Malvai of Intuita puts his students through a mind-control session

Intuition: N. The ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. That's what some of the world's best CEOs have. That seemingly uncanny ability to tell what'll work and what won't, or what the next big thing in the industry would be, or why an otherwise perfectly crafted project will come a cropper. Call it gut-feel, hunch, intuition, or right-side reasoning. The point is managing by intuition is the most sought after skill in organisations across the world.

What's made it so is, of course, the unprecedented complexity and speed of change that corporations are faced with in the new networked, borderless, and technology-buffetted era of business. Suddenly, decisions involving crores of rupees need to be made in a matter of hours and days, instead of weeks and months; yesterday's strengths-mass production and niche markets-are a recipe for disaster in multi-cultural markets; and multiple currencies, regulations, and tariffs have made managing more complex than ever.

In fact, if there's one thing a good CEO brings to his office it is really intuition. Sure, he has to know his industry, must be a great people reader, and be networked. But when his brilliant managers put together a plan, it is the CEO who-two or three slides into the presentation-decides whether or not the plan will work. Says Sukhdeepak Malvai, CEO, Intuita India, one of the few consultancies that conducts workshops on intuition: ''Intuition is the art of the possible. When numbers and facts don't suffice, intuition can tell you what to do.''

Let's be clear about one thing, though. Intuition is no mumbo-jumbo, or even an inspired ability to make decisions. What goes by the name of gut-feel is nothing but a product of years and years of accumulated learning, experience, and wisdom. And while a hunch may develop in a matter of minutes, the brain-using both the left and right sides-has done some super-fast analysis, drawing upon previous experiences and, indeed, knowledge that may be resident in the subconscious. Therefore, when a CEO like Dhirubhai Ambani of Reliance bets on global capacities, or (late) Parvinder Singh bets the company on going global, he is typically displaying a deep understanding of industry behaviour.

Only now, intuition is being turned into a science for the benefit of managers down the line, because business complexity isn't restricted to strategy alone; it has moved to everyday tactics too. The result: outfits such as Intuita are doing brisk business. Intuita, for example, opened shop in India barely nine months ago, but has already trained 100 executives from a range of companies including Ranbaxy, Siemens, Reliance, Bechtel, O&M, Birla Soft, GE Capital and Aptech, among others. Says Malvai of Intuita: ''The very purpose of intuitive workshops is to make people realise that they have an intuition and that they should trust their intuition through 'insight-opening' tools, and create breakthroughs in their work and life.''

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Rajeev Chaba, VP (Marketing), General Motors India, although no student of Malvai, couldn't agree more. In April 1998, when special-event car editions in India were few and far between, Opel Astra launched 300 cars cashing in on the World Cup Soccer mania. This was Chaba's brainchild and admittedly 'purely instinctive'. Chaba faced stiff opposition from researchers and traditionalists who held that such an idea would never kick off in cricket-crazy India. But the GM man stuck to his guns and proved his cynics wrong. GM planned to sell 300 cars in two-to-three months, but all the cars sold out in less than a month. Today Chaba prides himself on being a pioneer of sorts, as close on heels of the GM move, the competition took the same route. ''Ford, Honda, and the rest followed,'' chuckles Chaba.

The recently-appointed Marketing Director of Bacardi Martini India, Jeff MacDonald, too claims to have relied on intuition to launch a leading fruit-based liquor in the UK last year. MacDonald was until recently in charge of the popular Bacardi Breezer brand, which had a basket of five fast-moving flavours. However, Jeff intuitively decided to launch a sixth cranberry flavour January last, despite the odds highlighted by research. Today, it is the top-selling flavour in UK and already worth 100 million pounds.

Anshuman Magazine, Managing Director (South Asia), CB Richard Ellis, has a similar story to tell. Magazine relied on his gut feeling while zeroing in on a 24-year-old Gaurav Kumar to head his firm's consultancy business a few years ago. The chosen candidate (prior to Kumar) defected to competition and Magazine had a tough time making a choice as the position fell vacant. Many came for the interview, but the MD persisted with Kumar. ''Even Gaurav was nervous as hell,'' quips Magazine. But on taking charge, the then new-kid-on-the-block ''proved everybody wrong... our consultancy business grew by 30 per cent the next year.''

Intuition can work in non-business situations too. Sharmila Ghosh, a senior hr professional, applied intuitive intelligence to solve a relationship puzzle. She wasn't able to decide whether to get into the relationship. In cracking the problem, she chose her favourite 'animal guide' method, which is one of the 12 intuita methods for receiving intuitive insights through animal images. The training helped Ghosh firm up her intuitive ability in such a way that she had this vision of a bear in snowy terrain approaching her. But when the woolly beast neared her, it stood beside her and quietly walked back to its cave. When Ghosh related the mental imagery to her trainer Malvai after providing the context, he interpreted what her instinct was telling her to do: to go ahead with the relationship.

Of course, for every intuitive decision that works, there are probably a thousand others that don't. Take Kumud Goel of Jaldi.com. He admits that the decision to launch Jaldi-an online shopping portal-was made in a hurry (hence the portal's name, which is in Hindi), because Goel felt the model would work. But three years since, he's proved terribly wrong. After burning Rs 5 crore in investments, Jaldi.com folded up December last. Says Anil Bhatnagar, a trainer: ''In order to attract an intuitive answer, which is essentially a function of the right brain, you've got to temper it with your logical left-half.'' And that, gentlemen, is no gut-feel, but a no-brainer.