The purpose of this paper was survey of the presence and influence of elements of ongoing and retrospective as characteristics in business decision makers in Croatian companies. The theoretical part of the paper consists of two chapters. The first chapter describes the process of decision making from the aspect of cognitive science through a description of basic elements from cognitive psychology. The second chapter describes the business decision-making process as a process of sensemaking. This chapter of the paper deals with knowledge related to the business decision-making process, the acquisition of new knowledge in the organization and the characteristics of the process of sensemaking. The process of sensemaking has seven characteristics, five of them are described only by basic information, while the characteristics of ongoing and retrospective that are the subject of research of the paper are described in detail in separate chapters. The survey was conducted in November 2020. Respondents were persons employed in Croatian companies. The target group were employees who make business decisions, and the answers of respondents who identified themselves as business decision makers were processed and analysed. The questionnaire had examined how familiar employees, who make business decisions in Croatian companies, are with the business decision-making process, how important it is for them to acquire new knowledge and whether they recognize the characteristics of the process of sensemaking. The last two parts of the questionnaire should examine whether in making business decisions, respondents recognize elements of the characteristics of ongoing and retrospective and whether they are aware of these processes and their impact in the business decision-making process. The results of survey have shown that respondents are highly aware and have knowledge about characteristics of sensemaking process, knowledge acquirement and decision making.