one month in alibaba as a global intern

One Month in Alibaba Jeff Tang, 2013/09

Copyright © 2013 Jeff Tang, HKUST. All rights reserved.

Absolutely more than this…


More than this as well…

* Incomplete agenda Copyright © 2013 Jeff Tang, HKUST. All rights reserved.

Agenda

• The program

• The company

• Tmall & my work

• Observations

• It’s fun time

• Summary


1. THE PROGRAM Good to be the “first” class.

One Month in Alibaba


Global Interns Program (全球实习生项目)

Conceived the plan

3 years ago…

戴珊（集团CPO）：the

ultimate program manger

曲洋（资深总监）：Class coordinator

out of 10K+ applications http://e.weibo.com/1897953162/A3mxL3AWa

陆兆禧（集团CEO）

彭蕾（小微CEO）

Many others…


Goal & an unwritten law

http://e.weibo.com/1897953162/A3mxL3AWa

A bit more about this program…

Group Activities

• Opening

• Campus visits

• Weekly gathering

• Top mgmt sharing

• Graduation

The best way to taste Aliway （阿里味儿） is to work with Alipeople （阿里人）.

1-on-1 mentorship in BUs


2. THE COMPANY BUs are working independently together... 形散而神聚



A quick view of its business in 2013

25 BUs constitute “Alibaba Group”,

but it only means 1/3.

* Org chart after restructuring on

2013/01/10, maybe outdated..


A quick view of its business in 2013

Alibaba Small and Micro Financial

Services Group (under formation)

彭蕾 - CEO

国

内

事

业

群

国

际

业

务

事

业

部

共

享

平

台

事

业

群

创

新

金

融

事

业

群

樊路远（木华黎）

彭翼捷（翼捷）

井贤栋（王安石）

胡晓明（孙权）

China Smart Logistics Network


The structure looks familiar?

Key Concepts of Supply Chain Management

Alibaba Group

Cainiao Network

Alibaba SMFS

Group

Alibaba’s E-commerce

Territory


3. TMALL & MY WORK C2B is the future, but has a long way to go..



China B2C market is huge and still growing fast


Tmall is Asia’s largest B2C online retail platform


Tmall: Online Shopping Landmark in China

Tmall allows brand owners, channel partners (distributors, authorized sellers)

to sell quality, brand name goods to consumers in Greater China region.


http://www.tmall.com/

Tmall is featuring more and more (high-end) brands

70,000+ merchants, 80,000+ brands, 400,000,000+ buyers. (as of 2013/07)


Organizational Structure of Tmall

张勇（逍遥子）总裁

物流事业部大客户部天猫事业部航旅事业部

国际业务及商家成长部

产品技术部网站运营部客户满意部新业务部

服装服饰

家装生活

美妆个护

时尚生活

数码电器

商家成长培训部

服务商运营

进口业务部

整合营销

商家互动部

国际招商（BD）

国际品牌管理

商家成长体系

整合营销

流量拓展部

品牌及行业合作

网站及规则

无线

商业分析部

品牌站

品牌街

五大垂直类目 Merchant Growing System


Team of Merchant Growing System

Intelligent Product &

Service System

智能化产品与服务体系

Policy & Communication Service Platform

• 天猫早知道：the only official portal for information

disclosure and communication, (rules, updates,

solutions, training course, online registration etc) .

• 天猫规则解读：interpretation of rules for merchants

selling goods on Tmall – Dos & Don'ts.

Data-driven Operational Capability

Enhancement Plan for Merchants

• Diagnostic reports.

• Structured SOP after diagnosing.

• Data tools for regular operations and special

events.

• Knowledge system.

• Track merchant’s growing roadmap.


What did I do with the team?

* Part of my first & last bi-weekly report.

This page is intentionally left blank.


Knowledge System Framework

Goal: to better assist category operations specialists (类目运营小二) to

diagnose individual stores, identify root causes to any problem, and push

customized operational enhancement solutions.



Knowledge System Framework

It will be integrated into current data-

driven store enhancement plan.

Merchants, Tmall, and consumers are on the same boat!

Only when merchants grow, Tmall grows.



