1. The biggest challenge is believing in your own self that you can DO IT

Many congratulated me after recently completing the full 42.2 km marathon in Gold Coast and regard it as a major feat. My friends would say that they can barely run 5km. I was like that too a year ago. I would feel burnt out after the occasional 3km run on the treadmill in the gym. But I plunged into this marathon, committing myself to the race and dreading it as the date approached. One month before the run, I completed a 21km run which left my legs in a complete jello state. The thought of having to run twice that distance was horrifying.

The race day itself was very eye-opening. I saw MANY senior citizens, from Aussie grandmothers to Japanese grandfathers, overtaking me to complete the full marathon. I saw overweight runners who still completed the race, while several seemingly lean and muscular runners quit the run midway. Running a full marathon is not limited to those of a certain age or physical size and strength. Anyone can do it with adequate preparation and training. A 74 year old man and a 60 year old woman completed the race in 3.5 hours!

Similarly in business, many believe they do not have sufficient experience or education to run their own business or to take on a senior leadership position. Yet, there are countless examples of college drop-outs who became successful entrepreneurs and CEOs. The biggest hurdle to overcome is building up the willpower and self-confidence to “just do it”. As they say: ‘If you think you can, then you can. If you think you can’t, then you definitely cannot’.

2. Begin with a clear end in sight

Another common factor is the importance of setting clear goals and targets. With a marathon – commit yourself by registering for a race and booking your flight tickets and hotels to the venue. This makes it more difficult to back out. Then, plan and commit to some intermediate targets. For example, start by signing up for a 10km race, followed by a 21km half-marathon. There are many ‘marathon training’ guides available on the web. Once you’ve plotted your milestones and have a definite target in mind, it becomes easier to sustain your momentum and interest. Achieving intermediate milestones also help to boost your self-confidence.

In business, there are many ups-and-downs, challenges and distractions that can side-track you from achieving your goals. A clear vision is imperative to ensure that you ‘stay the course’ and dedicate your time and resources on the initiatives that will best help you take your business towards your destination. When we launched AirAsia X, we set very specific goals and celebrated each milestone that marked progress towards the big goals. We set ourselves to achieve US$1 billion in revenue within 5 years because economies of scale is very important in the airline business. We celebrated intermediate milestones when we hit our first $1 million of revenue, our first $10 million, and our first $100 million.

3. Teamwork works!

Trying to prepare for, and run a marathon by yourself would be an incredibly lonely and pointless exercise. Its the same running a business. Doing it as a team adds incredible richness to the experience, makes it more fun, and you feed off one another. There were about 20 of us in the AirAsia Running Club that went down to the Gold Coast. We trained together and motivated each other. Even during the race, Qabie, Kate and Juswil helped to push me along, especially in the final, painful 10km stretch when your body wants to rebel!

I’ve had the opportunity to work in businesses across many different industries. The single biggest determinant of success and job satisfaction was always from having a solid, reliable team to work with – to share a common vision, solve problems together, and create and develop new ideas together. Its very lonely at the top otherwise and its easy to develop narrow perspective when you’re the only decision-maker and you don’t benefit from rich, diverse inputs from good teammates who are reliable, trustworthy and share the same passion. We would not have made it this far at AirAsia X had I not had incredible support from an amazing group in my management team. Very diverse in industry experience, age and backgrounds, but united in our common vision and commitment to each other.

4. Its a marathon, not a sprint!

A race strategy or plan is vital for a successful marathon run – unless you’re physically gifted that you can just run fast for the full 42km! For most normal folks, it is a real test of endurance, and mistakes can easily lead to failure to complete the race. The first part of the plan is to be aware of what one’s physical capability. Can you comfortably run long distances at a 6 min/km pace, a 7 min/km pace or an 8 min/km pace? How do you prepare yourself at the start of the race (how much to eat and drink, how much to stretch and warm up)?

Many people fail to complete a marathon, or fail to achieve their target times because they’re not prepared. A common mistake is to run fast at the start, especially because one gets caught up in the excitement of the race and wants to ‘keep up’ with the race leaders.

During the race, two important elements are “pace” and “mental tenacity”. Its very important to be aware of your running pace and think about whether you’re running too fast or too slow. A good timing watch and kilometre markings are key. Mental tenacity makes or breaks your run. After 30km, most runners start to “hit a wall”. That’s when the body wants to rebel after a lot of lactic acid build-up. It comes down to ‘mind over matter’.

These are critical in running in business too. The biggest problems in business arise when a company is operating at a sub-optimal pace – either too fast (without sufficient resources deployed) or too slow (allowing competitors to move ahead). One of the biggest roles for a CEO is to determine the right strategic pace, mobilize resources accordingly, and then drive the organisational tenacity to overcome the inevitable difficult periods of implementation.

Remember Rule #1: Believe that you can, and ‘just do it’!

