Someone will make progress -let it be you!
Why Alibaba's Jack
Ma Sees Himself as an 'Artist,' and Maybe You Should, Too
Tanya Benedicto Klich
Jack Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba visited
New York and Chicago this week
to encourage American small
business owners to sell more of their products
to the growing Chinese
consumer-class via the e-commerce platform
he founded in his tiny Hanzhou apartment
in 1999.
During these town hall-style discussions, he revealed his
plan to reach $1 trillion in U.S. sales
in five years. Last year, Alibaba raked in $319 billion
in U.S. sales alone.
He also shared some of the strategies and philosophies
that helped him grow his company.
These approaches could give any entrepreneur a new way to
look at business.
Here are some of the insights he shared.
Create something
no one can copy.
When an audience member asked Ma if he considers himself
an artist or a businessman,
especially after Alibaba’s massive IPO last
September, Ma chose artist.
Ma described Alibaba and its sister sites Tmall, Taobao
and AliExpress
as works of art created by his employees and customers.
“It’s an art, something that nobody can copy. It’s not
about making money.”
Fail often, but
understand why.
Ma suggests entrepreneurs look beyond success stories.
“As a small business, try to learn as many mistakes as
possible from others.
A lot of people fail for the same reasons. If you know why
people fail, you learn progress.”
Study your peers.
Ma added that the most practical business lessons don’t
always come from billionaire tech moguls. “Do not always learn from Bill Gates
and Jack Ma. Learn from your neighbor,” said Ma,
explaining that your equals are likely experiencing the
same business struggles as you
but may be overcoming challenges better.
Never get
comfortable.
Ma says the time to protect your business is when you
don’t think you’re under threat.
“My philosophy is repair the roof while there is still
sunshine.
If the storm is coming, don’t go up and repair the roof
because you will be destroyed.
Every time when I feel good, when my people say,
“Wow! We had a great year!”
I know, that’s the signal that we need to change.”
More staff doesn’t
equal more productivity.
When the entrepreneur froze hiring last April, he
faced major criticism. During his talks,
he explained that the move was part of a larger strategy
for the 16-year old company.
“People said ‘Wow, [that’s] terrible business if you
freeze the headcount,
that means your business is terrible.’ I think this is
traditional thinking,” Ma said.
“We know the less people we have,
the more innovative we will be to create our technology
and our product.”
IPOs are difficult,
but necessary.
Last September, Alibaba shattered records with its stock
market debut.
Ma admitted that life was difficult for his company
before going public
and that "now, after IPO it’s much worse.”
But, according to Ma, it was a necessary step.
“When we IPO, the company [becomes] more transparent.
It’s not only our people who watch us, the globe will
watch us and improve us.
We may not like the criticism, but you have to get used
to it.”
Find your
successors early.
In early May the Chinese e-commerce shuffled top
management in order to appoint
younger executives to the helm of the Internet giant,
including naming COO Daniel Zhang
to replace Jonathan Lu as chief executive.
While it might seem strange for a young company to worry
about succession,
Ma explains this sort of thinking can help the company
evolve with its market.
Ma continued, “Just like kids. If you want a kid, you
should have a kid when you’re young.
I started looking for a successor when I was 40 years
old. Now I’m 51, training young people.”
“I don’t [ever] want to see: ‘Jack Ma died, our founder
disappeared,
and the company is in trouble.’ We have to look for successors.”
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247287
Turbo Charged Reading: Read
fast>>>Read fast>>>Remember all>>>Years later
Contact M’reen at: read@turbochargedreading.com
You can TCR software and engineering manuals for spontaneous recall – or pass that exam.
I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.
I can TCR an
instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember
what I’ve read.
Perhaps you’d like to
check out my sister blogs:
All aspects of regular, each-word
reading and education.
Turbo Charged Reading uses these skills
significantly faster
www.innermindworking.blogspot.com gives many ways
for you to work with the stresses of life
www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com just for fun.
To quote the Dr Seuss
himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn;
the more places you'll go.”
