Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The business of religion

I was thinking of some cool title for this write up and came up with this, some how I get the feeling it isn't cool enough. This is going to be a rambling about how the workings of religion are very similar to that of a business. Let me add a disclaimer here that I intend no offence to any religion in particular, I will try to avoid naming any religion but some times it becomes unavoidable so pardon me for it. All the opinions expressed here are strictly of the author (though I got the idea from an article I read somewhere, don't remember the source, but the development on it has been strictly mine).
Let's start from the start :-) Religion requires a good leader who is able to share his vision with the rest of the people who in turn start following them, quite identical to a person who starts a company and starts off with a small group of people who believe in the concept. The importance of the leader is quite evident from the fact that most of the religion (Company) present in today's world is identified with the person (CEO/Founder) who preaches it. However after a religion gains a major following (becomes a big company), one of the followers with the support of a segment start having an idea of their own and they break off from the parent religion and start a new religion (company) of their own. For ex: the emergence of Christianity from the Jews. There are a lot of parallels in the business world, for ex: A T Kearney being started by Tom Kearney, an ex Mckinsey employee.
Then comes the expanding of the religion. This is very similar to the way companies expand their business. Religion is spread (marketed) by priests (sales people) in the existing region. It then is spread to other geographical regions by messengers (branch expansion). This spread in other regions is then customised a bit to suit the general needs of the people present there. A very interesting theory that I came across was one presented in the movie "The man from earth" where it suggested that Jesus may have been a disciple of Buddha and came to mediterranean lands and preached it in the modern form which was more tailored for the people over there. This is quite identical to the way a company enters a new market overseas.
Now when there are quite a number of players (religion) in the market, competition starts. The fight for the market share begins. Every religion wants to retain its existing followers and convert the people following other religion into their own. The methods adopted by the priests of each religion to retain and gain the market the share is quite similar to the one adopted by the various companies. They try to show the superiority of their religion (in a way the product/service by following it), aggresively publicise it and try to bring out the benefits that one gets by following it compared to other. They generally target three levels in the Maslow's need theory i.e. Safety, Love/Belonging and Self Actualization.
Now as a follower (consumer) switching of religion (changing products offered by different brands) involved no cost, we could actually list down the kind of religion one would prefer to follow based on the features/services provided i.e. segmentation based on age. I will give the preferences for various age intervals based on my preference (strictly my preference!).

1. ~ 0-18 yrs : religion which provides gurantee of support from the family, encourages the importance of family (no divorces, remarriage etc.) so that focus could be more on development and foundation.
2. ~ 19-29 yrs : religion which provides independences, one doesn't get bogged down by rituals and restrictions. This represents the growth period of an individual.
3. ~30-45 yrs : this is kinda similar to the interval of 0-18 yrs, where the importance of family again enters (no divorces, remarriage etc.). Represents the maturity period of a individual.
4. >45 yrs : religion which provides a strong community support system. Represents the decline period of an individual.

Based on this market segmentation each religion can target its own sector and try to enter other sectors.

The purpose of this write up is not make any statement or pass a judgement. It's meant to give some food for thought as to how the religion system is working and in which direction its headed. Most of us are really not sure if there is a need of religion, maybe this perspective can give a direction in which the answer can be found.