The biggest threat facing Ali in the post-Ma Yun era: water can carry a boat, and it can also overturn the boat. The Chinese economy and society are the water of Ali.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Yin Sheng Values” (ID: Jia-zhi-xian), author Yin Sheng. Authorized to reprint.
Abstract: For Ma Yun’s successors, it may be wise to do the right thing, do the right thing, set the boundaries, and let the whole society create value, not just the company’s commercial value rises to the company’s core assessment. index.
Alibaba has only been used for 20 years from its inception to China’s most valuable company. This miracle is directly related to Ma Yun, the founder of today’s announced retirement: by making Ali a very early one, “Let the world not Ali’s mission and vision-driven business, and the company that has become a 102-year-old company, has successfully passed through the fog of doubt and hesitation around it, and thus enjoyed the most delicious fruits.
But the same is true for the times: this speed is unique to the Internet industry, to the tolerance of the Chinese government and society for Internet companies, and to the rapid growth that China has experienced over the past 20 years – During this period, China became the second largest economy in the world and grew into an Internet superpower after the United States. In addition, China’s huge demographic dividend with unified culture is also a factor that must be considered. However, in terms of the size of a population with a unified culture, China and Western Europe are not as good as Alibaba.
Although many times are no longer, you still can’t imagine any competitors who can beat Ali in the e-commerce field. Although for a long time, Jingdong, who relied on Tencent, once made Ali very anxious, and now he has a lot of fights. Like the US Mission, it also poses a challenge to Ali in some respects – both companies are also standing behind Tencent, but even Tencent, it may be difficult to fundamentally shake Ali’s e-commerce position between the two companies. The mutual struggle is in fact, who is actually able to get more competition from this Chinese pie, not your competition, because both companies are essentially playing the role of China’s economic infrastructure.
It’s a lot of work, even though it has some staged opportunities, such as sinking market users who grew up with the mobile Internet, they have almost been forgotten in the past, and these users are extremely sensitive to price/performance. All kinds of products that are consumption upgrades for their lives are excited, time-insensitive, and keen on bargaining as an entertainment, but the challenge is whether it can build a cost-effective advantage in the entire value chain. And whether users can continue to satisfy them as they begin to shift from functional consumption to premium consumption.
And hereOn both sides, it has returned to the Alibaba site – as Ali has become heavier and heavier, from the front-end user portal to the operational support and almost every link in the industry chain, it has a strong layout, such as The benefits of such a layout in finance, cloud services, logistics, new retail, local living services, entertainment, foreword technology, and overseas markets are, on the one hand, increased productivity by coordinating within a range similar to the Ali economy. In order to share its due part, on the other hand, because it has a partial direct contribution ratio in almost every part of the value chain, it can cross-subsidize the entire economy to cope with competition.
But this is the biggest threat facing Ali in the post-Ma Yun era: water can carry a boat, and it can also overturn the boat, and the Chinese economy and society is the water of Ali. To be a 102-year-old company as its vision hopes, Ali must ensure the vitality of water, and when it enters most industries, industrial chains and technology, and has the right to speak, one not only for itself but also for the Chinese economy. And the threat that is vital to society has emerged: how can it ensure that its actions in every area are socially and globally competitive? Even how to ensure that the competition mechanism continues to be effective? These two issues have become increasingly important given that it may have the absolute voice of the Ali economy and that the Ali economy has an increasing relevance to China and the world economy.
Maybe this is the biggest worry for Ma in the post-Ma Yun era when he retires. Otherwise, Ali will not add one in the latest company vision: we don’t pursue big, don’t pursue strong, we pursue to become a living A good company for 102 years. At this year’s annual meeting of the Green Company, Ma Yun explained: It is easy to give people a feeling of being arrogant and unreasonable. Today, it is urgent to think about how to do well in the enterprise, to satisfy customers, to make the society satisfied, to satisfy the employees, to satisfy themselves, and to be satisfied with the family. . On another occasion, Ma Yun said: I am not afraid of innovation into a giant, I am afraid that the giant will not innovate.
