Paper

Chinese Entrepreneur in the Internet Age
--Story of MaYun and Alibaba
Introduction
In network age, the pattern and rate of economic growth experience tremendous changes and starting from the US, internet entrepreneurs have become new aristocracies of the Wealth-Bulletin. However, commercial miracles of internet industry not only take place in Silicon Valley. And on the ancient east land, a young internet entrepreneur has written a new business legend with his vision, courage and leadership.
MaYun, born in poverty but full of foresight and ambition, has led his team to generate billions of annual profits and demonstrated a credible example of how a small start-up company can eventually make it big in the global economy through the internet. This article mainly aims at exploring the leadership of MaYun and drawing lessons from it.

Background
Ma was born in September 10, 1964 up in Hangzhou, China. He was 12 years old when he became interested in learning English. The backdrop of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and Ma’s eagerness to learn what goes on beyond the confines of his neighborhood convinced him of his own exciting future. It does not mean that he abhorred his life in Hangzhou. The change in thinking did not happen overnight. It was not a story of a man deciding to take the quicker route by simply packing his bags and leaving for the big city.
Ma took his sweet time learning on his own, practicing his English, and devoting volunteer work as a tour guide for a hotel at West Lake, a tourist area in Hangzhou. For Ma, the work meant a forty-minute biking trip every workday. He patiently kept this routine for eight years.
In 1979, Ma met an Australian family. The friendship and regular correspondence led to Ma’s month-long stay in Australia in 1985. What he saw and experienced in Australia confirmed what was slowly taking place in his mind: there is indeed a bigger world out there, a world that he can explore and beckon to his own liking. However, he was still struggling with his education and career. He flunked his entrance examinations at Hangzhou Teachers University, not once but twice. After graduation, he ended up in a teaching job that paid him RMB100 to RMB120 (about $12-$15) a month. He stayed with this job for five years. Yet, even with teaching experience, it was still difficult to find a job. He even applied for a secretarial job at Kentucky Fried Chicken but he was rejected.
In 1995, he became part of a business delegation (as an interpreter) to Seattle and at that time, he discovered the internet. In his own words, “We searched the word beer on Yahoo and discovered that there was no data about China. We decided to launch a website and registered the name China Pages”. With borrowed $2,000 and knowing nothing about computers, he established the company, which later competed with China Telecom (CT). They were later offered a joint venture by CT, but the deal did not last long. By his own admission, “it was like an elephant and an ant”. Ma eventually quit from the venture and went to Beijing to promotee-commerce through a government group. His appetite for e-commerce has grown by the time he gathered 18 friends in his apartment in 1999. From that meeting, $60,000 was raised to start Alibaba, the name picked by Ma because of its popularity.

Values and Leadership Philosophy
Many are still wondering about the kind of power Ma possesses. It seems right to categorize him as some kind of techie guru or a brilliant businessman with a keen instinct for profit but he is, on the surface, just a regular guy who believes in simple principles.

Values
1. Customer first. The interests of the community of users and paying members must be their top priority.
2. Teamwork. Ma expects his employees to collaborate as a team. He encourages input from his employees in the decision-making process, and commit to the team’s objectives.
3. Embracing change. His team operates in a fast-evolving industry. Ma asks his employees to maintain flexibility, continue to innovate and adapt to new business conditions and practice.
4. Integrity. Integrity is at the heart of our business as trust is an essential element of a marketplace. Ma expects his employees to uphold the highest standards of integrity and to deliver on their commitments.
5. Passion. His employees are encouraged to act with passion in both serving customers and developing new services and products.
6. Commitment. His employees have a dedicated focus and commitment to understanding and delivering on the need of Chinese and global small businesses.

