LEADERSHIP Case Study - Jack Ma

2015

Cardiff Metropolitan University

Mira Abou Khzam




[Leadership And Change Management]



Table of Contents
1. Introduction 2
2. Jack Ma's Biography 2
3. Application of Generic Approaches to Leadership 2
a. Jack Ma's traits and behaviours 2
b. The behaviour of Jack Ma in different cases 3
c. Leader influence on followers 3
4. Other Aspects of Leadership 4
a. The Success of Jack Ma 4
b. The strength and the weaknesses of the leader 4
c. Organizational Values 4
5. Change Management 5
a. The Concept 5
b. Jack Ma's and change management 5
c. Jack Ma implements change management 6
d. Barriers to Change 6
6. Applying creativity learning and innovation 7
7. Conclusion 7
References 8




Introduction
In this research we are going to discuss the aspects of leadership and change management by taking the case of the Chinese leader Jack Ma who established Alibaba group in 1999 which is the first website that helps small businesses to leverage innovation by the strategy of business-to-business online. The company became one of the most important global leaders in online and mobile commerce led by a very successful business leader Jack Ma. Jack Ma retired in 2013 from being the CEO of Alibaba Group leaving behind him lessons that can be taught to young entrepreneurs (Alibabagroup.com, 2015). But who is Jack Ma and what makes him a Leader?

Jack Ma's Biography
Ma was born in the 15th of October 1964 in Hangzhou in south China. He grew in an area that wasn't related in any aspect to the west. He wasn't rich in adverse he was kind of poor. He wasn't good at school and used to have fights with his classmates. When he was a teenager he used to offer visitors of China tours in the city because he was good at English and one of the tourists nicknamed him "Jack". He graduated in 1988 and applied to so many jobs but he ended up teaching English in a school where he build good teacher-students relations. Ma had no experience in programming and coding and he found out about the internet in his trip to the USA in 1995. He stated that he learned how to use the internet in 1998 one year before starting his online business after the convention of seventeen of his friends to invest. And today Jack Ma is the richest men in the China with a fortune equivalent to $25 billion (Stone & D'onfro, 2014)

Application of Generic Approaches to Leadership
Jack Ma's traits and behaviours
He was extraversion. He inspired many with his energy and optimism but he had over self-confidence on his ability to change the world so he was a little bit unrealistic (Anderlini, 2013). He has high conscientiousness in his job; with high integrity he respects the confidence of his subordinate. He is open-minded and creative. He was agreeable by being responsive and never disappointing anyone, flexible with his employees and friendly with his employees because he was highly confidence about them (Chowdhury, n.d.).
Jack Ma's behavior was relation-oriented and he was a participative leader who used to get his employees involved in the decision making and take their opinion into consideration. He used to meet with every new employee in the organization, and always make staff meeting and the most significant thing that he made a BBS intranet system to be able to communicate with his staff by allowing them to share their thoughts and interact with them casually (Ft.com, n.d.).
The behaviour of Jack Ma in different cases
To motivate his employees he used to make annual entertaining ceremonies such as the Talent Show party to which he participate with his employee and enjoy (Stone & D'onfro, 2014).
Another situation is in 2003 when china was suffering from the SARS, Alibaba group continue to operate normally and employees continue doing their work but from their houses in order to protect his employees from the disease (Alibabagroup.com, 2015). In analysing the behaviour of Jack Ma in this situation we can see that as much as Jack Ma was ready to take risk, he wasn't ready to risk the health of any of his employees but at the same time where every business was suffering from reductions in the revenues Alibaba was operating normally and gaining money like normal days.
Leader influence on followers
Jack Ma was a charismatic leader that influences his follows; they used to find his a credible source of information so they trust every word he says. They were inspired by his ideas behaviour and way of managing his business. He was an achievement oriented leader who motivates his employees by giving them challenges to achieve, and inspirational leaders by inspiring them to follow their dreams and grow. And that what his employees claimed.
Based on a PDF document uploaded on www.ft.com about Alibaba.com (no date), that shows different discussion and interviews with Alibaba employees we can conclude how Jack Ma was influencing on them. They stated that Ma was a charismatic leader with credibility that draws people into the company and pumps them with credible dreams. Tang Zhenrong, an international website engineering department, and one year with the company (Undated), stated that when he first spoke to Jack Ma he was impressed with his vision and business model that was one of the best that he ever saw. Lili Li from the sales research department said that from the first day at Alibaba they were led to have a dream. And other employees mentioned that Jack Ma had a passion toward the culture of the organization, he makes them enjoy challenges and give them inspiration to grow (Alibaba.com: A Smiling Community with a Dream, n.d.).

