Category Archives: 80/20 Rule

Posted in 80/20 Rule on March 2nd, 2007 by Mark Hollander

Pareto Plus Pharma Equals Profit

Pharmaceutical Executive guest columnist Sander Flaum has written a wonderful sketch of the 80/20 rule entitled “Leadership: Pareto’s Principle” It’s a quick read and for those of us who work in Sales and Marketing is particularly relevant:

“…a recent study of 25,000 salespeople in 160 industries, which concluded that 55 percent of them were ill-suited to salesmanship; half of the remainder sold “the wrong thing in the wrong place.” Conclusion: 20 percent produced 80 percent of the sales.”

Mr. Flaum suggests that read more…

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Posted in 80/20 Rule on March 1st, 2007 by Mark Hollander

I Look Good With A Five O’Clock Shadow But I Still Use Ockham’s Razor

Why make things more complicated then they need to be? Why add features to a marketing program that at best qualify as “nice to have”? Because we are all scared of acknowledging that sometimes, Less is More.

William of Ockham was a 14th century English Franciscan friar and logician who stated “entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.” This has come to be known as Ockham’s Razor. Cut away all that is not necessary. In the ensuing seven centuries this “razor” read more…

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Posted in 80/20 Rule on February 28th, 2007 by Mark Hollander

Yahoo! Performance Research and 80/20

Tenni Theurer is a highly regarded software developer working with Yahoo’s performance team. These are the people who make sure your page loads faster and that you have a positive experience on Yahoo properties. It is part art and part science. Let’s look at the science. She He writes in her his Yahoo! User Interface Blog:

When we optimize our applications, we know to focus on that 20% of the code. This same technique should also be applied when optimizing read more…

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Posted in 80/20 Rule on February 21st, 2007 by Mark Hollander

jetBlue uses YouTube to reach customers 80/20 Style

David Neeleman, Founder and CEO of jetBlue has been characterized by biographers as a man who relies on a combination of both intuition and pragmatism. In this YouTube video he proves just how powerful it is to have 80% of a solution today rather than 100% tomorrow.

While the video lacks production value — it’s just plain old corporate video — it works better because of this. Its lack of pretense reinforces a message of immediacy and sincerity. And because jetBlue read more…

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Posted in 80/20 Rule on February 18th, 2007 by Mark Hollander

Noam Chomsky on the 80/20 Rule

There’s an interesting video on YouTube where Noam Chomsky lays out the 80/20 principle as only he can. He is correct that we marketers can process inbound customer communications in real time and route and prioritize according to profitability. High spenders get faster phone and email service. Makes sense. But stick around for the end of the clip where you learn your are a tyrannist for thinking so clearly. On this Noam and I must agree to disagree.

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