“Those responsible for marketing had to sell, not a product, but the idea that their firm was able to produce what the customer required. The product was developed after the order had been secured, the design being, in many cases, modified to suit the requirements of the customer. In mass production firms, the sequence is quite different: product development came first, then production, and finally marketing.”

—  Joan Woodward

Source: Management and technology, Problems of Progress Industry, 1958, p. 23

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Joan Woodward 7
British sociologist 1916–1971

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