Identify what you believe are the 5 (five) most important leadership responsibilities and how today's business leader like Jack Ma develop the skills and charisma to be effective in the role?
STRATEGIC FOCUS Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, once said that the key to the success of e-commerce in China is trust. He was likely correct. and his firm garnered a fair amount of trust as it became the largest internet company in China. In fact, Alibaba.com's IPO on Alibaba.com Trade Safely with the World the Hong Kong stock exchange produced US$1.7 billion - the second-largest internet IPO behind Google. Alibaba accounts for The mess cheatwe DENYOCM & TWIN 80 per cent of all e-commerce in China; in 2010, it had gross Selectro Fromirt. category sourcing lock. sales volume of almost US$60 billion. Alibaba has 57 million registered users globally, and about 14 million of them are registered on its English-language network. Despite its success and Ma's emphasis on trust and values, he announced in February 2011 that an internal investigation found fraudulent practices within the company. Essentially, approximately 2300 sellers who paid Alibaba to sell their In early 2011, Alibaba discovered that nearly 2300 of its sales personnel goods and services on its site had defrauded customers le.g.. had defrauded customers, The company worked double time to regain the they obtained payments but never provided the goods to the trust of its e-commerce customers. buyersi. These sellers received assistance from about 100 of the more than 5000 sales associates employed by Alibaba. practices to guard against further fraudulent activities. Overall, the sales amounted to approximately US$6 million, only Furthermore, it identified the customers defrauded and a small amount of Alibaba's total business. However, all of the repaid them the money that they lost in the transactions. It buyers defrauded were from outside of China, the primary set worked. Alibaba now (in 2015) has sales of US$390 billion of customers targeted by Alibaba for China's companies. Ma and is aiming at the US market. where a huge opportunity and Alibaba acted swiftly and forcefully when the investigation is to help small US firms sell into China. Jack Ma has said conclusively showed fraud. Alibaba's CEO, David Wei, and COO. that 'Alibaba was founded in China but it was created for the Elvis Lee, both resigned, accepting blame for the unethical world', practices, even though they were not directly involved in the Sources: A. Ha, 2015, Jack Ma lays out Alibaba's USA strategy, Tech Crunch activities, In addition, Deng Kangming, chief of human resources, http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/09/alibabas-us-strategy/#. 1ji5ybz:Hwji; was demoted. These actions suggested the seriousness with Reuters, 2011, Chinese police arrest 36 in Alibaba.com fraud sting, http:/ www.reuters.com, 30 June; T. Orlik, 2011, Alibaba's most valuable treasure which the firm judged these problems. Jonathan Lu, CEO of still in the cave, Wall Street Journal Online, http:/www.online.wsj.com, 18 Taobao, another major company in the Alibaba group, was March; T. Culpan, 2011. Alibaba's chief Lu wants to 'fix mistakes, prevent named CEO of Alibaba.com the was himself replaced in May detours', Bloomberg Businessweek, http://www.businessweek.com, 24 2015 by Daniel Zhangl. Eventually, Chinese police arrested 36 February; B. Powell, 2011, Why Alibaba's CEO had to go. Fortune, http:/tech. individuals for the Alibaba.com fraudulent activity. fortune.cnn.com, 22 February: K. Hille, 2011, Alibaba chiefs quit after fraud cases, Financial Times, 22 February, 18; D. Barboza, 201 1, 2 executives quit Alibaba worked hard to re-establish the trust that Ma felt Alibaba.com amid fraud inquiry, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com was so important for an e-commerce company. It established 21 February
