Leadership and Management Report: Jack Ma and Business Influence

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Jack Ma, the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba, focusing on his leadership qualities and influence. The report details Ma's career path, highlighting his early struggles and eventual success in building one of the world's largest e-commerce companies. It examines his significant leadership qualities, including unique business ideas, foresight, positive attitude, marketing strategies, ability to unite people, and the power to face rejection. The report also discusses his personal and family circumstances, education, and significant life and career achievements, including his contributions to society and overall business influence. The analysis provides insights into Ma's strategic decisions, entrepreneurial vision, and impact on the global business landscape, offering examples of his influence in various sectors. The report uses a variety of sources to support its findings, providing a detailed overview of Jack Ma's journey and leadership style.

Running head: LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT
Leadership & management
Student’s Name
University Name
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
1. Name.................................................................................................................................................3
2. Career position..................................................................................................................................3
3. Career path........................................................................................................................................3
4. Personal circumstances (family etc.).................................................................................................4
5. Education...........................................................................................................................................4
6. Elaborate significant leadership qualities...........................................................................................5
6.1 Unique Business start-up ideas....................................................................................................5
6.2 Foresight as well as leadership vision..........................................................................................5
6.3 High value towards attitude.........................................................................................................5
6.4 Right marketing of the necessary business events.......................................................................6
6.5 Unite people over a single objective............................................................................................6
6.6 Hiring a team with superiority of experience...............................................................................6
6.7 Power to face Rejection...............................................................................................................6
7. Describe significant life achievements..............................................................................................7
8. Highlight significant career achievements.........................................................................................7
9. Contribution to society at large..........................................................................................................8
10 Business influence overall (give examples)......................................................................................9
Reference List......................................................................................................................................10

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1. Name
The Good name of the co-founder and the executive director of the Alibaba Company
is Jack Ma Yun. (Chinese: 马马; pinyin: Mǎ Yún)
2. Career position
Jack Ma who was a former English Teacher, established one of the largest ecommerce
organisation of the world, Alibaba. In the September of 2014, Jack Ma’s company Alibaba
had raised more than $25 Billion through an IPO offering in the NY stock exchange (Kim
2018). So far he have been playing the role of the Executive Chairman of the company and in
September of 2018, Jack Ma resigned from that position. However, he would remain in that
position for another 12 months for ensuring a smooth transition.
3. Career path
In his life, Jack Ma learned better from failures that he faced in his life than through
conventional educational channels. In the primary school he failed 2 times, 3 times in the
middle school and even in the college entrance test (Burns 2016). At the time he graduated,
he had been rejected from companies also. After he started the Alibaba, he approached for
venture capital funding in the Silicon Valley. However, his proposal was rejected because of
approaching with an unprofitable business.
However, unlike other college dropout turned entrepreneurs, like Zuckerberg or Bill
Gates of Steve Jobs, he building the brand in the early 2000s alongside pursuit of his MBA
from the Cheung Kong University. His academic life was filled with struggle particularly in
the early years at the primary school and the secondary school. He could not excel in the
subjects that he were dispassionate about. However, his passion was restricted and objectified
with the success of the Alibaba Company (Anwar 2017). He developed a zest for learning the
English Language. After learning the basics, he attempted to polish his speaking power by

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working as a tour guide for the foreign tourists. Through interaction with these foreign
tourists, he had developed a pen pal relationship with them and they were in fact from among
the very first clients of his company.
His ability to question and re-examine situations helped him to perceive the situations
from various perspectives. This allowed him to see opportunities in cases where all others
would have seen problems only. Most entrepreneurs thought that opening an ecommerce
business in China would be unpromising owing to the unreliability and unworthiness of the
banking and payment system in the country (Choi 2017). However, Jack Ma had shown the
courage to establish Alipay without the prior approval from the banking agencies of the
country.
4. Personal circumstances (family etc.)
Jack Ma is one of the greatest examples of the entrepreneurship in the today’s world.
Once he had been a poor lad who survived by acting as a tourist guide. His parents were
involved in the profession of telling stories through music. He had an urge to learn English
and since an early age he was involved in a continuous effort communicate in English in a
better way (Dongwei 2016). His attempts to join universities by giving entrance tests also
failed many times. However, he joined the Teacher’s training Institute in Hangzhou to
accomplish a Bachelor’s degree in English and he graduated in 1988. He finally married his
first love, Zhang Ying, whom he had met at the Teacher’s Training Institute. The family have
a daughter and a son.
5. Education
Jack Ma had a struggling life at his primary and secondary school where he failed
approximately 5 times. Later he also struggled to gain admission to the university where he
did not clear the entrance exam for admission to the college. The entrance exams in China are

