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.
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9 comments:
There is yet another similarity. Both business and religious policies are based on the environment in the place of origin. But then, religion is inherently non-adaptive in nature unlike business. With the progress of time, business will change with events in human history, religion would still remain orthodox. Religion will even reach a stage where the reasons change from common logic to blind faith. The idea on which a religion was possibly started was to improve upon the way of life in a certain era. Laying strict guidelines does defeat the whole purpose. Business flourishes, religions sometime perish. I am not judging the right or wrong. Whether this nature of religion is for better or worse, is still a topic of debate.
Nice thought though. Keep writing!
An interesting read.
Few major diffs also to complete the picture:
1. Religion gives hope, assurance, direction to most people, while business doesn't really.
2. Religion causes much more extremism than business.
3. There is more scope of hypocrisy in religion.
4. Religion doesn't lead to any progress as defined by me :)
@sankat
Totally agree with you, but it's rather intriguing that religion still manages to hold on to it's market share inspite of these problems which in itself says that religion has a monopoly over the market as a whole so it can dictate terms rather than the other way around.
@fsp
hope, assurance and direction are the product/services that the religion offers. These are the incentives which it uses to hold on to its share.
Regarding the extremism point, I think this is again due to the monopoly of religion as a whole over the market.
Hypocrisy is something which can't be much debated upon :-) people in business world are also hypocrites but its difficult to comment on the extent of the possibility of same in the two.
I'll agree with you on the progress point :D
nice concept n all...
but a thot: theres no religion higher than human service..and theres no leader or follower there... :) !!
you do it with ur heart :) .. .no sermons no hymns....it onvolves only u ...u r the leader and u r the preacher!!
Yes yes yes .. very correct .. india has to give more attention to its sports and game culture. See, we have so much talent in our country w\o any opportunities to polish it. Otherwise india would be in top ten. Go India Go!!
OK ... now i read the post ...
1. Do they hv IIM for religion?
2. Y isnt there new players coming into pic, when demand is constantly rising since 0000
3. Y did millions died for it
4. Y do i envy bill gates n not pope
5. Actually i still couldnt read whole post .. y do u n i hv so much free time, how abt starting our own religion?
@lighthouse:
1. you have religious schools, catholic for ex
2. new players have been coming in from start, its not like all the religion where there from start. one of the ways i mentioned about how a new religion starts from an existing one.
3. Reason could be religion is extreme. Business world is cut throat its just people don't die in it :-)
4. it depends on an individual, for you it doesn't but there are a lot of people in the religious area who would prefer pope to bill gates.
ps: u suck for wanting to be bill gates.
5. I am planning to start one of my own, working on it that's why analysing the existing structure. Will let you know the details :-)
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