The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less by Richard Koch Read Free Book Online Page B

much more from much less.
    When we are using the 80/20 Principle we do not assume that its results are good or bad or that the powerful forces we observe are necessarily good. We decide whether they are good (from our own perspective) and either determine to give the minority of powerful forces a further shove in the right direction or work out how to frustrate their operation.
    THE 80/20 PRINCIPLE TURNS CONVENTIONAL WISDOM UPSIDE DOWN
     
    Application of the 80/20 Principle implies that we should do the following:
     
    • celebrate exceptional productivity, rather than raise average efforts
    • look for the short cut, rather than run the full course
    • exercise control over our lives with the least possible effort
    • be selective, not exhaustive
    • strive for excellence in few things, rather than good performance in many
    • delegate or outsource as much as possible in our daily lives and be encouraged rather than penalized by tax systems to do this (use gardeners, car mechanics, decorators, and other specialists to the maximum, instead of doing the work ourselves)
    • choose our careers and employers with extraordinary care, and if possible employ others rather than being employed ourselves
    • only do the thing we are best at doing and enjoy most
    • look beneath the normal texture of life to uncover ironies and oddities
    • in every important sphere, work out where 20 percent of effort can lead to 80 percent of returns
    • calm down, work less and target a limited number of very valuable goals where the 80/20 Principle will work for us, rather than pursuing every available opportunity.
    • make the most of those few “lucky streaks” in our life where we are at our creative peak and the stars line up to guarantee success.
     
    There are no boundaries to the 80/20 Principle
     
    No sphere of activity is immune from the influence of the 80/20 Principle. Like the six wise, blind Indian men who tried to discern the shape of an elephant, most users of the 80/20 Principle only know a fraction of its scope and power. Becoming an 80/20 thinker requires active participation and creativity on your part. If you want to benefit from 80/20 Thinking, you have to do it!
    Now is a good time to start. If you want to begin with applications for your organization, go straight on to Part Two, which documents most of the important business applications of the 80/20 Principle. If you are more immediately interested in using the principle to make major improvements in your life, skip to Part Three, a novel attempt to relate the 80/20 Principle to the fabric of our daily lives.

 
    PART
TWO
     
    CORPORATE SUCCESS NEEDN’T BE A MYSTERY
     

 
    3
     
    THE UNDERGROUND CULT
     
Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully.
    1 C ORINTHIANS 13:12
     
    It is difficult to gauge the extent to which the 80/20 Principle is already known in business. This is almost certainly the first book on the subject, yet in my research I was easily able to find several hundred articles referring to the use of 80/20 in all kinds of businesses, all over the world. Many successful firms and individuals swear by the use of the 80/20 Principle, and most holders of MBAs have heard of it.
    Yet considering that the 80/20 Principle has affected the lives of hundreds of millions of people even though they may be unaware of it, it remains strangely uncelebrated. It is time to put this right.
    THE FIRST 80/20 WAVE:
THE QUALITY REVOLUTION
     
    The quality revolution which took place between 1950 and 1990 transformed the quality and value of branded consumer goods and other manufactures. The quality movement has been a crusade to obtain consistently higher quality at lower cost, by the application of statistical and behavioral techniques. The objective, now almost reached with many products, is to obtain a zero rate of product defects. It is possible to argue that the quality movement has been