Book Review

Title :    The 80 / 20 Principle: The Secret to Success By Achieving More with Less work.

Author:      Richard Koch

Publisher: A currency Book

Cost:          Rs 295/-

Pages:        278

ISBN:          0-385-49174-3

About the Book

In The 80/20 Principle, Richard Koch thoroughly examines Pareto’s Law – the observation that, in any given context, “a minority of causes, inputs, or effort usually leads to a majority of the results, outputs, or rewards.” This inherent nonlinearity is present in all aspects of life, and by paying attention to your efforts and results, you can identify major opportunities for improvement in every aspect of your life and business.

How anyone can be more effective with less effort by learning how to identify and leverage the 80/20 principle--the well-known, unpublicized secret that 80 percent of all our results in business and in life stem from a mere 20 percent of our efforts.

Working very hard for very little reward? Stop it, says Koch. Focus your attention on the things you do well which come easily to you, take the least time and see the best results, and your achievement and income will soar. Sounds simple, right?

Koch examines in detail how the 80/20 Principle can be applied to business but also how it can be used more personally to create happiness and ‘evolve your ideal lifestyle’. His suggested daily happiness habits are nothing really new but useful to remember and put into practice (eg: ‘exercise’, ‘mental stimulation’, ‘doing a good turn’) and his mission to convince everyone to work less, earn and enjoy more gets no arguments from me.

By identifying the critical 20% of causes and focusing time and resources on optimizing them, it is possible to realize enormous gains in productivity in relatively short order. While Pareto’s Law is typically used for sales, customer, or inventory analysis, The 80/20 Principle examines personal and management applications as well, including priority setting and work/life balance.

Focusing on the 20% of efforts that create 80% of results isn’t always easy, but it can revolutionize business and the quality of our life.