Jack Ma: The future has come

Chapter 11 Jack Ma's Internet World View (2)
The vision of Zheshang is reflected in the ability to learn and reflect

It is said that where there are business opportunities, there are Zhejiang businessmen.In any corner of the world, where there is Coca-Cola, there must be Zheshang.In the future, Zhejiang merchants must not only be good at discovering demand, but also create demand; not only be good at chasing demand, but also lead demand; not only find external demand, but also explore internal demand.Therefore, for Zheshang, the biggest opportunity in the future lies in the improvement of the consumption quality of the whole country and the improvement of the quality of Zheshang team.Scale and speed do not determine how successful an enterprise is. What determines the success of an enterprise is not its size or speed, but how good its products are and whether it has a good consumer experience.

A good consumer experience requires entrepreneurs to have a craftsman spirit.What's wrong with slowing economic growth?In fact, the quality lies in whether the work is done slowly, not in the speed.We must know how to establish a mechanism, and we must know how to use the best people, the best management methods, and the best technology to improve the ability to create the best products.This is the embodiment of the craftsman spirit.

In my opinion, the impact of the Internet on everyone is far beyond our imagination, and the challenges in the future will become greater and greater.Organizational changes, talent changes, cultural changes, and technological changes have just begun.

Editor's note:

The annual meeting of Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and the "Focus on the 2015th Five-Year China Private Economy Innovation and Development" summit forum were held on December 12, 30.Ma Yun said at the annual meeting that the biggest opportunity for Zhejiang merchants in the future lies in the improvement of the consumption quality of the entire country. Entrepreneurs must adapt to the "new normal" of China's economic slowdown. The "disaster" experienced by enterprises is also an opportunity. At a critical juncture Only companies that can survive will have "antibodies".

4. Only companies with "mouse + cement" can survive

Whether you like it or not, you have to admit that in the past 20 years, the Internet has made great contributions to the world and had a huge impact on human society.Over the past 20 years, the Internet industry has been very successful.However, I discovered a very strange phenomenon: very few Internet companies can survive three years in a healthy and peaceful manner.This means that most Internet companies only have "honey days" and "honey weeks" instead of "honeymoons".Even google, facebook, amazon, ebay and alibaba, all of us are worried and upset every day.

We know very well that if the lifespan of all companies in an industry does not exceed 3 years, then this industry will never become the mainstream.Therefore, we are all eager to find a solution so that our company can live long and healthy like Mercedes-Benz and Siemens.How can we find this solution?

Today's technology is developing very rapidly and the world is changing rapidly. IT technology and digital technology are not only different technologies, but also represent different ways of thinking and different ways of dealing with the world.We don't know what the world will look like in 30 years, and we don't know what the data will look like in 30 years, but we believe that the whole world will change dramatically in 30 years.If the first technological revolution and the second technological revolution released human physical strength, then this technological revolution has greatly released human brain power.The future world will no longer be driven solely by oil, but data-driven will play a more important role.In the future world, business will be more of a C2B model rather than a B2C model. Users will change companies, and it will no longer be a model where companies sell to users, because we have a lot of data.

Manufacturers must also personalize, or their survival will be very difficult.The machines produced by manufacturers in the future must not only be able to produce, but also be able to "talk" and "think".Machines are no longer powered only by oil and electricity, but by data.Enterprises in the future will no longer only focus on scale and standardization, but will pay more attention to flexibility, agility, and personalization.Therefore, I strongly believe that in the world of the future, we will have many female leaders - because in the future, people will not only pay attention to muscle strength, but also pay more attention to wisdom, care and responsibility.

In my opinion, the Internet must find the missing part. The missing part is the mouse and cement working together to find a way to combine the Internet economy and the real economy.Only when the mouse and cement are combined can Internet companies survive and live happily for 30 years or even longer.Only when this combination is realized can it be called Data Economy—not a digital economy, but a data economy.Everything will be changed by it, and I believe the world will become more beautiful and more challenging because of it.At that time, there will be something flowing in the machine, and that is data.

We are in a great era of innovation, invention and creativity, and I believe everyone is working very hard to make their dreams come true.Today, we see real-world workers, truck drivers, and gamers...people who would never have been able to use technology to realize their dreams.But today, data makes it all happen.I strongly believe that it is not the technology that changes the world, but the dream behind the technology that changes the world.Take me for example, I was not trained to be a tech expert, I don't know anything about computers, I don't know much about the Internet, but I have a powerful dream: I want to help small and medium enterprises.I believe dreams drive the world, not just technology.

