not just as an artifact of
its time but as a picture of th ... read full excerpt from The Global Market: Developing a Strategy to Manage Across Borders ebook
