Pareto's 80/20 Rule for Your Company's Vision

When I had my ad agency, Almon Associates in Western New York in the 80s, I would get frustrated with getting everything "perfect" on jobs we would do i.e. brochure design, copy, print quality. I was complaining to my Dad who was a retired exec from Chrysler, and he explained the 80/20 rule to me based on his work in the auto industry. In essence the automakers knew what it would cost to make everything right on a car -- on in the long run they could not financially do so or they would lose money. So they chose to do the very best they could (80%) and in most cases the (20%) didn't thwart people from buying the cars.

My Dad has since passed on, yet I know he still advises me because I often have intuitive ideas about business and attribute them to his channelling. (It's great to stay connected.) Getting back to the post -- looking at the position of the auto industry today, maybe, just maybe they should have stretched the 80% in respect to defining their vision for the future of Chrysler.

Let's take this lesson into consideration for our own businesses.