Intuition Beats Data

Are you a "numbers person"? Many executives assume that if the answer is yes, you're automatically a strong decision-maker. The implication: if you aren't "numbers first," you lack the skills to run a department, lead a project, or manage a business.

But what about intuition and experience—don't they get a vote? What about creativity?

Developing creative solutions to complex or unusual business problems is often what sets great companies apart. Experience—the hard lessons learned individually and accumulated collectively—can carry as much weight as data or financial statements.

Not convinced? Steve Jobs was an intuition-first business leader: "People don't know what they want until you show it to them... That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page." And: "We do no market research. We don't hire consultants... We just want to make great products."

Jeff Bezos: "All of my best decisions in business and in life have been made with heart, intuition, guts... not analysis. If you can make a decision with analysis, you should do so. But... your most important decisions are always made with instinct, intuition, taste, heart."

Richard Branson writes in Losing My Virginity: "I rely far more on gut instinct than researching huge amounts of statistics... I distrust numbers, which I feel can be twisted to prove anything."

Sam Zell from Am I Being Too Subtle: "You've got to be able to look at the deal and know what it hinges on to know whether it works or not. If you realize that the key component works, then you use the numbers to test it. You don't do the numbers to find out eight hours later whether it was worth starting."

Sometimes numbers don't capture the full landscape we're navigating. Sometimes they need to be understood, then set aside, so we can make bold decisions that push past the plateau into unmeasurable success.