The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less

by Richard Koch

We need massive reeducation to stop thinking 50/50 and start thinking 80/20. Below are some hints. • Think skewness. Expect 20 percent to equal 80 percent. Expect 80 percent to equal 20 percent. • Expect the unexpected. Expect 20 percent to lead to 80 percent and 80 percent to result in 20 percent. • Expect everything—your time, your organization, your market, and every person or business entity you come across—to have quality 20 percent: its essence, its power, its value, a small part with substantially all the goodness hidden away by the mass of mediocrity. Look for the powerful 20 percent. • Look for the invisible 20 percent and the subterranean 20 percent. It’s there—find it. Unexpected successes are one give-away. If a business activity succeeds beyond expectations, that is a 20 percent activity—and it will have much further to run. • Expect tomorrow’s 20 percent to be different to today’s 20 percent. Where is the germ, the seed, of tomorrow’s 20 percent? Where are the 1 percents that will grow to 20 percents and be worth 80 percent? Where are the 3 percents that last year were 1 percents? • Develop the facility for mentally blocking out the 80 percents—the easy answer, the obvious reality, the evident mass, the current incumbent,