Submitted by: Reynald L.

Bautista, 2-C
Submitted to: Dean Christian Bryan S. Bustamante, College of Arts and Sciences

“The Business of the Business is the Human Person”

When I was a student of the College of Arts and Sciences, Marketing Management in the
then San Beda College, Manila, we were taught of the basics in order to create a profound and
realistic business marketing research. Before the intricacies, before the budget management,
before everything, one must understand and always remember four things, as Professor Borja
said: the 7 Ps of Marketing. Product, Price, Promotion, Place, Packaging, Positioning, and
People. Each has its own place and point of importance and each is necessary to be able to create
a great study. But even with their very own unique importance, the most important of all, as my
professor said, is the last P: People.
In the reading material, the same thing was discussed, although in a more general sense.
We were taught before that “People” is the most important because among all of the Ps, it is the
one that has the most flexibility. Further, it is the ONLY asset of a company that has its own
wise. It is independent and therefore, it is live. In a marketing standpoint, I would have said that
it is merely due to its very character, which is independent in nature, that makes it unique.
However, after a close reading of the material, it is clearer now that what separates it from the
rest of a company’s assets is the very thing that keeps People alive, which is faith.
They say that an entity of business will never work without the help of great people. True
enough, a business needs its people in order to grow and as it does, the people, in return, needs
the business that employs them to also grow. On its face, it is as though the importance of both is
equal in a sense, but is this really the case? I disagree.
A closer reading of the material gave me the idea that it is actually more of a reliant
relationship in favour of the business alone. It is true that workers do jobs for the purpose of
growth and sustenance, but the same goes for businesses. The latter need these people to
continuously develop. Further, the people can always come up with another way to continue its
life, but a business can never continue its juridical personality without the people that keep it
alive.
The country we have right now revolves around the world of businesses. The government
seems to possess less power when talking about regulating big businesses. As we all know, the
corruption within these so-called “giants” is being exposed one by one. Take NutriAsia as an
example. I believe it is high time for us to work as a community and show these self-yielding
businesses the true importance of its people. After all, as my professor once said, “it is the
business that needs people and not and should never be the other way around.”