The 80/20 principle

What is the 80/20 Principle? The 80/20 Principle tells us that in any 

population, some things are likely to be much more important than 

others. A good benchmark or hypothesis is that 80 per cent of results 

or outputs flow from 20 per cent of causes, and sometimes from a 

much smaller proportion of powerful forces. 

Everyday language is a good illustration. Sir Isaac Pitman, who 

invented shorthand, discovered that just 700 common words make up 

two-thirds of our conversation. Including the derivatives of these 

words, Pitman found that these words account for 80 per cent of 

common speech. In this case, fewer than I per cent of words (the New 

Oxford Shorter Oxford English Dictionary lists over half a million 

words) are used 80 per cent of the time. We could call this an 80/1 

principle. Similarly, over 99 per cent of talk uses fewer than 20 per 

cent of words: we could call this a 99/20 relationship. 

The movies illustrate the 80/20 Principle. A recent study shows that 

1.3 per cent of movies earn 80 per cent of box office revenues, 

producing virtually an 80/1 rule (see pages 17–18). 

The 80/20 Principle is not a magic formula. Sometimes the 

relationship between results and causes is closer to 70/30 than to 

80/20 or 80/1. But it is very rarely true that 50 per cent of causes lead 

to 50 per cent of results. The universe is predictably unbalanced. Few 

things really matter. 

Truly effective people and organizations batten on to the few 

powerful forces at work in their worlds and turn them to their 

advantage. 

Read on to find out how you can do the same . . .