On November 26, Alibaba Group CEO Zhang Yong issued an open letter to all employees, announcing Alibaba's latest future-oriented organizational upgrade: Alibaba Cloud upgrades Alibaba Cloud Intelligence; strengthens investment and construction of technology and smart Internet; Tmall upgrades and fissions into big Tmall; lays the organizational foundation and enriches leadership for the development in the next 5 to 10 years, and strives to build Alibaba's commercial operating system.
"To build Alibaba's commercial operating system, empower merchants, and realize the mission of 'in the digital economy era, let there be no difficult business in the world', we must look to the future and continuously upgrade our organizational design and organizational capabilities." Zhang Yong wrote in an open letter.
Behind the adjustment, Alibaba’s core strategy is once again reflected: talent strategy, organizational strategy, and future strategy. It is precisely because of the organization, talent thinking and long-term investment in the future that Alibaba can create a more dynamic and innovative economy that is oriented towards the future. The core of all Alibaba’s strategies is the talent strategy, which has brought about a tide of talent echelons and a unique talent training mechanism, thus continuing to maintain vitality and creativity for Alibaba’s economy and constantly making breakthroughs.
In the three years since 2015, Alibaba has carried out three major systematic organizational structure adjustments, from actively embracing changes to continuously creating new changes.
After this adjustment, Alibaba Cloud's business group has been upgraded to Alibaba Cloud's smart business group, and the group's chief technology officer (CTO) Zhang Jianfeng (nickname: Xingdian) will also serve as the president of Alibaba Cloud's smart business group. Establish a new retail technology business group. The rapid growth of Tmall has been upgraded to "Big Tmall", forming three major sectors: Tmall business group, Tmall supermarket business group, and Tmall import and export business department.
Talent strategy is the basis for supporting organizational structure adjustment. Among the personnel involved in this adjustment, Wu Zeming (nickname: Fan Yu), president of the New Retail Technology Business Group, and Chen Lijuan (nickname: Qianxue), who is in charge of Alibaba's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, are both born in the 1980s. Three years ago, Zhang Yong, born in the 1970s, became Alibaba's CEO, and his management was mostly born in the 1970s. Inheritance and youthfulness are carried out at the same time. The solid talent strategy has made Alibaba "good generals" like a tide, supporting its organizational structure and business changes.
Zhang Yong believes that "in the future, enterprises must reform and upgrade themselves from the fundamental level of the organizational structure." Only by reconstructing themselves can they "bring business reconstruction and market reconstruction." At Alibaba, the upgrade of the organizational structure is not only a reflection of Alibaba's overall strategic thinking, but also a preparation for promoting the overall strategy. In the past few years, especially in the past three years, Alibaba's organizational upgrades have often brought about explosive growth in its business and even comprehensive changes in its business form.
In December 2015, Alibaba creatively established a middle-stage business group, changing the organizational structure from a "tree-like" to a more flexible network organizational structure of "big middle-stage and small front-stage". This organizational structure avoids duplicate construction of different basic capabilities corresponding to different businesses, and also provides a solid foundation for innovation. In the past two years, consumers can feel the smooth connection between different Alibaba products, and also see similar cross-border services such as 88VIP cards, various life services based on LBS. Alibaba's rapid response capabilities and rich and personalized industry solutions have allowed merchants and industries to feel Alibaba's ecological advantages.
This future-oriented organizational structure allows Alibaba to make rapid progress in a wider field, making the entire Alibaba ecosystem more prosperous, surpassing pure e-commerce business, gradually expanding the boundaries of business, and forming an Alibaba business operating system with infrastructure as a horizontal organic connection between underlying, business, services and entertainment. Since December 2015, the organizational structure of "big, middle and small front desk" has been used to this day. In fact, this adjustment is also a further continuation of this organizational strategy.
At the end of 2016, Alibaba took the lead in proposing the "five new" (new retail, new finance, new manufacturing, new technology, and new energy). In January 2017, in the year when Alibaba's "Five New" strategy began, Alibaba once again carried out a comprehensive organizational structure upgrade. After the organizational structure adjustment for the "Five New" has been carried out rapidly. In January 2017, Alibaba announced the launch of Intime's privatization. In February, Alibaba and Bailian Group launched all-round cooperation. In July, Hema Fresh, which had been incubated for two years, was officially released. In October, the global scientific research and development institution "Dharma Academy" was established to promote scientific and technological innovation. In April 2018, Alibaba acquired Ele.me with all assets. In October, Ele.me merged with word of mouth to establish Alibaba's local life service company. Now, Tmall Supermarket, Hema Fresh, Intime Department Store, RT-Mart, local life services (Ele.me Reputation), as well as Alipay, Gaode, Cainiao... With new retail as the core, Alibaba has formed an economy serving the city's better life.
Based on talent strategy and organizational strategy, from embracing change to creating change, behind it is Alibaba's future strategy that dares to plan. In September 2009, Alibaba Cloud established Alibaba to become the earliest platform-based enterprise in China to deploy cloud computing. Behind this is Alibaba's judgment on the basic role of cloud computing and big data in the future. Thinking and continuous investment over the past nine years have made Alibaba Cloud a leading cloud computing platform in China, helping billions of users in more than 200 countries improve efficiency, allowing more than a dozen domestic and foreign cities to have "ET city brains", bringing "uncalculable value" to society, and becoming the technical basis of Alibaba's commercial operating system today.
At the end of 2016, Alibaba proposed the "five new" strategy, including new retail. Later, Hema Fresh emerged, and traditional supermarkets such as Intime and RT-Mart gradually completed new retail transformations, consumer experience was improved, merchant operation efficiency was improved, and the question of "where is the retail industry going" was initially answered. "Others believe it only when they see it, and Alibaba is planning toward the future. If they believe it, create it so that everyone can see it."
Alibaba CEO Zhang Yong said that to build Alibaba's commercial operating system, empower merchants, and realize the mission of "making business without difficult business in the digital economy era", we must look to the future and continuously upgrade organizational design and organizational capabilities to lay the foundation for development in the next five to ten years. Obviously, Alibaba is no longer waiting for the wind to come or walking in the wind, but is actively creating changes and leading the times, becoming a "wind maker" in the new era.
The following is a letter to all employees of Alibaba CEO Zhang Yong:
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