“Double Eleven”

2013 2012

US Cyber

Monday

~95

China’s Singles’ Day (光棍节)

Chinese Online Shopping Carnival


Challenges behind the prosperity

It’s an extreme stress test for the whole ecosystem…

2012/11/11 Before After

Merchants

Tmall

Prod. planning

Inv. planning

Marketing

Biz innovation

Order fulfillment

Logistics

Traffic mgmt

After-sale service Alipay cap.

Real-time service

CRM

Sales

volume = Website

UV × Click-

thru-rate × Purchase-

thru-rate × Avg buyer

spending

Cust. service

Huge QPS

Real-time tracking

Order processing



“Double Eleven” Preparation Whitebook

Tmall rules, page template, etc

Operational planning

CRM techniques

Marketing channels

Customer service

Warehousing & distribution

Organizational readiness

Planning

I will be proud of this year’s success…



C2B: Future of E-commerce

Consumer-driven

Make-to-order (以销定产)

Personalization (个性化定制) Personalized

marketing

Socialized (open)

supply chain

collaboration Flexible manufacturing

Cloud computing

Personalized needs


Tmall: Alibaba’s frontline for testing C2B initiatives

Pure Sales Platform Consumer

Connection Platform

Tmall Strategies (2013)


Presales: Tmall’s first step to educate the market

Tmall

presales

Pick & pack

to order Shipping

Delivery to

doorstep

原产地直供，时令最新鲜

* captured on 9/4


Customization? Category by category, even item by item.

Products like

furniture, home

appliances are

much easier to

do customization

than clothes.

Event-based;

Right cust. scope;

Group buying;

Attractive price;

* captured on 9/4


Customization? Category by category, even item by item.

* captured on 9/5


It takes a long way to fully roll out. Shopping experience is key.

Item Store Brand/Category Platform

Personalized Marketing

• Tag-based CRM tools

(product, demographic,

customer behavior, etc)

• Brand watch + subscription +

SNS + Mobile Internet

seller-buyer interaction (O2O)

• “千人千面” (PC & Mobile) and

push personalized feeds

Low-hanging fruit


Implications of Tmall C2B initiatives on my research

Product (line) launch

Planning Stage Operation Stage Time

Product Portfolio

Planning

Flexible Feature

Commitment

Customer Choice

Behavior Modeling for

Mass Customization

Multi criteria need to be

considered when

merchants are planning

products to sell.

Even if fitting customer individual needs

is an extra selling point for MC, price is

still (oftentimes) the most important factor

for customer’s choice decision-making.



4. OBSERVATIONS It is truly unique, value-driven, and organized to win.



Simple logic for strategic planning

20

80

SOE / Big enterprises

SME

(屌丝：underprivileged losers)

Internet technology

Significantly lower

entry barriers and help

the 80% grow

Matthew Effect often occurs..


It could be applied to virtually any industry…

Supply Demand

C2B Tmall/B2C

Taobao

Marketplace Auction

Focus Position


Business Nature Organization Corp. Culture

Organization Hierarchy Innovation Value/Intensity

Strategies

Tactics

Operations

Great Executors

Great Thinkers

Great Managers

Alibaba is almost purely driven by business model innovation until ~2009.

How to manage

22K+ employees??



大理段氏的最高武学

客户第一

激情诚信敬业

拥抱变化

团队合作

Alibaba Value System

Detailed interpretation of 6 values could be derived for different functions.

客户是衣食父母

共享共担，平凡人做非凡事

专业执着精益求精

诚实正直言行坦荡

迎接变化勇于创新

乐观向上永不放弃



金庸武侠中最高深的武学宝典，此功佛道相参，刚柔并济。


Alibaba Leadership Model

胸怀

眼光超越伯乐

会看

会Sell

有结果

领导者是寂寞的

胸怀是被冤枉撑大的

心态开放，能倾听，善于换位思考

找对人

养好人

养成人


These are not just slogans… they are like blood running through

employees' veins, and embodied by what they think, what they

say, and what they do.

武侠文化：capable, righteous, idealistic, realistic

(Chinese Chivalrous Culture)


风清扬





武侠文化 (Chinese Chivalrous Culture)


嗨，我是三丰！

姜鹏（集团SVP）





武侠文化 (Chinese Chivalrous Culture)







家文化：feel at home, emotional bond, brotherhood

(Home Culture，人情味儿)

Dress comfortably Trust, Simple, Happy








You

Are

Cared!