A strong, over-powerful Ali may put himself at risk: facing the customer, too strong or pursuing a strong, may make Ali charge too high commissions and prices, scorn in service, cut corners on quality Turning a blind eye to new demands; being too strong or pursuing a strong employee may make it lower the requirements of values and improve performance requirements, or too strong adjustments and lack of flexibility; and for the Chinese economy and society as a whole, too Being strong or pursuing power may mean moving toward obstructing competition and pursuing monopoly profits. It may also mean over-squeezing, occupying or even destroying the entire social and economic value, which ultimately leads to a counterattack by the entire society.
So, for Ma Yun’s successors, perhaps it is wise to do the right thing, do the right thing, set the boundaries, and let the social value creation rise to the company’s core assessment indicators. A few days ago, Ali and Netease’s “shake and talk” had both practical meaning in business and may have the symbolic meaning of being a “good company”. PerhapsIt can be regarded as a parting gift of Ma Yun’s successor.
Attachment of an analysis of Ma Yun’s resignation as Chairman of Alibaba’s Board of Directors a year ago, which provides a more in-depth analysis of similar topics.
Ma Yun’s retreat, Ali’s entry
Abstract: I regard Ma Yun’s resignation as Chairman of Alibaba’s Board of Directors as an Alibaba’s advancement – adapting to the new corporate strategy of the social co-government environment, rather than the founder’s retirement, which is a further tempering and enforcement. The key step of the founder era and the 102-year-old is the self-evolution of Ma Yun as an entrepreneur, which will enhance the certainty of Ali in the medium and long term.
On the Teacher’s Day in 2018, Ma Yun, who is a teacher and said that he will become a teacher after retirement, announced his resignation as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba Group. The successor is CEO Zhang Yong, who will only retain directors and partners. Character. This means that China’s largest Internet company has taken another crucial step in the post-founder era – not to mention that this is the last step, because his influence will still be in form (such as directors and partners) and essentially (As a spiritual leader, a cultural tutor, and an ecological first operator), it lasted quite a while.
The last time Ma’s key action for the post-founder era was that in 2013, Ma Yun announced that he would no longer serve as CEO of Alibaba. At that time, he said that “Tomorrow will start, life will be my job”, so I I wrote an article “A Ma Yun that makes life as a job more scary”, some of which can still be used to explain Ma Yunxin’s move:
In the Internet world, it has been popular to say that it is difficult for any Internet company to continuously lead the trend for more than five years, from Yahoo, eBay, to Google, Facebook, and even Apple. However, the situation in Alibaba may be different, because Alibaba’s advantage is based on the operation and open ecology, compared to those who claim that their advantage is based on technology, which means for individuals or a certain The business is less dependent, and once its advantages are established, it is less likely to be broken.
In fact, it is this that creates conditions for Ma Yun’s rapid retreat: at a specific operational level, once a system is established, it will operate on its own, and such a system has been initially formed within Ali. That is to say, the company has been able to leave Ma Yun at the specific operational level. Then, resigning as CEO is just to make the form and substance more consistent.
But for those companies that compete or potentially compete with Alibaba, a cloud that treats life as a job will be even more scary: because Alibaba’s future is closely related to life, including culture, trust, lifestyle, and social participation. Wait, what Ma Yun did was to comply with this need.
In a Big Mac with an annual turnover of more than 1 trillion yuan, its future dangers are less likely to come from one or two specific businesses or technologies, and more likely to come from potential cracks within the system, such as culture. Metamorphism and systemLoopholes, or changes in external soils and climates, such as government regulation, a decline in social trust, and a slowdown in industry growth. Ma Yun, who has escaped from the operation of specific companies, will be able to concentrate on these things – the progress of these things is often achieved in the form of life.
In fact, since retiring as CEO, Alibaba has become more powerful than in the past – both in business and in organizational capabilities. Among China’s major Internet companies, Alibaba may be the first to truly form its own leader in all major businesses, which can improve Ali’s resilience and execution, which is in the new retail strategy and fresh market segment. Competing, improving the logistics experience through the improvement of the logistics network, etc., and the impact of the WeChat payment shock, etc., are reflected.