Leadership Philosophy
1. Technology is not Alibaba’s core competency. Ma has repeatedly shared that “Technology is not Alibaba’s core competency; rather, it is the company’s culture”. Ma has always been candid about how he is not really a “techie” guy. The dotcom culture has become so pervasive that many people, particularly those in the IT business, would not even dare admit to not being techno-savvy. Ma, on the other hand, seems even proud to admit that he does not know much about technology, even admitting that he “can’t write code and the most he can do is send and receive emails”. This openness paints a picture of a bold leader who knows and enjoys his stuff but does not lose sleep over it if something goes awfully wrong.
2. Customers come first, employees next. Ma emphasizes that if he were to rank the company’s priorities, shareholders come next only to their most important clients: customers and employees. According to Ma, Shareholders are the first ones who scamper out the door with just the slightest indication of stock prices going down. On the other hand, customers are the sources of the company’s revenues; hence, it is to them that the company owes unparalleled loyalty. In addition, he sees employees as people who courageously stay even if the goings get rough.
3. Small is beautiful. This principle may seem ironic for a businessman who owns one of the largest e-commerce businesses in the world. However, Ma is a staunch believer of the cause of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). He underlined this when he said: “Companies like Wal-Mart, these big-size buyers, killed a lot of SME buyers. But now most of the SME buyers and sellers started to do business throughout the world because of the internet. So I think the world has moved. I strongly believe small is beautiful”. Looking at Alibaba’s extensive network of SME users, it is apparent that Ma “walks the talk.” Having struggled his way to the top, Ma understands what it means to be small. After all, Alibaba itself came into being so that small Chinese businessmen can reach out to the global market. Ma has definitely built an extensive e-commerce business, but he remains committed to his code: small is beautiful.
4. Competent management team and commitment to corporate culture. As MaYun, the leaders behind Alibaba have strong backgrounds in e-commerce, internet, technology, and sourcing industries. They also encourage their employees to embrace entrepreneurship, integrity, and passion in their work. Every Alibaba employee is trained in customer satisfaction, the core of Alibaba’s business.

Accomplishments
Besides his personal achievement, most accomplishments of MaYun are relevant to the excellent performance strong competitiveness of Alibaba Group.

Accomplishments Related to Alibaba
1. Enhancing the power of networking in B2B marketplaces. According to Alexa.com, the number of users in Alibaba (international and China) made the platform of the most-visited website in the world in two business categories—E-Commerce” and “International Business and Trade”—based on user traffic for the three months ending on June 30, 2007. The company is creating and maximizing a “network effect” that helps attract users and expand business. What is more, Alibaba and Ma’s consumer-auction website, Taobao.com, did so well that in 2006, eBay shut down its own site in China.”
2. Building a powerful brand. The Alibaba brand has definitely become a household name. The name has achieved global recall mainly through word-of-mouth. Increasing awareness of the Alibaba brand further strengthens the company’s power to build a larger customer base and earn higher revenues.
3. Supporting China’s economy through SMEs. Alibaba’s focus on SMEs and is aneffective business strategy. This is based on the old saying, “There is strength in numbers.” By focusing on small businesses that would otherwise be left on their own, the company has created a solid “institution” that genuinely appreciates the situation of SMEs. In another word, Alibaba’s competitiveness is deeply rooted in its strong commitment to assist SMEs in B2B e-commerce. Its approach is extensively contributing to the growth of China’s economy; as SMEs grow and expand their coverage, China’s economy also grows.
4. Forming communities. Most Alibabausers do not really have opportunities to meet face-to-face, but the platform has features that provide two-way and genuine interaction between buyers and sellers. They become “real people” who can talk through instant messaging, forums, and blogs.
5. Building strong sales and customer service teams. Alibaba is now found in thirty cities across China and Hong Kong (they also have offices in Switzerland, United States, and India). Their sales and customer service teams now have more than 1,900 sales employees, 800 call center personnel, and more than 400 customer service employees.
6. Continuing technology innovation. Alibaba has a team of dedicated product development experts who never rest on their laurels. They are always motivated to improve users’ experience through a relentless search for better and more innovative technology platforms.
7. Establishing diversification and strong relationship with the parent group. The expansion of Alibaba Group naturally led to the establishment of other e-based businesses. Alibaba now has other subsidiaries and affiliates, such as Taobao, Alipay, Yahoo! China, Alisoft, Koubei, and Alimama. These groups are working together to match the needs of different customer segments.

MaYun’s Personal Achievement
1. In 2001, Ma was selected by the World Economic Forum as a “Young Global Leader”. 2. In 2005, Ma was named one of the “25 Powerful Businesspeople in Asia” by Fortune.
3. In May 2009, Ma was honored by Time magazine with inclusion into the Time 100 list of the world’s 100 most influential people.
4. In 2010, Ma was selected by Forbes Asia as one of “Asia’s Heroes of Philanthropy” for his contribution to disaster relief and poverty
5. Ma was the first major world business leader to predict the economic downturn in a memo to staff in July 2008. And afterward, he along with Alibaba.com’s management team proactively took decisive actions to steer his company through a crash in China exports such as reducing prices for export supplier customers; acting as a middleman to connect small and medium sized companies with lenders.
6. Ma led the creation of employment opportunities worldwide on the Alibaba.com and Taobao platforms, as well as forged ahead in 2009 with the hiring of 5,000 new employees globally.
7. Ma has built a reputation for having world-class vision in terms of how Alibaba Group businesses are operated, including an adherence to a vision, values and mission-based culture as well as the requirement that each of Alibaba Group’s business units must incorporate corporate social responsibility into their business models.

