Definition of holistic approach?

The holistic approach is relatively a newer concept, which basically means looking at an entity as a whole. The approach dates back to the 4^th century BC when it was taught by Hippocrates to look at the human body as a whole and not part by part.

Recently this holistic approach in the business world is increasingly being accepted by this business world. It means to be considering the entire business organization in its processes and policies as a whole and not just focusing on particular components.

Holistic approach as adapted in companies allows them to recognize the weaker sections of the same i.e., suppose when two departments are observed separately, both of them are recognized to be failing but when looked at on an overall basis, it is absorbed that only one of them is failing and the other getting affected for the same.

A holistic approach is used to analyze the aim of a company, analyzing the whole company as a whole, which in turn doesn’t necessarily mean merging all the departments of the company. This approach helps to ensure the full potential of a company by recognizing each and every department with equal importance.

Companies like Apple have successfully adapted to this approach. They used this approach in adapting their designs. Initially, their products showed a lot of variations, for the fact that every department worked separately under separate design heads. Adaptation of the holistic approach made them look at their designs on an overall basis and designed them in a way that achieved overall synthesis. This helped in creating a brand image, boosted growth and exposure for the company and now it’s a status symbol to the common mass.

There are many other examples of big companies like Nike, Heineken and Nespresso have taken up the holistic approach, which only helped in their substantial growth.