JACK MA –ALIBABA

Alibaba is an online holding commerce firm that was incorporated in 1999 by a Chinese Jack Ma as the founder. As an investment firm, it provides technology, software and other related services through online business to business marketplaces globally (Wall Street Journal, n.d). It provides internet-based and transaction based services like registration of domain name, software applications and consultation services related to technology on different platforms. The founder, Jack Ma, who is a former English teacher, started the company for the purpose of championing small businesses. He believed that the internet would finally provided a uniform playing field by making it possible for small firms to leverage technology and information and therefore  manage to compete effectively in the  local and world economies (Wall Street Journal, n.d).

 After its foundation, the company adopted the vision of building a future commerce infrastructure while envisioning that customers will find a meeting, working and living point in Alibaba and the firm will last a minimum of 102 years (Alibaba Group, n.d).  The company and Jack its leader have driven growth through blending of the best Chinese and Western technologies, management and even culture. This has made Alibaba to be the world biggest ecommerce firm by some measures and it has potential to become the most diversified and largest global technology company. Its three major platforms – Taobao, Alibaba.com and Tmall have been generating significant amount of revenue especially in Chinese market, and its other interest including cloud computing, electronic payments, streaming entertainment and investments funds have been a large contributor to the success.  The three platforms have many users and hosts many merchants and businesses so that the firm business operations are more than other e-commerce firms in the world (Alibaba Group, n.d).

The growth of the firm can be attributed to leadership of Jack Ma, who used unorthodox philosophy of management to build this company in just fifteen years.  This leader blended the best of Eastern and Western styles of management, operational practices and even technology to build and  steer the growth of the firm from a domestic one to a global company. His history involves failure to secure jobs in the various places including a hotel , KFC and police but he kept his belief that if  a person work hard , obey his principles then anything they want is possible to attain (Wall Street Journal, n.d). The strategic management employed by the firm with Jack being the leader involved an understanding that as e-commerce is turning into a traditional business, players who purely focus on e-commerce will encounter big challenges in the market (Trefis Team, 2016). Jack led a group of his friends in utilizing the little resources they had in forming a platform that would serves business to business needs in the market using the online platform (Trefis Team, 2016). Strategic management involves managing resources available to achieve some set objectives and goals. It involves an analysis of the environment and assessing strategies that will ensure the utilization of these resources in delivering services or products competitively in the market. It requires strategic skills that can marshal the people to adopt a strategy while motivating them so as they do not give up when faced with challenges (Morrill, & American Council on Education. 2010).  As a great leader and entrepreneur, Jack Ma did not allow setbacks to bring them down, and saw what is possible and placed his focus on the possibilities. The inner strength was seen in his optimism and decided to actualize his belief that technology can breed success in the business world and change the way business operations are done both domestically and internationally.

Jack Ma sticks to his principles, work ethic and dedication and maintaining a perception that is constant throughout. His success is very powerful and inspiring to the business world and especially small businesses.  His strategic management and leadership styles have been based on values and attitude. In fact, many rich and powerful individuals who have come into contact with Jack Ma have tended to obtain important information and experiences about his leadership or about the company he helped found.  He has carried his attitude and values with him so much that Jim Kim, while meeting over a dinner with him was startled by his humility and attitude towards enabling global trade through online platform. Kim was surprised by Jack’s passion for enhancing global trade especially by placing his focus on small businesses (Lashinsky, 2017). Others have been moved by Jack’s humility in leadership and some managers such as Jean Liu have consider him as a mentor over some years after knowing him. This highlights the kind of leadership his influence has on other people and especially in his company. To realize the set vision that depends on technology in selling, financing and delivering products on the various digital platforms, Jack Ma has presented himself as a leader in the world (Lashinsky, 2017).  He has relied on the understanding that innovation is not always equated with invention and therefore builds the success of Alibaba on what was already present in the market. Therefore, he adopted various concepts such as ebay’s customer to customer model to build the infrastructure of Alibaba (Lashinsky, 2017). He appears to have acknowledged that history, culture and mind-set held the same importance as functionality.

The transformation leadership that has been adopted by Jack Ma is based on actualizing ideas since ideas without actions add up to nothing. Many managers and leaders may have great ideas but do not have the motivation to execute them. The fact that Ma has been daring to execute ideas in the Company is what has set it on a successful path .This  aligns with a vision  to bring transformation in the way businesses is done in the domestic and global market and impact the same to smaller businesses (Lashinsky, 2017). As companies operating on pure e-commerce platforms are looking for options to stir growth, Ma is guiding the firm in looking for ways of creating ecosystems that can incorporate online experience with traditional shopping. To achieve this goal, the company has joined together with other firms such as Intime Retail and Suning Commerce which will enable the firm to enable businesses in improving marketing productivity and overall sales (Trefis Team, 2016). The strategic leadership has enabled Alibaba to create alliances with various logistics firms across Asia so that have a strong delivery network and hence serve the customers better (Trefis Team, 2016). This has created an undisputed position for the firm in China even though the global expansion has been quite slow.

A quality that has defined the leadership and management styles of Jack Ma is good communication skills. He seems to be a natural communicator and promoter so that he gives a tuned year to customers, businesses and regulators (Lashinsky, 2017). He is good at influence people and working teams through his communication, and this has been seen in various large transactions involving the company. An example is the desire by Ant Financial that is affiliated to Alibaba and under Ma’s control to buy out Moneygram which is a payment firm and required the approval of the U.S government. This has made it possible to avoid unhealthy competition with other large online firms such as Amazon and focusing on small businesses through Taobao access Chinese markets (Lashinsky, 2017). Through his communication skills, Ma has been involved in many international firms and subsequently raised his stature and that of Alibaba. He sees this profile as an obligation for sharing ideas and decisions not only within his company but with others around the globe.

Jack Ma portrays quality leadership skills that I admire and that are based on experiences, an understanding of role of culture in an organization and the need to influence others in decision making. Strategic leadership involves anticipating and taking up opportunities to develop ideas into viable businesses using the available resources (Morrill, & American Council on Education. 2010). Ma has the confidence that is needed in to make decisions that will lead to success of the organization and tackle management issues related to the technological world. He has succeeded in building the strategic leadership capacity in Alibaba through recognizing the technology is constantly changing and there is a need to align decisions with necessary adjustment. His ability to influence others and impact positively on the performance of small-business and world leaders underscores the kind of leadership skills he possesses. His communication skills has elevated his leadership and thereby becoming a mentor for other business leaders.

References

Wall Street Journal, (n.d). Defining Alibaba. Retrieved from: http://projects.wsj.com/alibaba/