Friday, August 28, 2009

Extreme ( Extraordinary ) Value Added or XVA

When you deliver something passionately, with gumption and compelling, it shows that you care and this will definitely move your audience. And when you continuously live by this conviction, people will come to appreciate your sincerity and it is always a winning proposition for people want to experience quality moments in their own journeys. We are referring to Extreme ( Extraordinary ) Value Added or XVA.

As in all things extreme, you need to be so focus in the things that you do in order to be a winner. You have an excellent differentiation - for a winner is unique and this will be great as far as differentiation of value proposition goes.

You will achieve instant "top of the mind message recall". Examples abound. Tiger Woods, world No.1 golfer. That's easy. Try Y.E. Yang - the first player to take down world No. 1 Tiger in a major championship.

People appreciate quality and will seek you out. Only when you are sincere, and have the gumption are you able to execute well with quality outcome.


Let's revisit the critical success factors pertaining to a value proposition i.e. domain knowledge, technology and networking. The ability to leverage on domain knowledge and and technology and to produce innovative results is what differentiate the winners from the crowd. According to David Murray in his book, Borrowing Brilliance - it is a 6-step approach to innovation i.e.

1. Define the problem that you wish to solve ( usually unmet needs in the marketplace )
2. Borrow ideas from scenarios that encounter similar issues,
3. Make the connection between issues and the ideas received,
4. Mull them over until these ideas can be incubated to a probable solution,
5. Assess the outcomes, and
6. Take out the rough edges and fine-tune into a viable solution.

In order to achieve a quality outcome, the above has to be preceded by First Who Then What paradigm. Let's take golf as an example. Golf is interesting as it is a game that fosters transparency and accountability. You cannot game it if you want to excel in it. Every action is subject to the scrutiny of your flight mates, and the slightest infraction will call in question your integrity. To play well, you need to understand the mechanics of the golf swing - that is domain knowledge. Next, you need to acquire the technology in order to play competitively. Golf technology has come a long way and you need to understand how it can help to improve your game. Playing golf socially is an excellent example of collaboration. Through collaboration, you can apply the 6 steps to innovate your game and in this way able to speed up the learning and development process. Everyone should have positive takeaways and make progress. Just the other day, we went down to the golf shops to buy a 'driver' for a friend of mine. He gradually understood that the new technology can help in his game and once he embraces it, he wasted little time to buy a 'driver' of choice. He is now in a position to take his game to the next level.

We know the benefits on XVA and we need to decompose it to its key value drivers i.e. competitive advantage period, return in excess of cost of capital and revenue growth. To achieve XVA, you have to ensure from the onset that you are made of sterner stuff and your value proposition can withstand the stress of competing in the marketplace. The business model must be able to perform under stressful conditions, just like pulling off those crunch shots when it matters.

With a roadmap in place, all you need is to execute it flawlessly. We cannot emphasise enough the need to pay attention to details. At the end of the day, it is about people, people, people. And to always leave behind a positive impression, you need to appreciate the nuances and exercise empathy especially considering the impact your actions have on others.


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