Where does the concept of A-GRADE come from?

Published by admin at February 2, 2017

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The postgraduate programme GLOBAL COMMUNICATION at the Chinese University of Hong Kong is among the best in Asia.

One of my lecturers at university was a former well-known radio host and news anchor for several Hong Kong TV stations. He was also one of five news anchors who had the honour of hosting the July, 1^st 1997 handover of Hong Kong from the British back to China. He was not only training and consulting Asia’s top-managers and CEOs from all industries, but also university students like me in his public relations and media training classes. I still use a number of his great concepts today.

Thank you, Li Chan Wing 李燦榮

In order to get an A grade in his class, we were supposed to give the A-Grade Answers and provide “outside-the-box solutions”. He wanted us to really use our genius to pass his class!

Receiving “C-Grade” for a task meant that we were able to understand the questions and tasks, a “B-Grade” meant that we were able to apply what we had learned; we only received an “A-GRADE” when we were giving:

a SMART answer that leaves a lasting impression
a SOLUTION that is out-of-the-box and extraordinary
a CONCEPT that is effective and workable

A particular homework we received made me grasp the concept of the A-Grade Answer for the first time. It triggered my creative thinking and changed my perspective on how I approached challenges from then on. Our task was to imagine that we were at an interview for a job in public relations at the university. Our answer to the next question would decide if we got the job or not. So he said to me:

"Give me the A-Grade-Answer to the questions: What sort of ice cream do you like most?"

If you said: “Strawberry, chocolate or vanilla”, you received a C-grade answer. This means that you understood the question and could answer accordingly. If you can actively apply the content, you might have gotten the B-Grade answer right. A-Grade here is about how you could really impress with your answer. What answer secured my “A” for this class?

My answer to this question:

ANYKIND, AS LONG AS YOU PAY !!! :-)

I got my A-GRADE in Public Relations!