All Business is Human Activity

May 7, 2026

DC Pathak

Different aspects of
business, including
sales promotion,
building mutual trust
with prospective
buyers on the strength of the
customer feedback, effective
communications, honouring the
organisational ethics, and use of
emotional intelligence for handling
people, prove the basic point that
all business is about human beings — conducted ‘by and for the people’.
Even funding, business
diversification, and mergers involve
individuals as investors, planners of
growth, and negotiators from the
two sides.
Successful businesses
ultimately owe their gains to a set
of persons who took right decisions
at the right time and who are
knowledgeable about the market
and the competitors.
This required them to be
information savvy — a quality that
only human beings could have.
In the era of Artificial
Intelligence and ‘Machine
Learning’, it is data analytics that
held the key to productivity but it
worked within the fundamental
principle that results would be
dependant on the information ‘fed’
into the system.
The gift of ‘imagination’ that
only a human mind possessed,
could make all the difference
between success and failure and
could never be overestimated.
Imagination has the base of
knowledge but only those who
could see ‘the wood behind
the trees’ would visualise the
opportunities and risks that lay
ahead and put the business on the
path of progress by embracing the
former and avoiding the latter.
The success of any business is
traditionally judged by the extent
to which it can sell its product or
service but for it to hit a benchmark
three basic parameters have to be
unfailingly met.
First, promotion must be free of
‘lies’ though it could accommodate
some ‘exaggeration’ within an
‘ethical’ limit.
Secondly, there should be an
awareness of the need for the
business to earn the reputation
of a ‘brand’ so that expansion or
diversification could be supported
by investors.
And finally, arrangements
must exist for an ongoing study
and analysis of the competition
developing around that business.
All these ingredients of success
are heavily dependant on the
quality of communications that
the leaders and representatives
of the organisation had with their
clients, customers, and the general
public, interpersonal relations that
prevailed within the corporate
body across the vertical hierarchy
and the system the organisation
has established for garnering
information of relevance that is
available within and outside of the
business entity.
Communications have
acquired a new-found significance
in the age of online functioning.
A good communication in all
situations must conform to three
requirements — it should be
‘unambiguous’ which means it
should not permit more than one
interpretation, it must be ‘concise’
within the precept that ‘brevity
cannot be there at the cost of
clarity’ and it should follow the
‘need to know’ principle where
mandated.
The reputation and image of
a ‘brand’ depend largely on the
consistency of its promise, use of
the feedback for improving the
product or the service, and the
ability of the company to stand
up to the competition in terms of
pricing.
For all of this to happen
the leadership must make
knowledge-based decisions using
information that is made available
to the corporate body by those
who studied and analysed the
competitive environment. It should,
in particular, make adequate use of
whatever was there as ‘exclusive’
information in the possession of the
organisation.
The operation of the human
factors in business is manifest
in the new trend of corporates
using the data on customers
and their purchasing history
and preferences, to reach out
to them through personalised
communications and keep up their
loyalty by offering what they are
seeking in particular.
Online follow-up with customers
to ascertain their requirements is a
useful way of enhancing outreach
and ensuring customer retention.
However, there is a sudden
spurt in promotional activities on
social media platforms and there is
an impression in public that some
of it is meant to push untested
products into the market — thus
reflecting poorly on the ethical side
of the business.
It is also true that monetary
inducement is being used by
business houses to get the better
of the competition.
On the strategic front social
media has attracted adverse notice
for becoming an instrument of
‘proxy war’ and ‘misinformation
campaign’ that is meant to hurt
the security interests of the target
country and even bring down a
regime.
Its potential in creating a
‘business warfare’ is certainly to
be watched out for in the times to
come, because economic security is
an essential ingredient of national
security, and covert attack on the
opponent’s economy is now a part
of the said ‘proxy war’. Digital
marketing has come to stay and
businesses are already in the thick
of using Artificial Intelligence to
enhance their output and expand
their operations.
For most mortals, life is a
continuum of decisions — big or
small — required to be taken at
work or home on a day-to-day
basis.
More than half of these involved
contacting or communicating with
another person.
This person may be a colleague,
a boss — a customer is a ‘boss’ too —
or someone who served you.
In any human interaction, three
things come into play — attention
to the conversation which one will
not be able to provide unless one
is a good listener, use of ’emotional
intelligence’ to understand where
the other person is coming from
and an analytical mind that enabled
you to evaluate a developing
situation.
A person working for you giving
a curt reply which is not like things,
might lead you to discover that
something happening at home has
upset him.
The boss-subordinate
relationship is subject to a set of
do’s and don’ts for both sides. A
senior can ‘task’ the subordinate
but should be available to give
legitimate guidance wherever
sought by the latter. The boss’s
interest in the subordinate as a
human being should enable the
former to have at least a minimal
knowledge of the situation the
latter faced at home so that the
relationship is not lacking in
empathy.
In dealing with peers one
should come off as a trustworthy
person willing to help the colleague
without compromising with the
organisation’s ethical norms. If the
corporate body has clarity about a
fair distribution of credits for good
work, interpersonal relations within
the organisation will exist on a firm
footing. To ensure that this happens
is one of the most important tasks
for the corporate leadership. A
transparent system of credit
sharing enhances productivity.
Since all business is human activity,
success there is rooted in a good
handling of human relations.
People in business at any level
must have a sound understanding
of human nature and psychology
and must be interested in
communicating with people