Jack Ma Steps Down On 20th Birthday of Alibaba

Jack Ma has stepped down from the position of chairman at the company he co-founded exactly 20 years ago. Ma announced his retirement plans last year, saying at the time he wanted to spend more time focusing on education. ZDNet reports: Ma bid farewell to Alibaba, sporting a rock star wig and guitar at an employee event Tuesday, according to Reuters. "After tonight I will start a new life," Ma reportedly said at Tuesday's event. "I do believe the world is good, there are so many opportunities, and I love excitement so much, which is why I will retire early."

His retirement was not the end of an era, the former English teacher said when he announced he was stepping down, but "the beginning of an era," adding also at the time, "I love education." CEO Daniel Zhang succeeds Ma as chairman of the board, effective September 10, 2019. Ma stayed on for a year to "ensure a smooth transition of the chairmanship." "I have put a lot of thought and preparation into this succession plan for ten years," Ma wrote in a letter to shareholders and customers in September. "When Alibaba was founded in 1999, our goal was to build a company that could make China and the world proud and one that could cross three centuries to last 102 years. However, we all knew that no one could stay with the company for 102 years. A sustainable Alibaba would have to be built on sound governance, culture-centric philosophy, and consistency in developing talent. No company can rely solely on its founders."

Rich fuck retires - who cares

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

My wife retired last month after busting her ass 37 years in the same company on a shite salary, with a shite retirement. Nobody talks about her, or the thousands of similar sods who earn a miser so that Jack Ma and his ilk may "love excitement so much" and other such tripe at the sunset of their lives.

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[Camembert]

My sympathy for your wife. In this case the story is inline with the interests of this site.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[Cederic]

It's almost as though Ma managed to do something that your wife and thousands of similar sods haven't.

However, to be fair to all: I will happily acknowledge your wife's contribution towards building a $50bn turnover company employing a hundred thousand people. Which company is that?

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[JBMcB]

My wife retired last month after busting her ass 37 years in the same company on a shite salary, with a shite retirement.

Who is in charge of your wife's career path: the company she works for, or her?

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[Ryanrule]

Well the Chinese govt was responsible for ma’s path.

Hit the road Jack

[goombah99]

(Hit the road, Jack and don't you alibaba no ma
no ma no more, no ma)

Video with Elon

[monkeyxpress]

I saw the highlight reel for the Musk/Ma interview. Okay, Elon has some pretty nutty ideas at time, but they are generally at least grounded in some technical knowledge with a bit of pixie dust added. Jack Ma is simply non-sensical. My guess is that he is the 'useful idiot' type that you see around the place. The money folk (or in china's case the govt) want to shovel money into a certain area, but they want someone they can control. So they pick someone charismatic and intelligent enough to keep a project bumbling along, but not intelligent enough to realise they are being played. If it all goes bad they liquidate the person, take their grandma's house that was put up as collateral, and throw them on the trash heap. You see this a lot with shiny real estate developers (ahem, some might be able to think of a particularly high profile example).

Maybe after his appearance next to musk the chinese government realised they aimed a little low, and decided to replace him.

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[Camembert]

A lot of wrong assumptions about Jack Ma. He was a good enterpreneur with the good idea at the right time in the right market.

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[Nidi62]

A lot of wrong assumptions about Jack Ma. He was a good enterpreneur with the good idea at the right time in the right market.

Pretty much how and why anyone really succeeds to that level. It's all about being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time(excluding those lucky enough to choose rich parents). Sure, personal drive can help, but drive means nothing if you don't have the right idea or you have the right idea but at the wrong time or in the wrong market. Contrary to what all those books and seminars try to sell people there's no magic formula, no secret process to success. You won't make it without luck.

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[I am not a Bicycle]

Indeed. For someone in mainland China to speak English as well as Jack Ma at a time when the Web was still in its radioactive infancy, that requires more than a fair amount of intelligence. So, while Ma might not be your typical Silk Valley geek, he's definitely not an idiot. If anything, I call it smart to quit while you're ahead, before your company goes under or gets taken over by the agents of state capitalism.

