Is there such a thing as too much data, or too much instinct, in decision making? Why would instinct be more important than data for making some decisions?

A two-year study of 2703 companies and 8000 managers run by the University of Melbourne revealed that Australian executive managers rely heavily on their gut instinct to make strategic decisions. The 2016 report identified that most fail to seek external advice for considering future strategic options, nor do they benchmark their performance to industry norms. When commenting on how Australian executives could do better, Libby Roy made the point that decision making is 'an art and a science, and data and analytics are part of the science'. In her role as Vice-President and Managing Director of PayPal Australia, Roy is responsible for driving payment innovations to ensure PayPal keeps pace with evolving consumer habits and advancements in technology. A self-professed pragmatist, Roy highlights that it's more important to be effective than it is to be right. This requires understanding individual biases that can filter into your reactions and decision making in the workplace, as well as understanding the biases and blind spots of others. When reflecting on the emergence of social commerce, Roy noted that while her expectations of growth in sales via social media were initially modest, she looked to the data and concluded that 'we're going to see this rapidly grow'. Despite her vast experience across banking, credit card, superannuation and management consultancy sectors, Roy ensures that her decision making is balanced with evidence and analysis to develop greater insight of what is happening around the company and understand the implications of the strategic options available to choose from. While most managers identify that data is important, some feel that it can be too restrictive to innovation. Mike Hurst, Chief Executive of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, notes that 'a lot of innovation comes from gut feel, warning that data analysis can paint a picture of what is going on, but it takes more than analysis to 'get straight to the nub' of issues facing an organisation.