Alibaba.com: A Smiling Community with a Dream Jack Ma: Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Since its humble beginnings in 1999, when Alibaba.com it was launched by Jack Ma and 17 other co-founders, Alibaba.com has become the world’s largest online business-to-business global trading marketplace, with 2.5 million and 14 million registered users in its international and Chinese domestic marketplaces respectively (refer to Appendix 1 for key development milestones). In 2004, the Alibaba websites boasted an estimated combined transaction volume of more than US$4.5 billion. Alibaba.com also owns and operates Taobao.com, a business-to- Jack Ma is one of the first entrepreneurs to consumer and consumer-to-consumer develop e-commerce in China. He and his team have achieved many ‘firsts’ in the area of Chinese marketplace; Alipay, an online payment Internet Trade. He founded the first internet system in China; and Yahoo China, which it commercial website in China, and created a B2B acquired in October, 2005. marketplace platform to all small and medium-sized enterprises in Asia and around the Alibaba.com currently has more than 4,600 world. He promoted the “Trust Pass” plan on the website, which created the world’s first on-line employees with an average age of 26. It credit platform for companies. was selected by China’s CCTV as one of the country’s best employers in 2005 and Under Jack Ma’s leadership, the Alibaba B2B was recently named one of China’s Top websites have attracted more than 17 million Employers 2007 by CRF China. registered members in 220 countries globally, with daily postings exceeding 35 million, making Alibaba.com the most active Internet market In just seven years, Alibaba.com has place and B2B community worldwide. achieved award after award in recognition of its achievement and impact on Since the inception of the company, more than e-commerce, including “Best of the Web” 400 media have reported about Alibaba and Jack Ma, in dozens of languages. In addition to by Forbes Magazine for seven consecutive numerous awards presented to Alibaba.com, years, the most popular B2B website by Jack Ma was also selected by the World Far Eastern Economic Review, and other Economic Forum as one of the 100 Young Global awards, including China Excellent Leaders in 2001; was named Business Leader of Business Website and China Best 2001 by Asia Commerce Association of USA; and was featured on the covers of Forbes Magazine, Commerce Website. Alibaba.com is Nikkei Magazine, and Fortune (China) Magazine. frequently quoted as one of the top five In 2004, Jack Ma was honored as one of the “Top websites in the world along with Yahoo, 10 Economic Personas of the Year” by CCTV. Amazon, eBay and AOL, by domestic and In 2005, Fortune Magazine ranked him one of the international media. “25 Most Powerful Businesspeople in Asia” and this year Business 2.0 ranked him 15th among "50 Who Matter Now" and Silicon.com ranked him 11th among its top 50 “Agenda Setters 2006.” 1 Business and Talent Requirements for Alibaba’s Success As a high-tech service company, Alibaba.com builds its business success and rapid growth on entrepreneurship, innovation, and service. Says Jack Ma: The company will remain a ‘start-up’ no matter how long it has been in existence. What ever has been stable, I will disrupt that stability. The company needs to continue to innovate and grow. I want the employees to believe that we are a small company, no matter how big we get. I believe we can create a system and culture to perpetuate this culture of entrepreneurial and start-up spirit. To fuel the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit, along with a service attitude, Jack Ma is looking for people with the following characteristics: 1) People with a dream. “Don’t let your colleagues work for you. They need to work for their dreams!” If people don’t believe in the dream and join the company purely for money, they won’t stay long (refer to Appendix 2 for Alibaba’s vision, mission, and values). 2) People with shared values. “The value system is very important at Alibaba. We are crazy for it! In China, we might be the only crazy company who so strongly maintains our value system. People who don’t fit our values cannot survive in the company.” (Alibaba’s six core values are customer comes first, teamwork and cooperation, embracing change, integrity, passion, and honoring your job). 3) People with a smile. “When we hire people, we look for people who are naturally optimistic and happy. In the start-up process we will meet with difficulties and challenges. Optimistic and happy people can better deal with these challenges and succeed. It’s hard to make a happy person unhappy, but it’s even harder to make an unhappy person happy. I am able to tell whether a person is on our staff by their smile.” 