In most states, women own almost half of businesses. Here in New Mexico, it is reported that women own more than 50 percent of all businesses. Thinking in Terms of the Whole Women s approach to business ownership and life in general lies in the way our brains function. Women are whole-systems thinkers, which means their holistic intelligence combines the knowledge of mind, body, and spirit. Equally important is the relational intelligence within holistic thinking.
Women simultaneously understand how all the parts are related and how they relate to each other.
Because a woman s holistic intelligence is based on this deep understanding of relationships, she makes decisions based on how the whole will be impacted. This intelligence focuses a woman s decision-making in the direction that will do the most good for all concerned, because it allows her to optimize the sum of the parts. She takes the long-term strategic view and then calibrates and manages the incremental change. In our new economy this highly prized skill is known as systems integration, which is defined as a coherent environment that considers all aspects of a problem or opportunity. The capacity of this holistic intelligence to think multi-dimensionally and integrate all the various systems or parts is the key advantage in today s expanding economy.