The Relationship and Misunderstandings Between the Law of the Working Ant and the Pareto Principle

"20% of an organization works hard, 60% is average, and the remaining 20% hardly works"—have you heard something like this? This is called the law of the working ant, and it is often spoken of as the same thing as the Pareto principle (the 80:20 rule). However, these two are similar yet actually differ in what they mean. This article organizes the meaning of the law of the working ant and the Pareto principle, the relationship between them, and the misunderstandings that easily conflate them—then clearly explains how to apply them to business, marketing, and MA tools.

What Is the Law of the Working Ant?

The law of the working ant is an empirical rule that, when you observe a colony of ants, hard-working ants, average-working ants, and barely-working ants exist in a ratio of roughly "2:6:2." From this ratio, it is also called the "2-6-2 rule."

The intriguing point of this law lies in how the organization subsequently behaves. Even if you gather only the top 20% of hard-working ants, after a while a 2:6:2 distribution emerges again from among them, and ants that do not work appear. Conversely, even if you remove the non-working 20%, another 20% of non-working ants emerge from the remaining group. In other words, it expresses the property that a group naturally settles into a certain division of roles.

What Is the Pareto Principle (the 80:20 Rule)?

The Pareto principle, on the other hand, is an empirical rule that "roughly 80% of total results are produced by 20% of the elements that make up the whole." It originates from the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto's discovery of a bias in income distribution.

In a business context, it is widely discussed in forms like "80% of sales are produced by 20% of loyal customers" or "80% of profit comes from 20% of products." In short, it is a law indicating the tendency that results are not evenly distributed but arise concentrated in a portion of the elements.

The Relationship Between the Law of the Working Ant and the Pareto Principle

So how are these two related? Organizing their commonalities and differences reveals something.

• Commonality: Both capture the point that "the whole is not even—there is bias toward a portion." In particular, the view that "it is a portion of elements that produce results or contribution" is common to both.
• Difference (ratio): The Pareto principle is "8:2," while the law of the working ant is "2:6:2"—the divisions they focus on differ. A characteristic of the law of the working ant is that it explicitly indicates the middle layer (60%).
• Difference (focus): Whereas the Pareto principle focuses on "the bias of results," the law of the working ant focuses on "the division of roles within an organization and its reorganization."

In other words, while the two are continuous in the broad idea that "there is bias," it is more accurate to see the Pareto principle as explaining the distribution of results and the law of the working ant as explaining the structure of an organization—different aspects. Because the view of focusing on the working ant's top 20% overlaps with the Pareto principle's "20% that produces results," they are easily conflated.

Common Misunderstandings

These two laws tend to be misunderstood in the following ways. Here are the points to watch out for.

• The misunderstanding that "the non-working 20% is unnecessary": The law of the working ant is not a story about cutting off the 20%. Since another 20% emerges even after removing the non-working ants, there is also an interpretation that they are necessary to the organization as a reserve or spare capacity.
• The misunderstanding that "8:2" and "2:6:2" are fixed: The ratios are merely symbolic guides. In reality they vary by situation, becoming 7:3, 9:1, and so on. Treating the numbers themselves as absolute is dangerous.
• The misunderstanding of viewing the two as completely identical: As noted, the bias of results (Pareto) and the division of roles in an organization (working ant) differ in focus. Keep in mind that even the same "20%" means different things.

How to Apply Them to Business and Marketing

These laws also offer insight on the marketing front. Especially useful is the Pareto principle's "20% that produces results" perspective.

For example, by identifying the top 20% of loyal customers who generate 80% of sales and approaching that segment attentively, you can efficiently turn limited resources into results. At the same time, as the law of the working ant suggests, among customers currently in the middle or lower layers there are some who, with nurturing, may grow into future loyal customers. The view of balancing concentration on the top 20% with lifting up the remaining layers is important.

Performing this "identifying" and "nurturing" by human effort alone is not easy. This is where the MA tool comes into play.

What Is an MA Tool? The Key to Applying These Laws in Marketing

An MA tool is a tool for realizing MA (marketing automation), referring to software that automates and streamlines marketing activities such as acquiring, nurturing, and qualifying prospects. Through email distribution, recording of customer behavior history, scoring (quantifying likelihood to buy), and more, its feature is the ability to automatically deliver approaches tailored to each individual.

The perspectives of the Pareto principle and the law of the working ant become practical when combined with this MA tool. Specifically, the following applications are conceivable.

• Identifying loyal customers: Using customer data and scoring, automatically extract the top 20% of loyal customers who support sales. With an MA tool, even large-scale data analysis that is difficult by hand can be streamlined.
• Nurturing the middle layer (nurturing): To a middle layer not yet ready to buy, automatically distribute staged emails and content to cultivate interest. This is the effort to lift up what the law of the working ant calls the "middle 60%."
• Concentrating resources: By making high-priority prospects visible, you can concentrate sales and marketing effort on the segment directly tied to results.

In this way, by combining an understanding of the law that "results are biased toward a portion" with the automation and efficiency of an MA tool, marketing that turns limited resources into results becomes easier to achieve.

Summary

The law of the working ant is an empirical rule that an organization divides into "2:6:2" and returns to the same distribution even after reorganization, while the Pareto principle is an empirical rule indicating the bias of results: "80% of results are produced by 20% of the elements." The two share the point that "there is bias toward a portion," but they explain different aspects—the working ant the division of roles in an organization, and Pareto the distribution of results. Be wary of misunderstandings like "the non-working 20% is unnecessary," "the ratio is fixed," and "the two are the same." In marketing, identifying loyal customers from the Pareto perspective and using an MA tool to balance concentration on the loyal segment with nurturing of the middle layer is the shortcut to turning limited resources into results. Start by revisiting your own customer data and confirming which 20% is producing your results.