Strategic Intuition

James Schrager

Experts develop deep domain knowledge that often allows them to exhibit a “sixth sense,”  said ChicagoBooth professor James Schrager. … Strategy may be poised to be the next field revolutionized by the same concepts that have made behavioral economics and behavioral finance hotbeds of new ideas.

It all flows from University of Chicago PhD and Nobel laureate Herb Simon, who introduced the concept of bounded rationality that states that people don’t consider all alternatives as they decide most things, only a subset. The way we choose that subset is often the secret to how well–or poorly–our decision will turn out.

Simon indicated it took about ten years to be really good at something. Once there, you develop an “intuition” about how to make decisions. Simon believed these intuitions, although seemingly appearing from nowhere and often without conscious thought, are patterns you’ve previously learned. It is these patterns that can be of most use to strategists.

 

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