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held annually and thus he took four years to pass the college level (Zhang et al. 2017). He
was able to enter the teacher’s institute in Hangzhou and from there he finally graduated with
a degree in English. At school he head the student’s council and after the completion of his
education, he turned out to be a lecturer in English as well as Foreign trade at the University
of Hangzhou Dianzi.
6. Elaborate significant leadership qualities
The distinct leadership traits of Jack Ma as a leader and a founder of Alibaba Company are as
follows:
6.1 Unique Business start-up ideas
Alibaba founded by Jack Ma offered an opportunity to the individual entrepreneurs as well as
small business customers to seek customers that suits their business domain. The decision
came at a time when entrepreneurship in the ecommerce domain would have been considered
as the worst plan for a start up in the country of China (Chiu et al. 2017). However, Jack Ma
targeted the Chinese market initially. However, Ma’s business idea was innovative and was
accepted in other business domains of China as well.
6.2 Foresight as well as leadership vision
Jack Ma always believed that one good quality of a leader is that he should possess distinct
foresight. He had the power to foresee the repercussions of the some of the decisions that
seemed seemingly most insignificant. This was a key to the success of his business. As
Sheikh, Shahzad and Ishaq (2017), informs, he was also able to start Alipay because of
foresight that helped him to see prospect in the business which others undermined.
6.3 High value towards attitude

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Positive as well as optimistic attitude is always an indispensable factor for the
sustenance of the business in a cutthroat business environment. He always kept a low profile
and rather than flaunting his own wealth, he emphasised on boasting about the growth of his
organisation. As Saroj (2018), informs, the people who are working for Alibaba or the allied
corporations, have a positive attitude coupled with a zest for industrious work. They know
that these are the values that are mostly respected by Jack Ma.
6.4 Right marketing of the necessary business events
Singles Day is celebrated with as much impetus in China as Valentine’s Day or any
other occasion (Glowik 2017). Jack Ma thought that this could be the opportunity for the
company to make business exclusively and kept cashing in over the decades.
6.5 Unite people over a single objective
Jack Ma realised that however hard he tried he always be encountering a group of
employees or managers who would not be absolutely convinced with his business decisions.
He accepted this difference pen heartedly and that rather than uniting the whole company
under his self-goal, he launched a perception that all the stakeholders of the company should
be united under a single vision.
6.6 Hiring a team with superiority of experience
Once Jack Ma was asked, what makes an employee different from one leader? His
straightforward reply was that the leader was a person with a higher skill of technicality. As
informed by Libert, Wind and Fenley (2014), Jack Ma emphasises on appointing those
people who have focus on the enhancement of key skills and also have a comprehensive
know-how for carrying forward the vision that he personally believed in.
6.7 Power to face Rejection

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Most of the people are unaware of the facts that state how many times a leader like
Jack Ma have been rejected on his proposal or have been receiving disappointing results on
his business affairs. Jack Ma had the power of endurance to hold on to his determination and
with every rejection, he made himself more dedicated (Fan 2019). Many of his near ones had
deceive him, but in the end he was able to start his own B2B business and most importantly
he did this with the help of very few people who were with him, throughout his thick and
thins.
7. Describe significant life achievements
 Jack Ma got to know about internet in the middle of 1990 and immediately started to
see this technological drive as a great opportunity in business innovation.
 Ma visited the US frequently in the year 1995 and tended to learn about internet. He
learned a lot about websites there and in the same year raised a capital of $20000 for
starting his own business solely focusing on the internet.
 Initially his purpose was the creation of websites for the clients. Using his intellect, he
was able to accumulate within 3 years only.
 The success of his business positioned him at the helm of a government led agency
‘China International Electronic Commerce Centre’(Turban et al. 2018)
 After that, in 1999, he created a website with other of his friends named Alibaba. His
intension was to create a one stop business solution that is web based.
 The immense prospect of the company helped in gathering $25 million and that
significantly contributed to the growth of the organisation.
 Next, Jack Ma attempted to venture in to ecommerce business and he saw that the
business could stand apart to be a legendary business subsidiary in the 21st century.
 He also founded other famous firms like Taobao’, ‘Lynx’ and ‘Ali Mama’.