Other Aspects of Leadership
The Success of Jack Ma
Several reasons were behind the success of Jack Ma. His transformational leadership that he built it in the organization that went beyond ordinary expectations which was presented by his behavior and led him to a great success. He appreciated attitude and passion and gave it an important value considering it much important than the theoretical skills, he united his people under a unique goal understanding that it is hard to convince the whole company to follow and believe one person so he tried to make them have the same goal. Jack ma has a strong foresight and he takes time in developing creative thinking skills to forecast the risks and be ready to adapt to any change. In addition Ma's success was also based on hiring people with superior skills. He considers a failure is someone who gives up. He was tenacious and has a clear vision. He didn't make enemies and the most important thing is that he loves life and tries to enjoy it (Kux, n.d.).
The strength and the weaknesses of the leader
Of course like any person on earth Jack Ma have strength and weaknesses. Concerning strength, he have empowering nature he used to always motivate his employees in the organization, has have great communication skills as he was an English teacher he was very good in English and he knows how to represent his ideas in an effective manner and this held him also to be a man of learning nature and be a teacher more than a CEO in his organization. But he also had weaknesses; he was too friendly and emotional which can be negative sometimes in terms of being strict and take strict decisions, and he was over confidence about his employees which is also not good sometimes (Chowdhury, n.d.). From a personal perspective and analysis, behaving highly in a relation-oriented way might affect the leader's influence on followers and it will also reduce the respect of the rules and the procedures that's why an effective leader as much as he has to be transformational he should not break his charisma with his performance within the organization and keep good rate of power-distance between him and his followers.
Organizational Values
Jack Ma was a risk taker. Risk is a scary term for different managers, but was an enjoyable challenge for Ma. And more then that he used to teach his employees how to deal with risk and challenge it instead of giving up which he considered it failing. He was committed to quality; he had a good quality management strategy because he didn't care about how many services he provides during one day what he cared about was how efficient his service is and how high the quality of the service is. He was flexible, acceptable for new ideas and has the ability to change of course without losing the real meaning of the initial goal. He was creative, time respecting person, and shows creativity in thinking about the future of his organization and china in general. He said in one of his public speech to learn from competitor but not benchmark, instead people should try to create new ideas and creative way of thinking (Chowdhury, n.d.).

Change Management
The Concept
Change management is any type of modifications done in the organization due to external or internal forces. Change can be reactive for certain circumstances or planned to achieve a desirable goal (Griffin, 2013). There are many theorists that discussed this subject and came up with different models of change. But how does change management relate to our case here?
Jack Ma's and change management
Jack Ma stated his business by a step into a change in the procedures of the creation of a new business when he stated in his last public speech at Stanford University on May 14th 2013, before retiring from being the CEO at Alibaba group Jack Ma stated that he considers that if someone wrote a business plan in 1996 he either was lying to others or to himself, because nobody have any idea of what could happen. So he decided not to write a plan and life is a plan that is slowly unfolding so he stated: "Embrace Change, Change is the best Plan".
So creating Alibaba platform was a step into a change that Ma considers it an opportunity that leads to success: "Any change is an opportunity for young people because if things do not change nobody has a chance" (Ma, 2013). He was a leader that embraces "change" and deals with it as a new opportunity not a threat.
But how did he implement change inside his organization or during his company's lifecycle?
Jack Ma implements change management
In implementing change, Alibaba started as a small B to C online trade but Jack Ma knew that they did not have the DNA to become a consumer company because the world is changing so fast and it is getting harder to catch customers' needs. Small businesses know more about the needs of their customers. So they decided that such change needs new ways of empowering their power sellers and their SMEs to support their customers and they should use technology to help small businesses grow (Ma, 2013). They became a business to business company without giving up on their business to consumer or even consumer to consumer, but they recognized the need of the B to B to attain the sustainable growth of their company.
Another situation is when people had problem in trusting e-commerce, and getting refund if any financial problem occurs while shopping online, when Alibaba created something new which is the AliPay. In the Asian investment conference 2013 mentioned that when he first mentioned the idea of AliPay many people warned him about stepping into the financial market because it might be illegal and lead him to jail, employees were worried about the new system and its relation to the government legacy and other considered it as a "stupid" way of changing, but Ma took the risk and started Alipay.com the payment solution that consumers can benefit from it if they do not get the thing they want they will get a full refund, considering that if it is stupid let it be as long as it is solving a problem; "Let's make stupid things smart" Ma stated.
After many years of technological changes around the world and the fast running technology Jack Ma captured the need of a Research and development (R&D) department in the organization so he decided to open this department in 2008 (Chinese-champions.com, 2013).
Barriers to Change
Any implementation of type of change Alibaba group will face several barriers. One of the situations where Jack Ma and his group faced problems is when Alibaba group decided to expand to the United stated. Alibaba USA faced a lot of cultural barriers, lack of trust from the American people to Chinese Internet Company. In addition Alibaba has a broad of huge competitors such as Amazon and EBay (Thomson, 2014). New strategies of cultural and organizational changes should be planned in aim for Alibaba to succeed in the US. These changes should fit the US organizational culture that do not resemble to the Chinese organizational values and structure. Culture plays a major role in new business success where leaders should adapt to the new change aspects by organizational strategies that fit the new market and eras' culture.