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[Ryanrule]

Had govt connections. Nothing else.

You don't have to be super-smart ...

[Qbertino]

... you should however be consciencous and determined. Which Jack Ma is in spades.

There are many perfectly smart people - like, for instance, me - that are borderline slackers. I might even be smarter than Jack Ma - who knows?
That, however, is hardly ever a determinator for finacial success. In fact, you need a certain measure of ignorance to march through in some areas of life and some industries.

I couldn't care less how smart I am for hardcore entrepreneurship. Being some measure of intelligent and health

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[_merlin]

He studied to be a teacher before founding his e-commerce empire. He's going back to what he's actually qualified to do.

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[Kreplock]

I would guess he is a bright schmoozer, on top of the conscientious visionary requirement. Charismatic and smart, but not so clever that he could pose a danger to the Party. Because there are two gateways to navigate over there for a successful business - the marketplace and the ChiCom gov't.

I do believe the world is good

[Opportunist]

I bet the former Southern Gentlemen thought the world is good, too, after getting rich from slave labour.

Could we get a word from the slaves what they think about it? Or did they jump already?

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[110010001000]

Exactly. Jack Ma will always be an asshole and hopefully he will be dead soon.

celebrating a fucking slave owner?

[etash]

Isn't he the guy who is super excited and endorses the 12 hour / day and 6 days / week working plan also known as 996? The same guy who made billions from this tactic as well. May he die a slow and painful death.

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[leonbev]

Yeah, it would have been nice if his management career ended in a more poetic fashion, like dying of a heart attack due to overwork.

That said, I doubt that he was actually working the hours he was requiring his employees to work at the time.

I suspect

[DarkOx]

I find it odd that he would step down after only 20 years. Especially when one could argue Ali Baba has not "peaked" yet. They can easily (and probably will unless Trump does something to save us) expand a good deal in the American and EU markets.

My guess is someone from the Party told Ma he had a choice of retiring with a large sack of cash or being retired... So they can make room for another apparatchik to run the place; rather than Jack whose arm they twisted a while back to at least say he is a Communi

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[drinkypoo]

I don't know, maybe it has peaked.

Certainly AliExpress has done so, because consumer confidence is low.

Take the situation of Chinese diesel heaters by example. These are blatant copies of heaters made by German companies like eberspacher - who were actually convicted of price fixing, so i don't feel bad for them. It literally costs less to buy a whole Chinese heater than just a control board for an eberspacher, and they are literally no more reliable. Most of them are garbage. If you get a garbage unit thro

paul allen redux?

[Kreplock]

I see in the pics he was sending his guitar signal thru a mismatched stack - a Marshall head and an Orange cabinet. If it was a one-time gimmick I'd expect matching hardware, but now I wonder if he really plays...

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[Headw1nd]

This is an interesting observation that, as a non-musical person, I would not have made. Thank you!

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[niftydude]

Funnily enough, a decade or so back when I was an aspiring musician I recorded some tracks for a couple of songs for an album through a similar setup. The studio had an Orange cabinet sitting around, and I plugged my Marshall head into it.

I couldn't get a lead sound I liked from that setup, but the rhythm crunch was the best I've ever achieved. Just really rich without being mushy.

If I had been a rock rhythm guitarist, that probably would have become the daily driver I'd have settled on.

Good riddance

[OneHundredAndTen]

And take your medievalistic work ideas with you.

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[I am not a Bicycle]

Medieval? Not quite. Try steampunk. Work conditions in the West were just as bad during the birth of Capitalism in the 19th century. Think 14 hours and more of work, or just enough time for sleep. Where did you think Charles Dickens and Karl Marx got their ideas?

He should keep working!

[antdude]

Long hours and all that. No retirements!