Have you ever been faced with an approach to partner in an ambitious international expansion project that had you sitting back to think? Was your decision to press ‘go’ based on intuition, market intelligence or both? And what was the result?

Over the years in business, I’ve crafted and cultivated my natural intuition into a golden asset. It helps me to recognise good people, good opportunities and pitfalls to be avoided. However, as the stakes increase its vital that we balance intuition with data, so that we make sound data-driven decisions.

So back to the ambitious expansion project… If you are like me, the intuition might say ‘whoa, a moment’, the ego and adventurous spirit says “go for it”, and the wise business leader says “do your due diligence, interrogate market insights, calculate the risks and compute the risk: reward before you sign the contract”.

The decision-making journey looks like this

1. Due diligence on the partners. Are they people you like and trust? Do their values and reputation align with yours?
2. Review the details of the opportunity. Specifics on the financial projections. Are assumptions valid, and the projected success realistic?
3. Risk matrix. Are the risks and rewards balanced? Is it worth the risk?
4. Reflect with wise, independent people whose opinion you value
5. Feel it in the gut? What does the intuition say now…
6. Press go, or No.

For most entrepreneurial personalities, it often feels much more fun to just ‘wing it’ but leaning on the flying mantra, “there are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old, bold pilots” as a cautionary tale….before you leap off a mountain on a paraglider (or into a new venture), the right thing to do is to prepare and plan before launching.

Intuition is a gift, intelligence is the framework, together they provide the pathway.