Applying creativity learning and innovation
When we say innovation we mean going beyond traditional situations and step into a creative change which must be an application of new ideas. And that what Alibaba group did.
The creativity about Alibaba group is that it is not and e-commerce Company, it helps other to do e-commerce. It is a company running a platform they are running ecosystem. From his point of view Jack Ma stated in the Asian Investment Conference (2013) that in the future the traditional B to C businesses will face a huge challenge because in the future companies will make money because of "value created" not because of skills, people will not make money by how many thing they sell but by how many different thing they sell at one time. And in the future companies will not make money by the good services they provide they will make money by the efficiency of their services and Alibaba have 25 different business units and they are almost everywhere and they control their head comes by the efficiency they have.
In a public speech at Stanford University Ma said that today's market is huge, china was countless small businesses and so does the United States and Africa... but for Alibaba group places that have small businesses represent opportunities for them. In the industrial age they depended on economy of scale, in the information age they rely on innovation and customization because Ma considers that big Data will gradually drive large companies to become smaller ones and this will maker smaller business agile and interesting and this is the era of customization. He also said: "Spread Innovative ideas throughout the world." Ma (2013) believes that the world changed and today we don't need to use weapons instead we can use economic development and innovation to impact and influence people.

Conclusion
Jack Ma is a transformational leader that changed the reality of china and disclaimed Ruyard Kipling's quotes that says: "East is east and West is west, and never the twain shall meet". He was the first to enter the e-commerce world in 1999 and succeed to enter china in the global e-market. He has a great influencing power, creative innovative ideas, have a change nature and able to accept challenges. Now Jack Ma retired leaving behind him lessons for young CEO, innovative thoughts and quotes, great business model and strategies to apply in business. Jack Ma retired but he still has this influencing power.
























References:
Alibaba Founder Jack Ma: Ideas & Technology Can Change the World. (2013). [video] California: Stanford Graduate School of Business.[online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euxJhgYZXL8 [Accessed 19 Jan. 2015]
Alibabagroup.com, (2015). Alibaba Group. [online] Available at: http://www.alibabagroup.com/en/about/history?year=2013 [Accessed 18 Jan. 2015].
Anderlini, J. (2013). Person of the year: Jack Ma - FT.com. [online] Financial Times. Available at: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/308e46a8-6189-11e3-916e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3PDZy0vkS [Accessed 19 Jan. 2015].
Chinese-champions.com,. (2013). Alibaba: Profile, Internationalization, R&D, Patents. Retrieved 27 January 2015, from http://www.chinese-champions.com/alibaba-group/
Chowdhury, F. (n.d.). Background of Jack Ma. [online] www.academia.edu. Available at: http://www.academia.edu/8339253/Background_of_Jack_Ma [Accessed 10 Jan. 2015].
Ft.com,. Alibaba.com: A Smiling Community with a Dream. Retrieved 14 January 2015, from http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/c6aba388-74a6-11db-bc76-0000779e2340.pdf
Griffin, R. (2013). Management. 9th ed. Boston - New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, pp.465-496.
Kux, S. (n.d.). 8 Keys to Success from Jack Ma, Self-Made Billionaire and CEO of Alibaba. [online] www.lifehack.org. Available at: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/work/8-keys-success-from-jack-self-made-billionaire-and-ceo-alibaba.html [Accessed 18 Jan. 2015].
Stone, M., & D'onfro, J. (2014). Alibaba Founder Jack Ma Nearly Doubled His Wealth This Year — Here's His Inspiring Life Story. Business Insider. Retrieved 26 January 2015, from http://www.businessinsider.com/alibaba-founder-jack-ma-biography-in-pictures-2014-12?op=1
Suisse, C. (2013). Jack Ma - E-commerce in China and Around the World. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OcNdxPhAUk [Accessed 19 Jan. 2015].
Thomson, C. (2014). Why Alibaba will have trouble growing its business in the US. [online] CNBC, p.1. Available at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101634024#. [Accessed 18 Jan. 2015].


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