Without a doubt, the best business model I have ever seen in action and heard of capitalizes on uncertainty, has grassroots, ethical and even supernatural (I’m not kidding) marketing and is the most influential for profit on the face of the earth:
The Holy Roman Catholic Church.
Let me explain; the Catholic Church has been around for around two millennia and has never once dropped out of prominence in that vast span of time. From a moral perspective, the Church has done some very great and some very horrible work, but I’m not interested in examining it as a religious entity, I am talking about the Church as the definition of a successful for-profit enterprise, and the world’s most effective Ponzi scheme.
It uses an incredibly creative marketing strategy and hasn’t had to change its value proposition for millennia: give us your time and your money, and we will save your immortal soul.
Religiously, that’s fine and dandy, but as a business? It’s absolutely brilliant! Bring in investors who throw substantial sums of their hard earned wages at you as long as they live for a return that they will literally never see in this lifetime.
It’s a nigh unending Jordan-esque river of capital flowing straight into the vaults of the Vatican, and the best part is, no one can seem to give enough, as an immortal soul is never quite safe until, well, your time – or your coffer – has run out.
I believe if a corporation were able to imitate the Catholic Church and extract the same amount of capital from a similarly inelastic market, then they would be more than able to stand the test of time, too.
Building on Pathos’ blog
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/badcatholic/2012/09/in-defense-of-nice-churches.html