Editor's note:

On March 2015, 3, CeBIT, the German Hannover Consumer Electronics, Information and Communication Expo (CeBIT) with the theme of "Digital Economy", opened.This is an exhibition for leading companies in the global IT industry.This year's Hannover IT Exhibition attracted about 15 exhibitors from 70 countries and regions. China, as the partner country of this IT Exhibition for the first time, showed the world the latest level of "Made in China", with more than 3300 exhibitors.Ma Yun delivered the opening speech as an invited representative of entrepreneurs, and personally demonstrated Ant Financial's Smile to Pay face-scanning technology.

5. Big data should give technology a soul
People have always believed that Alibaba's technology is the worst among Chinese Internet companies, Baidu Li Yanhong understands technology, Tencent Ma Huateng learns technology, only Ma Yun does not learn anything, and thinks Ma Yun is very poor.In fact, because I don't understand technology, our company's technology is the best.Because I don't understand technology, I respect technology very much, and I can't quarrel with technicians.If I know technology well, the technicians will be very sad, and I will tell them that they should do this and that.Because I don't understand, I watch what they say and do with curiosity and admiration.

Alibaba's cloud computing has developed very well all over the world. One important reason is that I don't understand it.This is not a joke, Wang Jian knows it.Six years ago, when Ali decided on the future direction of development, we believed that big data was the direction of the future, and cloud computing was the direction of the future.But how?The technicians talked about the development of 5K technology, etc., and talked about many terms, but I didn't understand them.In my opinion, what makes a computer more powerful than a human is that its "IQ" is higher than that of a human. In the past, people needed to memorize a lot of things, but today computers can replace humans.With big data, the "emotional intelligence" of computers may also be higher than that of humans.If one day, when the "emotional quotient" and "IQ" of computers are higher than those of humans, it will be a huge change, and this must be the trend in the future!So no matter what, we must do it.

Later, Tencent and Baidu did not persevere. An important reason was that their leaders knew that this technology was difficult, and they did not continue because they were afraid of difficulties.And I really didn't know that this thing was so difficult, so I just said "No matter what, I must stick to it".Many people on the Internet, including a large number of people in our company, criticized that Jack Ma was fooled by Wang Jian, and that cloud computing is impossible to realize when 5000 computers are put together.Actually, I didn't understand at all.But I think that if this technology can solve social problems, it should be done.I don't understand technology, but I hope that Alibaba will add vitality to technology and inject soul into data.

I've seen too many technicians sit in a lab and end up with no use at all.How many technologies die in the laboratory, only the good technologies come out alive.Creating social value and benefiting countless people is a good technology, right?Now, tens of millions of small businesses are using Alibaba’s services, and hundreds of millions of consumers are using Alibaba’s services. Our platform can accommodate 1 million simultaneous visits within one minute. This is a good technology.

Let technology be full of vitality, let data have soul, let data inject positive energy into the development of society - this is our simple and simple original intention.Therefore, without even thinking about it, we invested all the way, and finally we successfully broke through.It is precisely because I do not understand technology that I respect and fear technology.

Why is Alibaba alive
I was learning a foreign language at that time, and my biggest dream was to wake up in Paris in the morning, be in London at noon, and go to a bar in Buenos Aires at night.This time I traveled to many countries and regions. I traveled to three countries and six cities in seven days. I went to Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Paris, and Rome, and then came back.I only know now that this is not the life I want. The jet lag is reversed, the food is not used to it, and the language is constantly changing. This is a very hard life.But along the way, I learned a lot, thought a lot, and learned a lot.

Alibaba is a very lucky company, because over the years, entrepreneurial Internet companies have experienced many ups and downs, but we have been until today.Over the past 15 years, we have not given up on our mission.

It was very difficult when we first started doing e-commerce. At that time, everyone thought that doing e-commerce in China was unreliable.E-commerce is very hot now. We did not succeed all at once today. This is the result of our 15 years of persistence every day and every month, and the result of resisting all kinds of temptations.As we all know, text messages were the most profitable at that time, and then games were the most profitable, and various business models came out.Have we ever been jealous?Of course there was.In fact, pressure is not terrible, what is terrible is temptation.

