Founder, Alibaba Group
About The Leader
About The Leader
Jack Ma is a visionary leader with a goal to build long-term sustainable business which is based on foundations of self-belief, long term planning and employee support
Jack Ma is a Chinese business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and co-founder of the Alibaba Group.
Ma has been featured in Fortune magazine's top leaders list multiple times and been featured in "Asia's 2019 Heroes of Philanthropy" for his work in supporting underprivileged communities. He has been a proponent of open and market-driven economies.
Starting from his apartment with some money from friends and family, Jack Ma created an internet giant creating over 16,000 jobs and multiple linked entities.
His Purpose
Jack Ma's purpose was to always stay ahead of the trends, plan for future trends, and build portfolio of ideas which could enable the company to survive the next wave of innovation.
Jack Ma as Chairman and the founder of the Alibaba group looked to create an organization on the moral values of grit, innovation, and self-determination which he had acquired as an individual in his early days.
One of the key learnings from career and ovservation of economic trends around the globe has been ...
"Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow would be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine."
Despite Alibaba's huge success, Ma has not become complacent, emphasizing the importance of thinking and acting differently. At Alibaba, Ma prefers solving difficult challenges in a fast highly action-oriented environment.
In his conversations, he seems to be highly motivated, engaged, resilient, and focused.
Case for Change
Case for Change
“New Manufacturing will soon bring a sweeping threat to the manufacturing industry of not only China but the whole world. In the next 10 to 15 years, everyone in the manufacturing industry will suffer unprecedented hits. We must get ready and be fully prepared for the future..”
Growth Gap
Growth Gap
“…In the past, producing 2,000 of the same garment in 5 minutes using an assembly line might be impressive. From now on, producing 2,000 different garments in 5 minutes will be more impressive!”
Investment Portfolio
Investment Portfolio
“ Alibaba pledges USD 15B for setting up DAMO Academy researching on the future technology. Three musts for DAMO are it must live longer than Alibaba and create 100M jobs and 10M profitable enterprises.”
Did You Know...
Did You Know...
Jack Ma failed multiple tests at school, has no management lessons, has been rejected by Harvard 10 times, failed 30+ job interviews and been rejected by US based venture capitalists multiple times.... Yet he is one of the most successful people in the world today.
Self-confidence & Determination
Self-confidence & Determination
Ma faced rejections & failures multiple times in school tests, 30+ job interviews and multiple applications to Harvard Business School. In the initial days of Alibaba, he faced rejections from venture capitalists in the US for funding and also from government organizations to obtain support for his information-sharing website. He responded with a strong belief that one should never give up.
Key Actions
Key Actions
Ma responded to rejections and failures in his early days with determination to continue his pursuit of excellence
When Ma faced failures in school education he exchanged free guided tours to tourists in exchange for English lessons
When his JV with China Telecom failed, he then embarked upon the journey to improvise and implement new business models.
Leadership Behaviors
Leadership Behaviors
Self-belief and determination
A never-give-up attitude
Lesson Learned
Lesson Learned
For Ma, rejections have meant temporary delays and he has been able to achieve things regardless by being innovative, following his curiosity and applying new ideas to the marketplace
Curiosity -- whether it was learning a new language or mastering computers -- drove many of his personal choices and strong determination to keep moving despite failures
Visionary
Visionary
Ma in his company mission talks about creating Alibaba with objective of lasting 100+ years. To create a long term sustainable organization of this scale he has often invested in new innovations, created institutions to research and develop capabilities to sustain in the long term.
Key Actions
Key Actions
Every 5 years, the Alibaba executive team meets to discuss what would be the key trends driving growth in 1-5-10-30 year horizons to decide their long-term company strategy and generally invests in trends that would emerge 10 years later. In 2017, Ma discovered "Health & Happiness" would be driving factors for growth and decided to invest in Hollywood movies. Alibaba continues to invest in future research by investing in its own research labs like DAMO Academy or university partnerships to keep up with major trends.
Leadership Behaviors
Leadership Behaviors
Building a strong growth portfolio
Long-term growth planning
Lesson Learned
Lesson Learned
For a company to sustain the change in technology and user behaviors, it needs to plan for not only short term but long term threats and opportunities.
Investing in people
Investing in people
Jack Ma started his career as a university professor and valued the opportunity to mentor others. He had a firm belief in the value of investing in people and building a good team. From building successful teams to supporting small businesses, Ma’s philosophy was always rooted in empowering others.
Key Actions
Key Actions
Ma has appeared in multiple speeches and events to share his wisdom with young leaders. He feels that trusting your employees and investing in them has become increasingly importatn as machines become smarter and faster.
In the popular talk with Elon Musk about machines being a threat to employment opportunities in the world with Elon Musk, he argued that AI capabilities would improve people's lives called upon companies to invest in their employees to prepare them to benefit from technology transitions. He also emphasized the value of education eduating leaders and the workforce to facilitate making these adjustments
Leadership Behaviors
Leadership Behaviors
Mentoring & coaching
Employee Welfare
Lesson Learned
Lesson Learned
Ma strongly believes that to grow as a company, a leater does not need to know everything; all he needs is to hire good people and provide them with the right opportunities.
He always counseled people to find the right boss rather than the right company. The right boss is able to instill discipline and values in the employees which leads to long-term success for everybody.
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