Alibaba

Question 1

What did Jack Ma do that was so different from other company leader? In what ways is he a revolutionary?

Jack Ma was so different from other company because he dared to challenge the status-quo has been supported by many years of conventional wisdom in China. The status quo is defined as the current or existing state of affairs. Ma is a smart entrepreneur and strong man due to super successfully faced all risk when run out his company Alibaba. Throughout our group discussion, we had found that the reason why Jack Ma was so different from other company leader and the ways he to revolute.

First and foremost, a leader is a dealer of hope. Jack Ma has China’s first truly global leader. He has successfully built his team which are loyal, hardworking group of executives, managers and employees who would follow Jack Ma to the ends of the world. Jack Ma spent years to study western culture, management concepts and successful businesses. He has his unique management style. Jack Ma believed that the best way to take advantage of the future is not to hold on to yesterday or maintain the status quo. The best way is to Open the Future. He also always believe that young people are better at developing the future because they are our future. Investing in the younger generation is investing in our own future. Thus, he would like to help and produce the next generation of Chinese entrepreneurs. For instance, Jack Ma has created a broad management shuffle that included a new chief executive and a younger generation of leaders which are more than 95 percent of the management team was born in the ‘70s and ‘80s. In the surprise leadership change, Jack Ma picked Daniel Zhang, who was born in 1972 to lead Tmall, one of the world’s largest Internet companies. After the news of the leadership shake-up, the company’s stock rose.

  Next, as an entrepreneur, Jack Ma be known as a risk-taker with no doubt. Jack Ma combined the western cultures, management concepts with the China’s culture and consumption habits to create a unique Jack Ma’s management style. He used his unique management style to lead the Alibaba to achieve more than $20 billion in the September IPO and $240 billion of market cap. It also made him to be one of the richest men in the world with the net worth of more than $18 billion. Jack Ma was also called as “Crazy Ma” due to his braveness. Because initially Jack Ma was a English teacher from Hangzhou, and he only used 15 years to build a most valuable company which is Alibaba.

            Moreover, Jack Ma was so different from other company leader because he always placed his customers at the first stage. Jack Ma stated that: “customer’s first, employees second, and shareholders third”. It is means that, Jack Ma always see the problems through customers’ eyes. For example, he will always stand at the customers’ perspectives to view his product. So that, he can know what actually the customers need and he can offer his customers with the relatable and intuitive products. This will help him to build the customers’ trust. Jack Ma also very respect his employees. He believe that, employees should have their own technical skills. So, he will never compare his technical skills with his employees.