4) People who enjoy work and can turn stress and challenges into innovation. ”Employees must be able to handle pressure and challenges, and turn them into positive energy for innovation, not negative energy for depression.” 5) People who work together. “We don’t welcome people who think they are smart because they may think they are above others. This industry is so new that it really doesn’t have any real talents. The people who are real talents probably don’t know they are talents. Everyone has tremendous potential. We all use other people’s strengths to overcome our weaknesses …. We are all ordinary people, but our goals are extraordinary.” While Alibaba seeks people with strong professional skills, these characteristics are even more important in deciding whether a person will join, stay, and enjoy working in the company. 2 Alibaba’s Unique Value Proposition — a Smiling Community with a Dream While Alibaba is clear about what kind of talent they need for business success, the question is: how can the company attract, retain, and engage such talent, especially in the startup stage, when Alibaba had limited resources? The answer is a dream, a dream to make a difference in the way people do business, and a dream to create wealth together. During the start-up stage of Alibaba, Jack Ma often told those interested in working for Alibaba, not of the great working conditions or the high pay, but how grueling it would be to work for Alibaba, and that the pay was only a fraction of what they could earn elsewhere. Alibaba also strives to provide a community, where employees can have fun to work together to pursue their dreams with minimal bureaucracy and politics. Ma recently painted a vivid image of his ideal work environment for his employees as follows: Blue Sky (蓝蓝的天): Processes, systems, and decisions need to be open and transparent. There’s nothing that should be hidden from employees. We should be transparent. Solid Ground (踏实的大地): Everything we do should be honest, ethical and contribute to the welfare of the society. The company should be on solid financial ground so employees won’t worry about the financial future of the company. Free-flowing Ocean (流动的大海): Talent must be allowed to rotate jobs across subsidiaries and departments. Green Forest (绿色的森林): Conducive conditions for continued innovation. Harmonious Community (和谐的社区): Peers with shared values and simple interpersonal relationships. The ultimate objective of such a community is to offer employees a work environment to grow, contribute, and live out their dreams. Bureaucracy, secrecy, and stagnation are all attributes that inhibit employees, and the company must actively seek out these behaviors and destroy them. Alibaba from the Eyes of Employees To what extent do employees at Alibaba experience what the company intends to offer? Why do they join the company and how do they feel as employees working there? Our focus group discussion with employees in different functions and levels confirms that Alibaba is indeed a unique company to work with. The following themes and direct quotations capture their experiences and the feeling of working at Alibaba: A leader with charisma and credibility: Jack Ma is the magnet that draws people into the company and provides them with a credible dream. 3 “When I spoke with Jack Ma, I was impressed with his vision and business model. I had been in the internet business for a while but had not seen a successful model like the one Alibaba is employing.” Tang Zhenrong, International Website Engineering Department, and one year with the company. “Although the objectives for each year seem to be very high, somehow we have always managed to accomplish those objectives. With past success, we have built up confidence that we’re able to achieve the objectives no matter what they are.” Lili Li, Sales Research Department, six years with the company. Opportunity to make a difference by developing a new way of doing business “From day one in the company, we have been nurtured to have a dream. At all levels of the company we all are striving for an ideal. I think in this life time, I have this one opportunity to participate in something that will change other people’s lives.” Lili Li, Sales Research Department. Sense of ownership and entrepreneurial spirit “Having worked at YUM, I’ve noticed that the biggest difference between Alibaba and YUM is a sense of ownership. At YUM, the management is great and very professional; however, they look at problems from the point of view of a professional manager. For Alibaba, I have noticed that the company’s executives and many employees always look at issues as owners and would begin with the result and look back on how they should do something to arrive at the result.