In this brief talk, the speaker references marketing scholar Theodore (Ted) Levitt’s classic question, “What business are you in?” to illustrate how professionals should view their core value‑creation role—physicians improve health, lawyers solve problems, carpenters craft custom cabinetry, etc. He then argues that in today’s relationship‑driven marketplace every professional has a second, equally vital business: communication. Modern success depends on building trustworthy, emotionally connected relationships with customers, not merely delegating communication to support staff. The speaker stresses that personal credibility and comfort in interaction distinguish true business partners from mere technicians, and that improving communication directly amplifies the success of one’s primary business.
Chapters
Ted Levitt was one of the marketing gurus of the 20th century. He was at Harvard and established marketing as an intellectual discipline there. And one of the things that he did was to ask a very simple question of everyone that he worked with, and the question was, "What business are you in?" And that forced everyone to think about the value that they added to their customers. If you were a physician, you were in the business of helping your patients maintain and improve their health. If you were an attorney, you're in the business of helping people to solve complicated problems. If you're a carpenter, you're in the business of helping your customers to design perfect custom cabinetry. But today you're also in a second business. And that business is communication. Look, modern business is all about relationships and your ability to establish trustworthy relationships with your customers. Doesn't matter if you're in your own business or working in a corporation, you have customers that you need to have effective working relationships with, and working relationships are founded on communication. So your ability to establish emotional connection with the people that you're working with becomes a crucial element element in whether or not your first business is going to be successful. It used to be that we could delegate communication to others, you know, like your nurse could communicate with the patients, or, you know, your secretary could talk to your clients if you were a lawyer, or, you know, you had somebody who answered the phone and made your appointments for you if you were a carpenter. All you needed was technical proficiency in order to be successful at your business. But not today. Not today. You need to be trustworthy. Your customers need to be comfortable relating to you. That's what distinguishes our expert business partners, the people we really like to do business with today, from the people who are just simply technicians, mechanics. So no matter what your first business is today, your second business is always communication. Improve that and your first business is definitely going to be more successful. Take it easy, see you out there.
