The bell curve

Diversity in human society is not a racial phenomenon. It is more a product of the human sixth sense, response to stimuli. Even within a single person’s response mechanism there is enough diversity to be plotted on a bell curve. At the end of the day, life is a bell curve and any claims of success can be represented by a measurement. There is power in numbers, and the bell curve represents that. What would be apparent through plotting the journey of a lifetime on a bell curve is that the flanges on the left and flanges on the right would be freak shows, more a factor of acting out of the skin or acting out of the mind. The remaining curve represents the true thought process behind the achievement. Self-discipline, technique and personal organization governs the shape of the bell, be it a person’s life, a sports career, a company or a country.

Put in business parlance, diversity in the performance of the company is a given, given the myriad stimuli of the myriad people who make things happen. The left and right flanges can be again counted as freak shows that cannot be mathematically modeled, or brought under disciplinary rules. The rest of the curve represents the process, and the people that can be influenced by the process. The success of a company can then be modeled by the success of the process in place. Assuming the right side of the curve to be greater than the left side of the curve, if the bell curve tends to the right, progress is being made and the company and its people are moving in the right direction. If the bell curve tends to the left, the process needs to be revisited. This may seem like a mathematical representation of the scientific theory of management, but, the difference is that this is not a static production goals theory but a measure of sustainable development of the company. It is more a measure of the opportunities provided within the company’s framework for sustainable development. The more the tendency towards sustainable development, the more the bell curve would tend to the right.

For the progress of an individual, a society, a company or a country, sustainable development is the key. Sustainable development is defined as ‘providing opportunity for simultaneous and continuous economic, environmental and cultural development over generations’. For the sake of this discussion, with the scope limited to one lifetime, the words ‘over generations’ can be substituted with ‘in diverse conditions’. The 80-20 rule is synonymous with the bell-curve philosophy, and with a sustainable process, the 80% ratio is being influenced. The better the self-discipline, technique and personal organization, the better would be the influence and control on 80% of situations faced in life. The better the processes in a company, the better would be the influence and control over 80% of the success achieved by the company.

In conclusion, success can be measured in mathematical terms, the numbers tell a story, and the story is that of a sustainable practice represented in the form of a bell curve.