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8. Highlight significant career achievements
 The Central Television of China had mentioned as one among the 10 business leaders
of the year which was compiled for the year 2004.
 He was given the designation, ‘The Businessperson of the Year’ from the end of the
‘Business Week’ magazine and his name was also featured in the list of 25 most
business person of Asia
 The year 2009 have been extremely important in the life of Jack Ma. His name
flashed in the list of 100 most influential business leaders of the world. He also
received 2009 CCTV Economic Person of the Year: Business Leader of the Decade
Award (Hwang, Jung and Shin 2017).
 Forbes magazine also awarded him the position of 30th most powerful man in the year
2014.
 The Asian Awards’ ceremony for the year 2015, felicitated him as the Entrepreneur of
the year.
9. Contribution to society at large
Jack Ma is soon to retire and following that he would be engaging highly in
philanthropic activities. He has planned that he would be supporting millions of Chinese
children to get access to education. He has planned to set up rural schools in the suburbs of
China. He is emphasised a making the future sustainable for the next generation of the
Chinese. Initially he has plans of working with 60 million children. He also pledges to the
entrepreneurs and the corporate of Chinese mainland to donate towards the social issues of
their respective native provinces (Sen, Ozturk and Vayvay 2016). He also have plans to set
up technical schools where he can impart professional education that would enable the

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Chinese to get work in the technical sector. His aim is to get more Chinese people work in the
organised sector of the country.
10 Business influence overall (give examples)
 Jack Ma’s Alibaba is taking the lead to courting the small businesses of US
 The company is also leading the way to change the way in which departmental stores
do business
 The Hema Supermarket chain is going to throw the biggest threat to Walmart by 2030
 Alibaba would be surpassing Amazon in terms of business volume in 2020 (Liang et
al. 2016).
 Starting on a shoe string, the business of Alibaba have achieved a phenomenal
growth.

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Reference List
Anwar, S.T., 2017. Alibaba: Entrepreneurial growth and global expansion in B2B/B2C
markets. Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 15(4), pp.366-389.
Burns, P., 2016. Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan Limited.
Chiu, H., Fang, J., Hui, D., Ken, B., Rouleau, M.A. and Silverwood, R., 2017. Company
Synopsis.
Choi, B., 2017. Corporate Strategy of Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent for Electric Vehicle (EV)
Business. 중중중 중중중, (31), pp.219-250.
Dongwei, S., 2016, January. Cross-border e-commerce helps SMEs reach global markets. In
International Trade Forum (No. 2, p. 16). International Trade Centre.
Fan, Q., 2019. An Exploratory Study of Cross Border E-commerce (CBEC) in China:
Opportunities and Challenges for Small to Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs). International
Journal of E-Entrepreneurship and Innovation (IJEEI), 9(1), pp.23-29.
Glowik, M., 2017. 4.1 case study: Alibaba group. Global Strategy in the Service Industries:
Dynamics, Analysis, Growth, 96.
Hwang, G.S., Jung, H.J. and Shin, C.S., 2017. The Effects of Business Startup Education of
Restaurant Founder on Transfer Effect in Learning and Entrepreneurial Intentions. pp.167-
170.
Kim, Y.C., 2018. Alibaba: Jack Ma’s Unique Growth Strategy and the Future of Its Global
Development in the Chinese Digital Business Industry. In The Digitization of Business in
China (pp. 219-247). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Liang, B., Tu, Y., Cline, T. and Ma, Z., 2016. China's E-Tailing Blossom: A Case Study. In
E-Retailing challenges and opportunities in the global marketplace (pp. 72-98). IGI Global.
Libert, B., Wind, Y. and Fenley, M., 2014. What Airbnb, Uber, and Alibaba have in
common. Harvard business review, 11.

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Saroj, S., 2018. Online Retailing in India: Present Situation and Future Growth Opportunities.
Sen, D., Ozturk, M. and Vayvay, O., 2016. An overview of big data for growth in SMEs.
Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 235, pp.159-167.
Sheikh, A.A., Shahzad, A. and Ishaq, A.K., 2017. The Growth of E-Marketing in Business-
to-Business Industry and its Effect on the Performance of Businesses in Pakistan: Marketing
Success. International and Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Sciences, 6(2), pp.178-214.
Turban, E., Outland, J., King, D., Lee, J.K., Liang, T.P. and Turban, D.C., 2018. Business-to-
Business E-Commerce. In Electronic Commerce 2018 (pp. 123-166). Springer, Cham.
Zhang, W., Chen, M., An, W. and Zhang, J., 2017, July. The Key Success Factors in the
Development of Platform-Based Business in China-Case Study on Alibaba and Jingdong. In
International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (pp. 185-193).
Springer, Cham.