Jack Ma: A Case Study of Entrepreneurial Success Using the FORT Model

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Research about the Entrepreneur...............................................................................................................2
FORT Model.................................................................................................................................................2
Application of FORT model to Jack Ma........................................................................................................3
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................5
References...................................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
The main purpose of the assignment is to analyse in detail the journey of an entrepreneur from
the initial idea to a start-up business and his growth. Also, this assignment involves in applying
in detail the literature of FORT (founder; opportunity; resources and team) model and critically
assesses the entrepreneur with this research. The entrepreneur chosen by the researcher for this
task is Jack Ma, the leading businessman, philanthropist and self made entrepreneur who is the
founder of Alibaba Group of companies.
Research about the Entrepreneur
The entrepreneur who has been chosen for this task is Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba group of
companies. Jack Ma was born in Zhejiang province of China, in his early days it was stated that
Jack has applied for 30 different jobs and was rejected all the time, he was not even got through
in the selection process in KFC. It was in 1994 when Jack Ma heard about internet and wanted to
learn more about it, so he headed to United States to learn more about it and has began to invest
his life and time in this area. In 1995, Jack started China Yellow pages and made little money
with the investment received from his friend. It was in 1999, Jack Ma has founded Alibaba, in
order to expand e-commerce market in China in order to assist the small and medium sized
enterprises to expand their business in the world market. It was noted that in 2017, the company
made a total revenue of CNY 158 billion and a total profit for the year exceeded more than CNY
41 billion. (Rundle-Thiele, 2015). He has invested in many business helping people to realise
their dreams and also actively takes part in various philanthrophy activities thereby giving back
to the society which has made him.
FORT Model
According to researchers, Timmon's business process model is a regulator. The three elements of
the model are the basis and the entrepreneur must balance these factors with his creativity,
leadership and efficient communication in an uncertain external environment. However,
according to researchers, several factors can lead to failure to put into operation. (Bhalerao,
2015). Only some of these factors are external and the entrepreneur can not be verified, and few
handle the entrepreneurs because they are internal. Few factors explain the inability of the

founder to build confidence in his business concept and not convince people to join the
leadership. Other factors are choosing a non-original business idea or a very narrow segment that
is saturated. (Zarei, 2011). Other factors that hinder the success of a new company may be in
basic stability strategies. When a company is in the initial phase, it is important for the
entrepreneur to flexibly fit into all business development and business successes.
Application of FORT model to Jack Ma
As per the above part, it is noted that the FORT model as suggested by Timmons, states that an
entrepreneur should always focus in balancing the three aspects viz., opportunity; resources
available and the team members. The model suggested that the entrepreneur should always focus
on opportunity all the time. So, the life of Jack Ma was mainly involved in looking at the
opportunity and identifying ways to realise it. When internet has started to become the essential
factor for the business enterprises, (Kumar, 2015). Jack Ma has not only able to realise it but
planed to take advanatge of the opportunity which was available. He tends to like the challenge
and accepted it as an opportunity. Furthermore, in an interview Jack Ma has stated that he
possessed a terrific team, which enable in understanding the nuances of the business, realise the
mission of the organisation and work in a co-operative manner for achieving the success. (Wood,
2011).
As per the model it is identified that another key aspect for the entrepreneur is allocating the
resources and people in a more effective manner. The entrepreneur need to understand that the
resources and talented people are very scarce. Jack Ma possess high quality and ability in valuing
them and always lead from the front, if any decisions gone wrong he has taken the responsibility
for it and when it went right he gave the appreciatio to his employees and team. He has led the
internet engineers who were instrumental in making Alibaba major enterprises in China, he has
sourced capital from his wife and friend and began the operations. (Ko, 2015). As stated by
Timmons in the model, a team is highly crucial for the entrepreneur to make his dream come
true. It is noted that Jack Ma possess excellent team who works with him and Jack gives
complete freedom to his employees and allow them to act freely and independently. This shows

that Jack Ma trust his team to the core and creates a sense of empowerment to them, which is
characterised as the key to his leadership. (Brem, 2011)
By looking at the entrepreneurial method implemented by Jack Ma, he has always targeted to
maket his services to business customers who are in small and medium sized enterprises. This is
because, big business can easily tap large customers in domestic and international markets, but
the SME business finds very difficult to compete these business in the domestic markets and they
do not possess financial muscle in exports. This was considered as opportunity for Jack Ma as he
wanted to help these SME sectors in China. Jack Ma used the power of internet to the core
services and assisted the business of SME and other entrepreneurs to market their products in
domestic and international markets at a very low cost.
In the initial days of Alibaba, the company did not make much money as the internet was still in
the initial stages in China and SME are not taking chances to buy the idea of Jacj Ma, however
he seen this as opportunity as he sees many kids playing games internet all day long. So he
decided that internet can make big in the future, some of his employees in theearly days says that
they can sell online gaming etc,. but Jack Ma rejected it saying that it is like gambling which will
spoil the kids and the future generations. He even quoted that “we can die for hunger but let’s not
sell online gamming platform”. So, he has concern for the business, its people and society.
Though onlin gamming can help the business to generate more revenues and help in making big
profits, but Jack Ma has rejected it by taking into account the ethical issues and CSR, this shows
that the entrepreneur should not look only at the profits but be more responsible towards the
community and other stakeholders. (Scally, 2015)
Furthermore, it is noted that the success of Jack Ma is balancing all the aspects like managing the
team, allocating the resoueces and looking for opportunity. Jack Ma is seriously involved in
social networking with his team members and also with other entrepreneurs to understand their
requirements, listen to their ideas and help them by investing in their business or partner with
them for achieving combined success. Jack Ma always believe in creativity and to achieve
greater results through leadership and providing freedom to their employees. Jack Ma always
looks the problems as the opportunity and tend to build his business by exploring the
opportunities, he also trains his employees on the values of the company and work in a
collaborative manner. He has no restirctions on business wear, rather fcouses only on the results

and experimenting new things. Jack Ma always request his employees to try new things and be
not scared even if they fail because of trying new things. These aspects make Jack Ma the best
entrepreneur in his field.
Conclusion
I personally want to build my career in e-commerce and I consider Jack Ma has the role model, I
like his seeing the problems as opportunity, work together as team and be more responsible to all
the stakeholers rather than focusing only on profits. The new company is at risk, even though the
company is rapidly using its capital, which leads to combustion. Therefore, the company needs
additional capital resources that can be very dangerous at the beginning of each new creation.
Research also shows that when business investors abuse, this can lead to business conflicts,
because even if investors are responsible, business decisions should not be allowed because only
one entrepreneur can take the initiative. appropriate decisions. Corporate and Technology Policy:
Remembrance of Bruce A. Kirchhoff. (Rundle-Thiele, 2015). Therefore, many researchers have
identified basic skills that the entrepreneur has to balance with the three factors in Timmon's
business process. Some of the characteristics entrepreneurs need is good interpersonal
relationships to build social, ambitious, risk-based, focused and creative relationships that are
able to influence and motivate their teams to achieve organizational goals. You should be able to
take advantage of your idea.
References
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