Sign up for some of these marathon races throughout the year:

Virgin London Marathon – April
Kuala Lumpur Marathon – June
Phuket Marathon – June
Gold Coast Airport Marathon – July
Borneo International Marathon – October
Melbourne Marathon – October
Hangzhou Marathon – November
Taipei Marathon – December
Singapore Marathon - December

With Rob "Dec" Decastella, Australian Marathon Champion and Ben Southall, Best Job In The World.

Sometimes even I can’t believe it myself. Just over a year and a half ago, AirAsia X was just an idea. An excel spreadsheet and word document business plan. Not just any idea – one that industry experts from around the world proclaimed to be impossible, unachievable and downright crazy.

Well, the young AirAsia X team didn’t know any better and weren’t aware of these ‘limitations’, so we just went ahead and did it! Raised funds, got our first plane (Semangat Sir Freddie), got our license, started flying to our first long-haul destination (Gold Coast), got more planes – which allowed us to turned profitable (phew!), and launched the world’s longest low-cost flights to London!

For me, its been one looooooong adrenaline rush. An incredible high (and lots of painful, punishing lows along the way too!) and a perpetual buzz! Spend a typical day in our office with our team and you’ll see this madness.

In many ways, the X in AirAsia X is a perfect symbol – depicting, in a singular, powerfully emotive letter, the x-tremely challenging context, x-citing product, and x-traordinary team that’s made it possible for so many to travel to see x-otic faraway destinations never dreamt possible before. Tony likes to describe us as ‘AirAsia on steroids’. Spot on, dude!
X is about extremes. Blazing new paths. We started doing pre-booked hot meals and assigned seating right from the start, even when it was supposed to be against the low-cost model. Now, big brother has since adopted these services. We’ve also ventured into in-flight entertainment systems (X-CITE!) and XL premium seats, breaking more ‘rules’. (Watch out for XL seats on steroids – we want to introduce full lie-flat beds next year!).

X is different. X is in-your-face. X is an attitude, a lifestyle. We’ve been big believers and supporters of active sports and music – from promoting and sponsoring surfing and marathon racing, to backing home-grown music artistes (Estrella, SCTS, Sasi the Don – Joe Flizzow’s dream of performing in London!) to spread their talent to global markets. X is our D.N.A. X is our oxygen. X is the force that flows deep inside us.

For the aircraft spotters and enthusiasts, you’ll know that our official airline call-sign is “Xanadu”. I love this call sign! Its so different from all the other boring airline call-signs. Early on, we weren’t sure, and Captain Han and I decided on the call sign by flipping a coin between this and a more conventional name. Destiny spoke, and we’ve not looked back since!

We named our first two brand new A330 aircraft “Xuberance” and “Xhilaration!” – depicting the utter joy we felt when we got to play with shiny new metal!

The A340 aircraft flying to London was named “Xcalibur”. My fave. Arthur’s legendary sword cutting away at high fares to Great Britain!

We’ve got more new planes coming (at least 23 more new A330s and one more A340) and I’d love to open it to all of you to suggest cool names for them.

This year, we expect to pick up 3 new A330s, and Sumi and Shaku have suggested “Xploration”, “Xpedition”, and “Xcursion”. Good theme of spreading our wings to new markets. What do you think?

These names don’t have to be limited to a single word. Or even a word in the dictionary. As long as it has a cool “X-Factor”!

So fire away – we’ll be giving out free return flights to any AirAsia X destinations for cool names that we’ll use for the new planes.

And.... we’ll even have your name immortalised on the aircraft itself – outside on the body and inside the cabin! So c’mon y’all – Hit me with your best shot!

Peace.

Friday 6 February marks another proud milestone for us, as the A340-300 aircraft touches down in sunny KL for the first time, after a flight that started from the depths of winter in North America. Our A340-300, or Xcalibur, is a pioneering symbol in many ways.

It is the first A340 to be registered in Malaysia, and my two Chief Pilots, Capt Azhanudin (Operations) and Capt Thevamanohar (Safety), have the honour of being the first two pilots registered for A340 operations for a Malaysian Airline – although they have had extensive experience with this aircraft model with a foreign airline in their previous employment.

Captain 'Han' from Xcalibur's cockpit

Xcalibur will also be deployed for our much awaited London sector – which is also a trailblazing route in the world of low-cost aviation. Its 13-hour flight time will be the longest low-cost service in the world today. Traditionalist aviation sceptics say that the A340 is a costly aircraft with its four engines compared to the A320 or A330 models. However, what’s more important is that it is still more efficient compared to the Boeing 747 aircraft that is usually used for these long distance routes – in terms of fuel efficiency, maintenance cost, as well as the cockpit commonality with the A320 and A330 models, allowing us to have a common pool of pilots that give us scale advantage.

