Hulan Hagen is the founder and CEO of the Business Intuition Institute, an international executive coach, and strategy consultant.
Old business concepts don’t work anymore. To thrive in an unpredictable world, entrepreneurs and executives must leverage the power of business intuition. Let’s dive into the transformative role of intuition in business, exploring how it accelerates decision-making, bridges data gaps, fosters creative problem-solving, navigates uncertainty and cultivates deeper connections with customers. Through understanding the significance of intuition, entrepreneurs can truly grasp its potential to shape the future of entrepreneurship.
Business intuition accelerates decision-making.
Entrepreneurs and executives need to make quick decisions. Studies find that intuition shortens decision processes. Faster intuition can result in more accurate decisions, providing a competitive edge in high-stakes environments.
Failure to trust intuition slows decision-making and makes it less accurate. Oprah Winfrey says that when we go against our gut, we put ourselves at odds with the flow of things, slowing decisions down. All her major decisions were based on instinct.
Business intuition bridges the gap between data overload and actionable insights.
While the digital revolution has provided vast amounts of data, it is hard to transform data into action. Business intuition acts as a bridge, allowing entrepreneurs to sift through the noise and focus on what matters.
Elon Musk began his career by intuiting the challenges most important to humanity. His intuition, which told him those challenges were space travel and electric vehicles, preceded what he calls first principles thinking. While reasoning by analogy means that we compare our problem to a similar problem, reasoning from first principles bases thinking on intuitive building blocks and reasoning up from intuition.
As PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel notes in Zero to One, it is better to risk boldness than triviality. He argues that to create an advantage, a new technology must be 10 times better than its closest rival. Breakthrough innovation depends on intuition, for intuition accelerates decision-making and bridges data and action.
Business intuition can be leveraged for creative problem-solving.
The future of business leadership demands innovation and creative problem-solving. Intuition fuels creativity.
In 1999, JetBlue founder David Neeleman’s creative intuition told him that he could improve on existing low-price models. JetBlue flew more than 1 million passengers in its first year.
Scientists have studied one of Thomas Edison’s approaches to creative intuition. When Edison was trying to create a new product, he would take a nap while sitting in an armchair and holding a steel ball. When the ball dropped, he would awaken with new intuition. A study of 100 nappers found that the Edison method works. You can try it: Take a nap while holding a stainless steel ball. Ask yourself for the solution to a nagging or seemingly insoluble question. What ideas come up after the ball drops?
Business intuition can help you thrive in a VUCA environment.
The global business environment is characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). In a VUCA world, traditional analytical models fall short. Business intuition is crucial, for it enables entrepreneurs to make informed decisions even when data is incomplete or inconclusive.
In 1979, Lee Iacocca saved Chrysler and illustrated the concept of “too big to fail” by getting $1.5 billion in federal loan guarantees in exchange for a mandated $2 billion in cost-cutting at Chrysler. The United Auto Workers Union wanted $20 an hour while Iacocca’s plan would allow only $17. Iacocca’s intuition suggested “brinkmanship.” Iacocca told the union that if they didn’t agree to his demand by morning, he’d give up and declare bankruptcy that day. The union agreed.
Business intuition builds deeper connections with customers.
Understanding and anticipating customer needs is more crucial than ever. Relationship-building based on business intuition will increasingly create a competitive advantage.
In Made in America, Sam Walton and co-author John Huey describe Walton’s fabled customer commitment. Jeff Bezos based much of his management thinking on Walton’s book, and he has often discussed his obsessive customer focus. When Andy Jassy took over as Amazon’s CEO, he renewed Amazon’s “maniacal” focus on the customer experience. Maniacal focus requires metrics and analysis, but to an even greater degree, it requires creativity and intuitive thinking.
Conclusion: Riding A Beam Of Light
Einstein believed that intuition matters, and he said that he developed his theory of gravity when he intuited that someone who is falling does not feel their own weight. He developed his special theory of relativity based on his intuitive imagining at the age of 16 that he was riding on a beam of light.
As we move forward in the 21st century, entrepreneurs and executives need to intuit themselves riding on a beam of light. By harnessing intuition as a guiding principle, entrepreneurs can navigate uncertainty, drive innovation and forge deep connections with customers. In an ever-changing business landscape, intuition emerges as the cornerstone of success, empowering visionary leaders to chart a course toward unprecedented growth and impact.
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