Responsiveness and execution are a key force for a company to maintain its foundation and to be the gateway to Ali for 102 years, especially in the technology industry. Therefore, I am more inclined to think that Ma Yun’s gradual retreat from the specific business is a wise corporate governance improvement strategy.
In the current stage and environment, the resignation of the chairman of the board of directors will not only create space for a new generation of management teams, but also allow the company to better adapt to the professional and professional operations of the post-founder era, thus allowing The company evolved into a real social enterprise as soon as possible to reduce the risks associated with specific people and teams. More importantly, he will have more time and space to create a better ecological environment for Ali – this pair is like Ali in the new era. Such a super giant may be a more important strategy than a pure business strategy.
If you don’t understand this, you can refer to Yin Sheng’s 2017/2018 Internet Value Watch, “Social Co-governance, Technology Driven, and AT Reality.” In this article, I have faced the Chinese Internet giants today. The reality is described as follows:
One of the fundamental forces driving the management of Internet giants from private autonomy to social co-governance is that when these companies develop from an independent commercial entity to an economic and social infrastructure, the evolution from industrial competition to ecological competition is consistent with Their interests are maximized because their interests are increasingly related to the overall interests of the entire ecosystem (including society and the economy, etc.), which requires them to proceed from the overall interests of the ecology, not just self-interest, and more in management. Take an open attitude and take into account multiple voices.
The other force of change comes from the demands of society. In the evaluation of the value of society as a whole, not only the weight of individual companies is small, but even the economy as a whole is only one of many indicators. Although different social preferences are different, the values, long-term and short-term benefits of efficiency and fairness and diversification are the common principles of human beings. In order to effectively manage different indicators, humans turn to the government and social organizations.
This means that Ali, as an economic infrastructure, needs to consider more indicators than its own operations, such as overall employment, online and offline, etc.The maintenance of lifestyle, the fairness of wealth distribution, the efficiency of the overall operation of the economy, the protection of innovation, the sustainability of the economy, etc., while Tencent, as a technology, society and potential economic infrastructure, needs to be considered in addition to Ali. It is also necessary to consider issues like this, such as user time and economic management, management of virtual society, improvement of overall well-being, personal career development and socialization, and social consequences of technology.
If they can’t take these indicators into consideration as a whole, they will eventually face a decline or even loss of competitive position, or they will face the involvement of governments or social organizations – they assume the responsibility of the broader value indicators of the regulators, so that they have There are enough reasons to get involved in these new management environments. After all, in the face of a broader social value system, the Internet and even the economy are only part of it.
When this becomes a reality, the free soil that has supported the Internet boom will no longer exist, and laws and regulations will eventually catch up. Think about the traditional economic and social infrastructure management model, you will understand What does this mean, like leading companies in the fields of telecommunications, energy, and public services, even the power to set prices themselves will be placed in the management of the government, and this is only one of the broad scope of supervision they accept. .
In the future, the involvement of the government and society will become more and more the norm, because enterprises as an independent interest are actually difficult to jump out of their own interests. The social co-governance model has become an Internet giant. The reality, or the opportunity to establish certainty (if sensible enough).
Yu Mayun’s new business card, you should understand what Ma Yun’s resignation means: Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, Alibaba 001 employees, Alibaba partners, Alibaba No. 1 public welfare volunteers, Alibaba poverty alleviation Chairman of the Fund, founder of Ma Yun Public Welfare Foundation, spokesperson for rural teachers, co-chair of Taohuayuan Ecological Protection Foundation, global director of TNC (Nature Nature Conservation Association), special adviser to UN Youth Entrepreneurship and Small Business, co-chair of joint meeting of UN World Women’s Summit.
Yin Sheng values, only talk about things related to long-term value. If you want to communicate with Yin Sheng one-on-one, and understand the analysis of the sudden incidents of related companies issued by Yin Sheng and exclusive to the circle of friends, please add the micro signal jiazhixian_1. Please specify your real name/industry/company when adding, otherwise it will not be passed. Affirmation: The opinions are for reference only and are not used as the basis for investment decisions.