While most of us were taking our warm tropical weather here in Southeast Asia for granted, my team of pilots and engineers had to brave extreme winter temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius over a couple of weeks to inspect this A340 aircraft that had just completed a major maintenance check, ensure that all the regulatory requirements are met (and registering the aircraft as a ‘9M’ Malaysian aircraft), and taking physical delivery of the aircraft with a flight of over 20 hours back to KL (with a stopover in London’s Stansted Airport). For some members of the team, it was the first time that had encountered such harsh cold temperatures. Some had to borrow thick winter coats and sweaters. Taking technical delivery of aircraft is not an easy feat. It involves intense round-the-clock work to ensure that all the details are attended to, and that we take an aircraft only if it meets a stringent list of safety and technical specifications. Being so far away from their families for several weeks can also add to the challenge for our team. For this, I’m truly proud of and grateful to Capt Han, Theva and Sahari, as well as Anaz and his team of dedicated engineers.

My X-team! Xcalibur will also see us pioneering a new standard of seat comfort. As you can see, the XL seats are full business class seats that will provide executive-level comfort for prices comparable to economy fares on other legacy carriers, and a fraction of typical business-class fares. Next year, we’re even looking at replacing these seats with full lie-flat bed seats. Even the economy class seats are the most comfortable in AirAsia’s fleet – with legroom, width and recline comparable to any premium airline. Initially, these seats will not be equipped with in-seat entertainment screens. These will be introduced when we refit the aircraft next year. However, we will be providing portable media players for rent during the long London flights. Wish us well as we keep pushing the envelope and take low-cost travel to new heights! Look out for Xcalibur on its debut flight on London on 11 March.

I just got back from our Gold Coast flight yesterday, after launching our Melbourne route. Had to handle a barrage of media queries/interviews and caught up on emails. Adrenaline from the last intense 48-hours is finally dissipating.

Launching a new route, especially a major destination such as Melbourne is a mammoth undertaking, and one that we tackle with bare minimum resources to make it happen. Its always a major drama. Final regulatory approvals need to be secured. The booking engine with promo fares must be loaded to face the onslaught on sales at midnight. Advertisements and press releases must be vetted. Logistics of the press conference must be scrutinised - especially when we were lucky to be graced by the presence of two senior Victorian Ministers at our event: Minister of Trade & Industry Theo Theophanus (whom I've come to regard as a personal friend after working with him for over a year to make Melbourne happen), and Minister of Tourism Tim Holding.

Wouldn't have been possible without a stellar team: Kat, Spencer, Senthil, Darren, Sherliza and many others who made this happen through sheer will spiced with madness.

The flight back yesterday was an 8+ hour day flight. I only managed to get 1-hour's work done on the laptop before my mind started zoning out. Couldn't focus and concentrate any more.

Thankfully, since July, AirAsia X has introduced portable media players that come with a selection of Hollywood blockbuster and regional movies, TV shows, music and games - to while a way the long flight hours - for a small fee ;-) (RM35)

We've realised that for long-haul flights, we must provide an entertainment option for our guests who cannot sleep on the flight. The new aircraft that will come into service this November, will be equipped with in-flight entertainment systems in all seats! Latest interactive, touch-screen system with a lot of entertainment content as well as cool applications, including a USB port to charge your iPod/Blackberry (two devices I always have with me when travelling).

Senthil, Shuba and I just got back from Tokyo, after spending a few days meeting Japanese government officials and airport representatives. We were checking out the scene there to assess the prospect of AirAsia X flying to Japan in the near future. Love to hear your views on Japan as a destination.

The last time I visited Japan was six years ago. There's definitely a feeling of more openness towards foreign visitors. The Japanese government is now aggressively trying to catch up with other Asian countries to grow their tourism sector, and they've come up with their Yokoso Japan! (Welcome to Japan) campaign to attract tourists. They have a long way to go to catch up with advanced tourist Markets such as Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and even neighbours Korea.

One thing that struck me about this trip was the mis-perception that Japan (and Tokyo specifically) is a very expensive destination. I found plenty of options for hotel rooms, ground transportation and food choices at prices below Hong Kong and Sydney. There are also a lot of guidebooks and maps in English that made using the bus and subway system easy to use for us gai-jins.

Japan has a lot of unique selling points: Tokyo is clearly the fashion capital of Asia - shopping in Ginza is overwhelming. Electronic gadget lovers will find Akihabara a paradise. The electronic stores there make Low Yatt look like a tiny corner stall! And this is home to anime - from Pokemon to Dragon Ballz to Haruhi Suzumiya! There's also Tokyo Disneyland and the ancient Shogun palaces and castles that will send you back in time to the Tokugawa era (like Hiro from Heroes!).

My clear favourite: this tiny little restaurant in Tsukiji, the main fish market in Tokyo where tons of tuna and other seafood are trucked in the wee hours of the morning and auctioned off to the top restaurants in the city. The sashimi was simply phenomenal!

Let's hope that the Japanese airports respond positively to our proposal. Its time to liberate travel to Japan from the tyranny of high fares from the legacy airlines!