The Harvard Business Review Article That Changed My Life
In 1983, my perspective on business was forever altered by an old article from the Harvard Business Review. The article, written by Ted Levitt in 1960, titled Marketing Myopia, revolutionized the way I thought about change and marketing strategies.
As a young MBA student at Stanford, I had the opportunity to interview for a summer job as the assistant to Jim Levy, the CEO of Activision, the fastest-growing company at the time. Armed with a copy of Levitt’s article, I confidently suggested that Activision needed to broaden its focus beyond the Atari console, which was the main source of revenue.
Initially, my bold approach seemed to have backfired, as Jim stood up to dismiss me from his office. However, a turn of events led to the realization that Activision had 9 out of the top 10 bestselling titles on the Cashbox magazine list. This moment of success eventually led to Jim offering me a summer job, which I ultimately declined.
Despite not taking the job, the lesson from Levitt’s article had a lasting impact on me. Fast forward forty years, Harvard has recently published an edited version of my own expansion of his idea, titled strategy myopia.
Strategy myopia, as I explain in the article, is a focus on tasks and immediate results rather than developing a solid strategy. It often leads to prioritizing tactics over the necessary groundwork of crafting a meaningful strategy.
It’s crucial to acknowledge and address strategy myopia to avoid falling into its trap. By opening up discussions and exploring alternative viewpoints, we can steer clear of this common pitfall.
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