Marketing Lessons from the Human Body: Sri Sathya Sai Perspective

What is the meaning of marketing? The concept of complete marketing can be understood through an analogy of human body. The human body distributes energy to every element of the human physical system. Similar to marketing, finance and banking, comparable functions can be traced in the human body in a metaphorical manner. You hear through your ears; you do not preserve it there. What is heard enters the mind. The mind enquires and then responds in the form of oral message through the mouth, and finally acts through the hand. There is cooperation and collaboration among these different faculties. In the outside market, there is no cooperation; only operation (meaning surgical intervention used here in rhyme in a dramatic sense to enhance the power of the message); true cooperation is visible within the human body.

One dimension is the market while the other is marketing, wherein just as in human body, every effort involves cooperation and coordination among the various limbs and organs of the body. The heart is the market (which refers not to the physical heart but the spiritual heart). The physical heart is only a pump, which is only pulsating to circulate blood. While teaching the subject of marketing, inputs such as personality, values, ethics and other related topics which are essential from the standpoint of societal welfare do not figure in usual textbooks and are not taught in business schools. These should be taught to business school graduates. A perfect coordination of all the limbs aids in accomplishing the tasks of day-to-day life. Every limb aids in attaining success. Hence, there should be a sense of gratitude towards every limb for the respective service rendered. 

For example, a tree bears a large number of fruits. The eye notices them. Immediately the mind desires to have them. As soon as the mind desires, you do not get the fruit. The legs have to take you there. It is not enough if you walk the distance with your legs. You have to bend there. By merely bending over, the fruit does not reach your stomach. The hand picks up a stone. Just because you have picked up the stone, you do not get the fruit. The hand hurls the stone aiming at the fruit. When the fruit falls, the fingers collect the fruit and pass it on to the mouth. Then the mouth has to chew and swallow. It is only then that the pulp of the fruit reaches the stomach which produces enzymes to digest it. On digestion however, the form of the fruit undergoes change, which then becomes juice. So, in this whole process of the fruit from the tree to the stomach, which one limb/organ alone was responsible? All organs have played a role. As all the organs have helped in carrying the juice of the fruit to the stomach, the stomach in turn digests the food partaken and distributes the energy to all organs through blood. You have merely passed on the fruit to the stomach, but because of the coordination among the various organs, finally the fruit is eaten. Vaishvanara (digestive enzymes) in the stomach is responsible for the digestion of the food partaken and as a mark of gratitude; it supplies the digested juice to all the organs. The stomach expresses gratitude to the different organs by supplying energy to the different parts of the body derived from the fruit juice.

If we wish to have energy and strength, all organs have to discharge their respective duties. Body is the combination of all limbs. One talks of fish market, vegetable market, fruit market, etc. These are not markets in the real sense. A market is one where everything would be available. Just as the assemblage of different organs of perception and action (besides bones, nerves, flesh, blood, and other internal organs) constitute the body, so also a market is one where all goods and services are available.

Source: Values-Oriented Marketing: Insights from Indian Wisdom, Chapter 8, Man Management: A Values-Based Management Perspective – Based on the Discourses of Sri Sathya Sai Baba