Alibaba’s 36 partners form the foundation that lets Jack Ma spend time on the beach
The company co-founded by Jack Ma, the most recognised name among Chinese entrepreneurs, was never meant as a one-man show. His first step in walking away shows his confidence in the collective he has built
Jack Ma’s year-long plan for handing over Alibaba Group Holding’s chairmanship to his protégé Daniel Zhang has put the e-commerce group’s unorthodox succession strategy into focus, casting itself as a stark contrast to the one-man power structure that pervades many of Asia’s businesses.
Less known, to many people, is the structure at the very core of the US$420 billion company, with more than 86,000 employees in businesses that stretch from cashless payment to cloud computing, e-commerce, sports and Hollywood movies.
It began with a question that Ma - known to his colleagues as Teacher Ma - posed to senior executives 10 years ago: What would Alibaba do without Jack Ma?
“A sustainable Alibaba would have to be built on sound governance, culture-centric philosophy, and consistency in developing talent,” Ma said in a letter this week to all employees. “No company can rely solely on its founders. Because of physical limits on one’s ability and energy, no one can shoulder the responsibilities of chairman and CEO forever.”
The partnership comprises 36 partners, six of whom are among Alibaba’s 18 co-founders, including Ma and vice-chairman Joe Tsai. The remaining partners are executives who have worked for at least five years at Alibaba, or its affiliates like Ant Financial, each with a proven track record of contributing to the group’s business.