ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the pros and cons of using intuition and presents some of the evidence-based research and examples from executives in applying their intuitive awareness. One story highlighting the power of intuition relates to one of the Netflix senior executives who relied on his intuition, in making a decision whether to approve an initial show. Intuition is non-conscious reasoning. The research results indicate that expert nurses apply their intuition accurately in most cases. Intuition has been shown to be effective in time-sensitive and crisis situations. Given the merits and potential pitfalls of applying intuitive awareness in executive decision making, it seems reasonable that a complementary set of both intuition and analytics should form the basis for making decisions. Intuition and analytics form a winning combination, but in the data-driven society, experiential learning and "gut feel" are often overlooked. Analytics professionals and senior executives will make intuition a part of their toolkit in making key decisions.
