Tuesday, May 8, 2007

The 20-80 Priciple

As a CEO of my company, I always and always follow the Pareto’s Principle the 80-20 Rule. Those of you who are not familiar with the law, in 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. The 80/20 Rule means that in anything, a few (20 percent) are vital and many (80 percent) are trivial.
You can apply the 80/20 Rule to almost anything, from the science of management to the physical world.
As a sales person you will find that 80 percent of your business will come from 20 percent of your customers.
The value of the Pareto Principle for a manager is that it reminds you to focus on the 20 percent that matters. Of the things you do during your day, only 20 percent really matter. Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of your results. Identify and focus on those things. When the fire drills of the day begin to sap your time, remind yourself of the 20 percent you need to focus on. If something in the schedule has to slip, if something isn't going to get done, make sure it's not part of that 20 percent.
There is a theory called Superstar Management. The theory's supporters claim that since 20 percent of your time produces 80 percent of your results you should focus your limited time on managing only that 20 percent.
Pareto's Principle, the 80/20 Rule, should serve as a daily reminder to focus 80 percent of your time and energy on the 20 percent of you work that is really important. Don't just "work smart", work smart on the right things.

2 comments:

Vishal said...

Wow, That's some food for thought.
Will find out my 80-20 and work on it.
Looking forward to reading more.

Nupur said...

Great stuff, SUPERSTAR MANAGER, that sounds amazing.. I must focus 20%of my time on visualizing and working on my hot companies.
Thanks..Awaiting for more such food for thought.

Nupur