有情有义


Why Alibaba puts so much effort in developing

such unique organizational culture?


Hard Power Soft Power

Vision

Mission KPI

Code of Conduct

Incentives

Penalties

Value System

Org. Culture No perfect system.

It always has some holes.

Complementary

互补法律道德

……


Organization Hierarchy Innovation Value/Intensity

Strategies

Tactics

Operations

Great Executors??

Great Thinkers

Great Managers

Alibaba is almost purely driven by business model innovation until ~2009.

How to adapt the

organization??


Since Aliyun & “de-IOE” scheme, more technology innovation is taking place.

Alibaba redefines the role of HR


行军打仗，政委有担当！

集团OD平台&Staffing

组织与人才发展

组织文化与沟通

业务HR

组织成长与关怀

HR

General

Join business

decision-making!!

Make sure right

people at right place

Empower the teams

Training

Education

Organizational

Development

Organizational

Culture

What traditional HR professionals should do

(mostly paperwork) has been outsourced..

Change champion

Alibaba redefines the role of HR


It’s possible in Alibaba!

彭蕾：阿里小微金服CEO

3 Words I Heard Most Often in Alibaba

沉淀

共创落地


Words of Wisdom in Alibaba


平凡人做非凡事快乐工作，认真生活

今天的表现是明天最低的要求

马上做！做精彩！

心要大，脚要实。刚工作的几年比谁更踏实，再过几年比谁更激情。男人的胸怀是被冤枉撑大的

你感觉不舒服的时候，就是成长的时候。

教是最好的学

……

but, it must be a happy one

Problems/Challenges

• Manage post-90s employees

• Limited bottom-up innovations

• Make 360° assessment really work

• Still a question mark for its social-media

roadmap

• ……

Alibaba is by no means a perfect company

5. IT IS FUN TIME Happy working, live earnestly... 快乐工作，认真生活



It’s Fun Time!


Day 1: Half-day Opening Ceremony

It’s Fun Time!


DH12 & Tmall’s president in a joint

marketing event in Hangzhou

Day 2: Tmall mentor team & intern team

were syncing expectations from both sides

It’s Fun Time!


Sharing on Alibaba (华蕾, one of the earliest Alibaba employees) & Alipay

Yanjin’s sharing on fashion

It’s Fun Time!


Sharing on Alipay business &

technologies, by 井贤栋, President of

共享平台事业群（阿里小微金服）

Cross-departmental brainstorming session

on 2013 11-11 live broadcasting

It’s Fun Time!


First day (8/21) of Alibaba’s move to its new

campus, Taobao City, in Yuhang District.

Visits to Binjiang

Campus, Taobao City,

& Hupan Garden, Jack

Ma’s apartment, where

Alibaba was born.

It’s Fun Time!


A whole-day painstaking journey for

deep reflection on our life & dreams. Dundun Academy（盾盾学堂）: industry

sharing by outside speakers

(VP of Tianhong Fund, Director of Youku)

It’s Fun Time!


Self-torture like challenge – 10hr walking tour

(~27KM) around West Lake under summer sun.

It’s Fun Time!


Dialogue with 王民明 (VP of OC), and

李俊凌(VP of Strategy, former Jack Ma’s PA)

Dialogue with 彭蕾 (CEO of Alibaba

SMFS Group)

It’s Fun Time!


Small group luncheon meeting with

蔺相如(VP of Alipay)

Brainstorming session for connecting Qingzhi’s

social enterprise project with Taobao

It’s Fun Time!


Dinner with Group CEO for best

performance of marketing 来往 Talk with the founder, Jack Ma, through

Alibaba’s own mobile IM client - 来往


It’s Fun Time!

Our video clip for graduation ceremony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtjD3YxRg2g

6. SUMMARY & some final words…



Takeaways from one month in Alibaba


Know Alibaba better

Know post-90s better

Know myself better

Jack Ma on the Company


If you work for making money, it’s just a job.

If you work for self-actualization, it could be a career.

If you work for pursuing some dream, it’s answering a calling.

-- Jeff Tang, 2013

My updated thoughts on work & life


Thanks for your attention! “Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you’re gonna get.”


Contact: ghtang#ust.hk (replace # with @)

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