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Intuitive Decision Making

October 1, 2007 | Dr. Kurt Matzler kurt.matzler@jku.at , Prof. Franz Bailom f.bailom@imp.at , Prof. Todd A. Mooradian Todd.Mooradian@mason.wm.edu | Leadership
Should executives make decisions based on what their "gut" tells them? Lately that idea has lost some favor, as technology's ability to accumulate and analyze data has rapidly increased -- supplanting, according to some accounts, the high-level manager's need to draw heavily on intuition. But intuition needs some rescuing from its detractors, and the place to start is by clarifying what it really is, and how it should be developed.

Intuition is not a magical sixth sense or a paranormal process; nor does it signify the opposite of reason or random and whimsical decision making. Rather, intuition is a highly complex and highly developed form of reasoning that is based on years of experience and learning, and on facts, patterns, concepts, procedures and abstractions stored in one's head.

In this article, the authors draw on examples from the worlds of chess, neuroscience and business -- especially Austria's KTM Sportmotorcycle AG -- to show that intuitive decision making should not be prematurely buried. They point out that although the study of intuition has not been extensively explored as a part of management science, studies reveal that several ingredients are critical to intuition's development: years of domain-specific experience; the cultivation of personal and professional networks; the development of emotional intelligence; a tolerance for mistakes; a healthy sense of curiosity; and a sense of intuition's limits.

Companies should, of course, continue to exploit their abilities to mine data as a means of obtaining a competitive edge. But they shouldn't overlook the continuing value of experienced executives who can draw on their intuition to make decisions when the numbers yield a question rather than an answer: Now what do we do?
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