The Six-Vein Sprit Sward of Alibaba

Alibaba….. what an unusual name for a Chinese company. Not only name but the story behind the Alibaba is also unusual.

A Chinese man who was a English teacher in a Chinese university, used to work for few bucks. Nobody knew that one day this English teacher is going to change the face of Chinese market. By profession, the man was a teacher. But by passion, he was a businessman. More practically, he was an organizer, a person who is skilled to hold the people together.

But let me first tell you something more about English teacher….

1. He scored 1 out of 120 points in math in his
college entrance exams.

2. He was rejected by Harvard university 10
    times.

3. He was being turned down for 30 jobs.

4. He was the only candidate out of 24 who was
    rejected by KFC.

5. He could not convince Silicon Valley to fund
    his business idea.

Jack Ma- Founder of Alibaba.com

Wait friends… I am not telling his failures. I am just making you little bit curious about how an ordinary Chinese teacher chose to become extraordinary. My dear friends, his name is Jack Ma. The person who started the Alibaba.com at early 90's. Now we just went through his failures and background, right ? Now lets go through the story behind the Alibaba.com

So let’s get started…

Jack Ma said that,” Focus on your strong points and hire people who are good at your weak points”. Don’t waste time to eliminate your weakness; instead, encourage the people who are good at your weak point and those people stand with you till last breath.

Jack Ma built the Alibaba on old Chinese concepts like above. Another famous concept on which the Alibaba is based on called as “The Six-Vein Sprit Sward”. The term origin2ated form a Jack’s favorite novelist, Jin Yong. Well it is not an actual sward; it is an art of building someone’s internal strength to defeat the enemy. Mainly focusing on strong points instead of wasting time to eliminate the weak points.

The Alibaba’s Six Vein Sprit Sward are actually as follows:

1. Customer First:

Customer satisfaction is the first priority for the Alibaba and his employees

As we know that all the service and goods providing company accepts that “Customer is God”. Alibaba is mainly focusing on sales, so most of the Alibaba employees work in sales department. Much higher proportion that any other department. So, keeping customer satisfied is the first priority for the Alibaba and his employees. In that also, sales people prefer face-to-face visits rather than video conferencing or telephonic discussion.

2. Team Work:

Alibaba supports team work for both company and employees' growth

Well, team work is not only applicable for profession but also for random group games, songs. The key point is Alibaba focuses on team work calibration rather that individual calibration. Alibaba unlike other companies, does not only focus on targets but also on the things that the team or the individual need to do on each day. A team can suppress the weakness of any individual’s which makes the work more efficient and effective as whole team uses their own strengths but also eliminates the weakness.

3. Embrace Change:

Embrace the Change

For most of the people, it is difficult to leave their comfort zone. But those who have courage to leave the comfort zone will grow their personal and professional life like a bamboo. Alibaba also do the same thing. It Keeps frequent rotation of its employees between various departments or territory independent of preferences. Off course it creates lots of challenges but we all know that “Iron has to burn red hot to become the steel”. Alibaba asks their employees to accept, to embrace these setbacks because a setback is setup for the better comeback (Willy Jolly said this, not me).In comfort zone you will get rest, easy life, no risk, no growth, no success habits, hiding potential but in fear zone where you are suppose to embrace the change, you will get growth, learning skills, extended comfort and the most important dream life. The comfort zone is where the dreams and goals die silently. The fear zone is where you challenge your fear, learn by exciting and grow by observing failure. So, friends, embrace the change.

4. Integrity:

Integrity is the most important thing in professional world

Integrity is not something you show to others, is something you behave behind their back. It is not only for personal life but also for professional life. Thought the Alibaba is a one of the biggest empires on the internet, yet it is at constant risk of corruption. Hundreds of merchants constantly try to promote their products on Taobao. To avoid this, Alibaba uses switching of personnel to avoid corruption. Even David Wei, who was the CEO of Alibaba.com, experienced this. In the nine months of leaving his previous job and joining Alibaba, his job description was changed by Jack almost four times. Finally, he joined as a CEO of Alibaba B2B Business.

5. Passion:

Being passionate about your passion will bring glowry in your life

Compared to other firms, people at Alibaba are more passionate about their work, more honest and more hard working. Elon musk, the founder of Tesla, SpaceX, Solar City and Paypal. Elon musk got $180 million form PayPal. He invested $100 million in SpaceX, $70 million in Tesla and $10 million in solar city. Then, he borrowed money to pay his rent. That’s what we call being passionate about your work.

6. Commitment:

Commitment helps us to maintain our integrity. We persist to that for which we are committed

Most of the people fail not because of lack of desire but because of lack of commitment said Vince Lombardi. The one who is committed to something (or for someone 😉), will never give upon on his dreams and drives the us and holds us tight in challenging time. Commitment helps us to maintain our integrity. We persist to that for which we are committed.

So, my friends, these are the six-vein sprit sward of Alibaba.com, built by Jack Ma. Hope you have enjoyed reading this. You can read the complete story of Alibaba’s success in the book named Alibaba -The house that Jack Ma Built written by Duncan Clark. It is more exciting and valuable than these 1000 words post.

I am sure you people learnt something valuable from this ordinary Chinese teacher for your personal as well as professional life. If he can come back after so much failures and fight and fly like a Fenix bird then why can’t we…Comment your opinion.

The book "Alibaba- The House That Jack Ma Built" is available in four versions. Click the link given to purchase the respective version of book.