Business Lessons From Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma - Strategy With RS

1. Never underestimate yourself: Jack Ma was trained to be a teacher not a CEO. But through hard work, self-education & openness to new ideas he metamorphosed into a world class CEO. If you want to know where talent resides, then all you have to do is look into the mirror & believe in what it reflects back! Yes we all have the potential to transform into a world class professional if we work hard, keep on learning everyday & are open to new ideas.

2. Never overestimate your competitor: Just as we should not underestimate our self, similarly we should not overestimate our competitors.

3. Bigger the problem bigger the opportunity: The problem with opportunity is that it always comes disguised as hard work. When Alibaba opened for business, in China; there were many insurmountable problems for e-commerce to take off . But Jack Ma took it up as a challenge & built an e-commerce infrastructure from grounds up & positioned Alibaba to capture a great share of the rewards – & it did.

4. Today is tough but day after tomorrow is beautiful: This is among Jack Ma’s favorite quote. It helps people in Alibaba stay focused on long term because it makes them realize that just as joy is a part of a start-up company so is pain - the only way to building something enduring is to endure a lot of pain & struggle. It is a tested way to secure the future of the company

5. Focus on the customers & rest will follow: Alibaba credo is, “Customers first, employees second & investors third.’ Contrast this with conventional wisdom which places shareholders interest first!

6. Learn from competitors but never copy them. Copy them you will die: This is what Jack Ma professes. Ignoring this maxim, will get a company to become competitor obsessed. Result? The company's face will be facing the competitors’ and the back will be towards the customers!

7. Chase one rabbit – at a time: Rabbit is a metaphor for opportunity. If you chase too many rabbits (opportunities), all the rabbits will escape. A prudent wolf chooses to chase one rabbit at a time … if he chases many rabbits simultaneously then chances are good that all of them will escape!

8. Do not change rabbit in between the chase: If you decide to change the rabbit you wish to chase then chances are both rabbits – the one you were chasing & the one you wish to chase now will both escape. How can businesses implement this axiom? Good businesses have a clearly crafted mission statement, which define the reason why they exist. Once defined, a business has to relentlessly pursue it. But if a company keeps on changing its mission midway, it will be akin to changing the rabbit you wish to pursue in the middle of the pursuit.

9. Be as fast as a rabbit but have patience as a turtle: An entrepreneur has to work on 2 different track at the same time – take decisions which will pay off in the long term – this requires patience, as well as to take decisions which will bear fruits in the short term – fast. This keeps the company balanced!

10. It is more important to be best than first: Many entrepreneurs panic when they realize that somebody has already launched a similar product. This should not worry them. To overcome this anxiety, let me share with you Steve Jobs advice he offered himself & others who found themselves in the similar situation - leapfrog the competition by launching a better product with which people will fall in love! This can happen when you build a better product!

11. Buy an Umbrella when you do not need it: The best time, according to Jack Ma to get funds when you do not need it. The converse – you go scouting for funds when you need it badly then the lender will extract their pound of flesh by capitalising on your misfortune.

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In this series, Rajesh Srivastava, Business Strategist and Visiting Faculty at IIM Indore gives you a regular dose of strategy case studies to help you think and keep you one step ahead as a professional as compared to your peers. Rajesh is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore and IIT Kanpur and has over 2 decades of experience in the FMCG industry. All previous Strategy with RS posts can be found here.