We see others making so much money, but we can't do it, don't we feel jealous?Of course jealous!Just two years ago, our annual revenue was not as good as Tencent's quarterly revenue, of course we were jealous.After finally catching up today, I received another WeChat message.

But why is Alibaba alive?In fact, Alibaba has a very important starting point, that is, we are always thinking, should we live for today or for the future?In the development of Alibaba for more than ten years, some things have not changed much, that is, we have been asking ourselves this question: What will happen in China ten years from now?What will happen to the world?What problems will happen, what disasters will there be, and what can we do about it?Because it will definitely not be our turn to do something today that will succeed tomorrow, and it will definitely not be our turn to do something this year that will make us rich next year.We can only do things that may be successful ten years from now.Starting from this point, start preparing today, and then work hard for ten years.Ten years later, if this thing really happens, then your chance will come.Therefore, analyzing and predicting the future is what Alibaba and us have to do.

I resigned from university in 1995 and started my own business.Starting a business is very difficult, with ups and downs and countless failures.I finally understood that it is really difficult for a small business to develop. To this day, it is still very difficult to run a small business all over the world.State-owned enterprises have the support of the state, foreign-funded enterprises have the endorsement of foreigners, and only small enterprises have no support.The only way is to use high technology and the power of technology to help small businesses.Therefore, when we do e-commerce, we only focus on small businesses, not big ones.

be a pragmatic idealist

In 2001 and 2002, we couldn't recruit people.We recruit people on the street, as long as they come to sign up, we want them all.We now have about 2.5 employees. Since the establishment of Alibaba, about 6 people have joined Alibaba. That is to say, more than 4 employees have left us in the past 15 years.You go ask them how much they struggled with leaving Ali.Why are people who leave Ali so entangled?Because we are not like an ordinary commercial company, we are particularly idealistic.We are infecting everyone with our sense of mission and our values.

In the first four or five years of Alibaba’s establishment, every time a new employee came in, I would definitely spend two hours communicating with everyone.I made it very clear to everyone: I definitely do not promise that you will have money, that you will become managers, that you will buy houses and cars, but none of your tears, grievances, grievances, and bad luck will be found in our company. It will be less, and it will be given to you.

You have to live and work hard for your ideals, which is really hard.But I believe that a true idealist is pragmatic.Looking back on the past 15 years, I think the main wealth of our company is a group of idealistic employees.Alibaba's first product is our employees, followed by our software and technology, and then Taobao.Therefore, only when our employees change and grow, our customers and products will change.This is what we insist on.

Today, the thing that makes us most proud is that we have truly influenced the thoughts, values ​​and lifestyles of Alibaba people.Now people still like to join IBM and Microsoft.In terms of working conditions, Taobao and Alibaba are definitely no worse than them, but I am firmly opposed to having shuttle buses within the company to take employees to and from get off work.Many people say that I live far away, and it takes two or even three hours to go back and forth on the road, and it is best to have a shuttle bus.I said you can have everything, but you can't have a shuttle bus.Why?Because I saw that all state-owned enterprises had shuttle buses, and they all closed down later.I remember when I was working as a part-time teacher in an evening school, I rode a bicycle past the gate of a factory and saw a lot of people waiting in line.When the bell rang at five o'clock, the bus came and everyone went home.

People who are used to such an arranged life cannot be successful.

In the past, when employees came to work in Hangzhou, we did not arrange dormitories.I said that if you can't even find a house, I don't believe you will be a talent, please find a house yourself, you have to deal with people!We don't need people who walk and read and bump into electric poles, what we need are people who can live.

Our company advocates serious life and happy work.Life will only take you seriously if you take life seriously.Work is only a part of life, and work is not all you have. If you are under a lot of pressure and unhappy at work, then you will not be able to innovate.

Ali's fun lies in promoting social progress

Someone recently said that you will be engaged in backdoor medicine for a while, and the cultural industry for a while. What exactly do you want to do?In fact, we think very clearly.We have been thinking about two types of problems that will emerge in Chinese society 10 years later: one is health problems, and the other is cultural problems.

The question we have to consider is how to make an early layout so that big data can help medical services.Big data will slow down the growth of physical hospitals, improve the level of medical care, improve the quality of medicines, and make medicines cheaper and cheaper.

(End of this chapter)