{
  "schema_version": "1.1",
  "id": "levitt-people-want-quarter-inch-hole-not-drill",
  "slug": "levitt-people-want-quarter-inch-hole-not-drill",
  "url": "https://groundedkit.com/claims/levitt-people-want-quarter-inch-hole-not-drill/",
  "api_url": "https://groundedkit.com/api/claims/levitt-people-want-quarter-inch-hole-not-drill.json",
  "claim": "Theodore Levitt said: \"People don't want a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole\"",
  "commonly_cited_as": "\"People don't want a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole\" — Theodore Levitt",
  "verdict": "misquoted",
  "verdict_definition": "Primary source found, but the way it is quoted changes the subject, metric, population or precision.",
  "confidence": "high",
  "rating": {
    "value": 2,
    "best": 5,
    "worst": 1
  },
  "origin": {
    "publisher": "Quote Investigator",
    "title": "No One Wants a Drill. What They Want Is the Hole (Mar. 23, 2019; updated Apr. 6, 2025)",
    "year": "1942 (earliest match)"
  },
  "quote": "Clayton M. Christensen ascribed the saying to Theodore Levitt, but Levitt ascribed the remark to McGivena.",
  "method": "Quotation research: earliest match is a 1942 insurance advertisement; a 1947 book credited Leo McGivena.",
  "drift": [
    "Attribution: Levitt quoted it in 1969 and credited Leo McGivena; Christensen later credited Levitt"
  ],
  "interest": "Quote Investigator is an independent quotation-research site run by Garson O'Toole; no commercial interest in the quote.",
  "safe_rephrasing": "The 'quarter-inch hole' line is usually credited to Theodore Levitt, but Levitt himself credited Leo McGivena, and the earliest known version is a 1942 ad.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Quote Investigator — No One Wants a Drill",
      "url": "https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/03/23/drill/",
      "primary": true
    }
  ],
  "kind": "stat_check",
  "as_of": "Research updated Apr. 6, 2025",
  "last_checked": "2026-10-16",
  "stale": false,
  "date_reviewed": "2026-10-16",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}