Lessons Learned from the Leadership of MaYun
1. Keeping concentration on top priority. In MaYun’s opinion, a leader’s most important mission is to speak “No” to opportunities rather than looking for opportunities. As leaders, we are supposed to make certain the original question “What to do first?”, then focus on it and put our resources on the key point before considering minor details.
2. Forming original vision. MaYun is not only familiar with the market but also has an original vision of e-commerce. In advance he found the large demand of cyber business like Bill Gates found the demand of computers. You will always find opportunities when you see things differently. And you will always be ahead of your competitors if you are a leader with foresight and forethought. In a word, Original vision is closely related with both survival and success of our business.
3. Developing the capacity for innovation. MaYun has grown his company by addressing specifically Chinese market issues, rather than copying rival’s strategies. His company is continuously establishing and updating complex systems that improve online transactions by putting in place adequate security measures. Since nowadays technology moves forward at every moment, so leaders should be conscious that it is innovation ability that keeps the competitiveness and driving force of any enterprise.
4. Perseverance and Courage are important to leadership. During Alibaba’s early development, there was no money from any venture capitalists. Nobody wanted to invest in his business. However, MaYun tried to persuade the financiers that internet has the future while the world just suffered an internet bubble. He never thinks about giving up because he deeply believed his vision and has a large courage to achieve his internet dream. Sticking on your goal keep pursuing what you believe are opportunities, you will be rewarded for your perseverance and coverage.
5. Learning from competitors. In his speech on 2009 APEC, he said he loves his competitors such as eBay. Company can grow with their competitors. We can learn experience of success and failure from their competitors. They are not only our best laboratories but also help us to keep the sense of crises.
6. Building healthy and positive enterprise value. MaYun has a different value from most leaders in China. In his word: “Making money is only a result, not our objective. I hope I can set up a great company, which the Chinese people can be proud of because it's truly home-grown. This is my dream. And this is also our generation's dream.” A successful company can do more than generating revenue. You have to learn how to solve the problem of the society instead of catching one or two opportunities. Besides making money, a healthy and distingue corporate value makes the company take its social responsibility and even has positive effect on the forming of employees’ personal value. As business leaders, our duty includes not only offering jobs and creating wealth, but also providing convenience and happiness to people, making contribution to society, and building our world a better place.

Conclusion
MaYun is a representative example of new Chinese entrepreneur in internet age. His success of leadership can be attributed to the oriental perseverance and inclusiveness and the occidental aggressiveness and openness. From his life experience, his leadership philosophy and his accomplishments, as future business leaders, we can benefit a lot.

Reference
1. Shiying, Liu; Avery, Martha (2009), Alibaba: The Inside Story Behind Jack Ma and the Creation of the World's Biggest Online Marketplace, Harper Collins, ISBN, 006167219X, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HarperCollins (Retrieved as of 2010)
2. Businessperson of the Year 2007, Bloomberg Business week, http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1894410_1893837_1894188,00.html (Retrieved as of January 2, 2008)
3. World’s Best CEOs 2008”, Barron’s, http://online.barrons.com/article/SB120615216221756939.html#articleTabs_panel_article%3D1 ((Retrieved as of March 24, 2008)
4. The 2009 TIME 100: Jack Ma, http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1894410_1893837_1894188,00.html (Retrieved as of 2009)
5. China’s Most Powerful People 2009, http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/11/1113_business_stars_of_china/15.htm ((Retrieved as of December, 2009)
7. in Pictures: 48 Heroes of Philanthropy http://news.alibaba.com/article/detail/alibaba/100474800-1-alibaba-group-clarification-respect-alipay.html (Retrieved as of August, 2008)
8. China’s Alibaba Group to ‘mobilize hundreds of millions’ for environment”, National Geographic News Watch, http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2010/05/27/alibaba_conservation_environment_fund/ (Retrieved as of May 27, 2010)