Kenneth B. Elliott

American sales executive · Vice-President in Charge of Sales, The Studebaker Corporation (1940s)

Kenneth B. Elliott was a Studebaker sales executive whose set of customer-relations principles appeared in a May 1941 interview in the advertising trade journal ‘Printers’ Ink’. His second principle — “the customer is not an interruption of our work — he is the purpose of it” — is the earliest documented form of the line now widely and wrongly stamped with Gandhi’s name. The “patient” and “hospital” wording is a later, anonymous adaptation of Elliott’s business creed.

Traced to source

1 quote we’ve traced

“A patient is the most important person in our hospital. He is not an interruption to our work, he is the purpose of it”

Disputed

Did they really say it?

Thought Kenneth B. Elliott said something else?

Type a quote you think Kenneth B. Elliott said — we’ll tell you what we know, or point you to the best sources.