Pareto's Principle

From an Air Force Manager's course that I'm reading about:

"Pareto's Principle

Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist and sociologist of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century. It appeared to him early in his diligent studies that roughly eighty percent
of the wealth of his nation belonged to only twenty percent of the population. He and
subsequent researchers have surmised that this eighty-twenty split appears throughout other
facets of life such as


- 80% of sales are made by 20% of the salesmen
- 80% of sales go to 20% of the customers
- 80% of absenteeism results from 20% of the employees
- 80% of sick leave is taken by 20% of the employees
- 80% of telephone calls come from 20% of all callers
- 80% of a teachers time is taken up by only 20% of the students
- 80% of a group discussion is presented by 20% of those present
- 80% of our dinners repeat 20% of our favorites recipes "