Leadership Lessons from Jack Ma, Co-founder of Alibaba

This presentation explores the leadership style of Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba, and the lessons that can be learned from his success. It covers his vision for the organization, the challenges he faced, his strengths and weaknesses, the risks he took, and the leadership values he embodies. The presentation concludes with a summary of his achievements and his approach to leadership.

LEADERSHIP
JACK MA

Introduction
and
About the
Leader
 The presentation will be discussing the
eminent aspects of a leader and how
they have a characteristic to convert
any problem into an opportunity and
also possess an ability to guide
people.
 Jack Ma has been chosen as the leader
for the presentation.
 He is the co-founder and the executive
chairperson of the Alibaba website
(Entreprenuermag.co.za 2018).
 He is one of the richest men in the
world and has faced various
challenges in order to become
successful.
 He has planned to resign on 10th

Vision of the
leader for
the
Organizatio
n
 Jack Ma had stated down certain simple visions for his
organization.
 These visions are as follows:
 To ensure that excellent services are provided to the 2
billion customers.
 To ensure enough business for the 10 million small
businesses in China and worldwide (Ojha 2016).
 To connect different businesses and to serve the
society.

Challenges
faced by
the leader
 The different challenges having been faced by Jack Ma are as
follows:
 Failure in various exams
 Rejection from the different jobs
 Rejection from Harvard (Telegraph.co.uk. 2018).
 Lack of funding's for Alibaba during the initial days

Strengths
and
Weaknesses
of the
leader
 All leaders have certain strengths as
well as weaknesses. The strengths of
Jack ma as a leader are as follows:
 Signature Leadership style
 Democratic management
 Understanding of the people
 Values criticism
 Charity beliefs

Continued.
 The different shortcomings of Jack Ma
as a leader are as follows:
 Lack of technological knowledge
(Financialpost.com. 2018).
 Lack of contacts

Risks
undertaken
by the
leader
 Leadership is all about taking calculated risks in order
to ensure that the organization is successful in the
long run. The different risks taken by Jack Ma are as
follows:
 Continuing operations even during lack of funding's
 Involvement in e-commerce business when it was
considerably new (DuBrin 2015).

Lessons to
be learnt
from Jack
Ma
 Jack Ma can be described as an ideal leader and there are
various lessons which one can learn from his leadership
reign at Alibaba:
 Persistence
 Hard work (Asrar-ul-Haq & Kuchinke
2016).
 Risk taking
 Learning from mistakes

Certain
leadership
values of
Jack Ma
Source : (Raelin 2016).

Conclusion
 Hence, it can be stated that :
 Jack Ma is one of the most influential
leaders of all times
 He is the founder of Alibaba and
undertook the riskiest venture of the
times.
 He has faced various challenges in this
domain in order to find success.
 A patient and charismatic leader, Jack ma
believes in working hard, enjoying life
and giving it back to the society.

References
 Asrar-ul-Haq, M. & Kuchinke, K.P., 2016. Impact of leadership styles on
employees’ attitude towards their leader and performance: Empirical
evidence from Pakistani banks. Future Business Journal, 2(1), pp.54-64.
 DuBrin, A.J., 2015. Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills.
Nelson Education.
 Entreprenuermag.co.za 2018. Success stories. [Online] Available at:
https://www.entrepreneurmag.co.za/advice/success-stories/lessons-learn
t/20-crazy-things-weve-learned-about-alibaba-billionaire-jack-ma/
[Accessed on: 09. Sept. 2018].
 Financialpost.com. 2018. Alibaba. [Online] Available at:
https://business.financialpost.com/technology/alibabas-jack-ma-talks-op
portunity-risk-and-chickens-as-he-woos-canadian-business
[Accessed on: 09. Sept. 2018].
 Ojha, C., 2016. A study on the comparative influence of Jack Ma and Jeff
Bezos on the employer brand attractiveness of Alibaba. com and
Amazon. com (Doctoral dissertation, School of Management and Labour
Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai).
 Raelin, J.A., 2016. Imagine there are no leaders: Reframing leadership as
collaborative agency. Leadership, 12(2), pp.131-158.
 Telegraph.co.uk. 2018. China- a threat take some risks like Jack Ma.
[Online] Available at:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11529914/China-a-threa
t-Take-some-risks-like-Jack-Ma.html
. [Accessed on: 09. Sept. 2018].

Thank
You