Lady D'Arbanville

Pareto's Law - the 80:20 principle

It is not possible to determine whether the 80:20 rule applies to the ratio of, 'the number of people who are familiar with this economic law to the number of people who aren't.' Nevertherless, Pareto's law is just as intriguing and absorbing as Adam Smith's free market economics when confronted with in the first instance, and probably as contrary to free market dynamics.

And it is even inspiring that one UK company has established itself as Pareto Law: "Pareto Law takes its name from Vilfredo Pareto’s 80:20 principle. This economic law stated that 80% of Italy’s wealth was owned by a mere 20%. Putting this theory into business practice, Pareto Law believe that 80% of a company’s business will be generated by 20% of the sales team."

In business terms, the theory is precise if taken from a relative perspective, and not so much absolute. Say - for example - if you were look at the proportion of power (by that, I refer to control) in a company, you might find that 20% are top-level management who have 80% control, whilst 80% company labourers (including mid-management) may possibly have a 20% influence over that respective company. The amusing thing is that disproportion could not have been more optimal and even more of a paradox in the case of Pareto. While the numerator may have more influence than the denominator, it changes under a totally different scenario. Now take tangible output in a company; the workers will be responsible for 80% of tangible output, while the top-level will constituate for the other 20%. It can be refined over and over and that's the beauty of 80:20...

Still, 80:20 is not confined to business. Look around you, when you see disproportion or inequality, you might think of Pareto.

Foreign Language ad

After an idea session with a good friend (Arthashasthra) earlier today, I thought to post two Bengali adverts. Both were directed by Mustafa Sarwar Farroukhi - a new-age director who has revolutionised "video fiction" - and amidst the depressingly global "character crunch" (as Bremner puts it), we need some fun entertainment!

Citycell Zoom (Internet) advert is a very clever (/irony) advert for the following reasons:

• It was shot in Bangladesh, where nearly everything in day-to-day life seems to be uniquely chaotic. Thus, the happy-go-lucky foreign woman (Stella) decides to swim across the river after encountering an incomplete bridge.
• She is going to Rup Nagar (The town of Beauty)!!!!
• She meets her sweetheart Masud Rana (twisted tale from the classic Bengali version of 'James Bond', and is a popular read in Bangladesh; Masud Rana often has foreign girlfriends)

Now for the second ad - Freshgel (Mukh Safai)

Freshgel is humour/parody of melodramatic asian daytime soap operas. Some points to consider:

• Materialistic Choudhury (the old man) is not happy for his son to wed the daughter, and has a filthy mouth for that matter
• The mother of the girl (old woman) retorts, saying Choudhury needs to clean his breath before he splurs out any further jibberish
• Freshgel does the trick ;-)

Shishuna Kal Gelo

Lalon and Baul songs have been in the Bengali music scene for many centuries. Historically, this type of music was sung by Fakirs/Sufis. The songs are often extremely crude and unrefined. In recent times, contemporary musicians have revived the Bengali musical heritage, and it continues to be sung.

The beauty of Baul is that - like Sufism - the words are mystical. The interpretation comes with the depth of understanding, while the music is simple. Baul transmits shallow vibes as much as it conveys depth through words.

420

For those of you not familiar with the term "420" please click on the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_420

And if the definition is not suffice, watch the video above. Skip the first 5:30 minutes, and then start watching when the young lady holds a flip flop. The script is in Bengali, and you will notice that she repeatedly says, "Bhatphar". The term 420 is also known as "Bhatphar".

It may seem ironical that the lady is as unfortunate as much as she is lucky. Many victims of 420s may not be able to do the same.