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Mid-Year Reset: Using the Pareto Principle to Lead with Greater Focus



As we ease into July, it struck me that we are at the middle point, halfway through 2026. Winter will have a few more kickers for us, and before you know it, we’re already heading into Spring. We’re going on a road trip, new people have entered my life and old ones are leaving, Bafana made it to the next round in the World Cup, Henry Pollock is on his way for a Boer Snotklap, our Claude solutions for clients are picking up speed, and everywhere you look there are reminders that life moves in seasons. 


Hmmm… 


Seasons can be like friendships, hey. One of the unexpected joys of having children is that your own social circles continue to evolve alongside theirs. Caroline and I still treasure our oldest friendships. Those people have shared decades of memories with us, celebrated life's victories and carried us through the difficult moments. But as the boys move through different schools, sports and activities, new friendships naturally emerge. New parents. New braais. New conversations on the side of rugby fields and cricket nets. 


And you know what? I realised something: Our hearts are perfectly capable of making room for both. 


My parents modelled this beautifully. They never abandoned old friends, but they also remained remarkably open to new ones. They understood that relationships, just like businesses, have seasons. Some deepen over decades. Others arrive precisely when you need them. Or, as we like to say in my EOA training world: What got you here won’t get you there. That thought led me to one of my favourite ideas in business: the Pareto Principle. 


Named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, the principle has become famous because it keeps appearing almost everywhere we look. Around 80% of outcomes often come from roughly 20% of causes. Twenty percent of customers generate most of the profit. Twenty percent of products create most of the revenue. Twenty percent of our possessions probably account for most of our happiness, while twenty percent of our problems consume the majority of our emotional energy.

 

The exact percentages are rarely perfect. The principle isn't a law of mathematics. It is a lens that forces us to ask better questions. And that brings me to the lead up to our national Cash & Finance workshops for Accelerators, beginning at the end of July.

  

One of the biggest mistakes I see leaders make is assuming that because something has always been part of the business, it deserves to stay there forever. Legacy products. Legacy clients. Legacy markets. Legacy processes. They may have been exactly what the business needed five or ten years ago, but businesses, just like families, move through seasons. What served you in one chapter may quietly become the thing holding you back in the next. 


The only way to know is to look at the data. I've joked recently that data is the new cocaine. Everyone wants more of it. But collecting data isn't the point. Understanding it is.

 

So… Where is your profit actually coming from? Which clients consume the most management attention? Which product categories have quietly become your stars while others are simply surviving on nostalgia? Revenue alone rarely tells the full story. Margins, cash generation and management time paint a far more interesting picture.

 

Then allocate your time accordingly. The same thing happens in life. As our children grow, we naturally invest more time in the friendships and communities that matter most in this season of life. That isn't disloyalty. It's recognising where our energy creates the greatest return.

 

I've seen the opposite happen inside organisations too. Years ago, while leading teams, we had ongoing issues with employees abusing smoke breaks. Rather than dealing directly with the handful of people creating the problem, there was constant pressure to introduce increasingly restrictive policies for everyone else. More recently, I watched another organisation redesign its entire operating model because of a small number of poor performers, rather than addressing those individuals directly.

 

And this rarely ends well. When twenty per cent of the people create eighty per cent of the problems, don't punish the other eighty per cent. Fix the actual problem. Whether you're leading a family, a team or a business, every new season is an invitation to ask the same question: What deserves more of my attention now, and what has outlived its season?


PG's Pro Tip:


Use the changing of the seasons as an excuse to perform your own 80/20 review. 


Look at your clients, products, services, geographic markets and internal initiatives. Identify which ones produce the greatest combination of revenue, profitability, cash flow and strategic opportunity. Then ask where you're spending your leadership time. 


The answers are often surprisingly different. 


AI Prompt:


I want you to act as a strategic business analyst. Help me perform an 80/20 analysis of my business. I will provide my revenue, gross margin, profitability, customer, product and geographic data. Identify: 

  • The 20% of customers who generate the majority of profit. 

  • The products or services with the highest margins. 

  • Customers, products or initiatives consuming disproportionate time relative to their value. 

  • Legacy offerings that may no longer justify their investment. 

  • Three strategic recommendations on where I should invest more time, resources and marketing over the next 12 months. 


Present your findings in a table, rank the opportunities by impact, and conclude with an executive summary highlighting the biggest decisions I should consider. 

 


 
 
 
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