In Wu's view, "successful tech companies must have the ability to navigate the tech cycle".
Text |Li Qian
On December 20, Joe Tsai, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba Group, issued a letter to all employees, announcing that Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba Group and Chairman of Taotian Group, will also serve as CEO of Taotian Group.
The letter emphasized, "Wu Yongming took over as CEO of Alibaba Group for three months, clarified the strategic focus and priority selection of the whole group, made resolute trade-offs around the main business, and comprehensively promoted the reform of the younger management team. The appointment of Wu Yongming as the number one position of Alibaba Cloud and Taotian will help lead the transformation of Taotian with technological innovation, and help ensure the unified command and high-intensity continuous investment of the group in the two strategic priorities of e-commerce and cloud. ”
Since the end of March this year, Alibaba's self-transformation has continued to advance. On September 10, Tsai Chongxin and Wu Yongming officially took office as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group. Wu Yongming, a low-key technical CEO, only entered the public eye with a "secret" attitude.
In fact, in addition to the information disclosed in the official resume, the outside world still knows little about Ali's No. 4 employee, Ali's first programmer, and one of Ali's founding team "Eighteen Arhats".
With the impact and potential metaphor of Alibaba's market capitalization being overtaken by Pinduoduo, the company is being re-examined by the outside world. Wu Yongming, as the new leader of Alibaba, is at the helm of Alibaba, a giant ship sailing against the wind, and it can be said that he is in danger and has attracted much attention.
A low-key, decisive man at the helm
On November 16, Alibaba Group's latest quarterly earnings analyst meeting should be the most public speech of Wu Yongming.
With his clear thinking and fast speech, he was the first impression of investors and analysts at home and abroad, and it was said that the simultaneous interpretation of the day could hardly keep up with him.
This may have something to do with his experience. Born in technology, he likes to cut through the complicated and simplify, and goes straight to the problem.
On September 12, Wu Yongming, who had been in office for two days, sent a letter to all employees, nothing polite, and straight to the point, "The times are changing, Alibaba must change!".”
In this letter, Wu Yongming established two strategic priorities for Alibaba: user-first and AI-driven. On this basis, it will increase strategic investment in three types of businesses: technology-driven Internet platform business, AI-driven technology business, and global business network.
Since the beginning of this year, the world's leading technology companies, including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, have been betting heavily on AI development. Wu Yongming, who is from a technical background, regards "AI-driven" as one of the strategic priorities of Alibaba's future development, which is the first important trade-off he makes for Alibaba.
Then, in the face of the drawbacks and business development constraints that have inevitably accumulated in the development process of Alibaba for more than 20 years, the solution he gave was also very simple and pragmatic
At the financial report analyst meeting, Wu Yongming, who served as the group's CEO for two months, told the market that Ali has become a large group spanning e-commerce, cloud computing, local life, logistics, entertainment and other fields, and what he wants to do is to "sort out the priorities of the existing business and define the core business and non-core business": maintain high-intensity resources and R&D investment for the core business, and realize the value of the non-core business through making profits as soon as possible or other capitalization methods.
The huge and complex business and the interweaving of new and old businesses have indeed become an obstacle to Alibaba's self-transformation to a certain extent. Wu Yongming, as the first generation of entrepreneurs and the new CEO, opened the first knife to the crux of the problem, and some people in the industry once said that this had to be done by the veterans, and some people bluntly said that he was "a ruthless person".
This "ruthlessness" is actually to face the problem head-on and act neatly. In the big era cycle, the more fiercely competitive the track, the more important it is to continue to invest in high intensity, especially for businesses that want to turn around. While concentrating superior resources and shaping the competitiveness of core business, Wu Yongming reduces energy and investment in non-core business and reduces burden, which is very important for Alibaba today.
From this appointment, it can also be seen that Alibaba's definition of core business is undoubtedly e-commerce and cloud computing. Therefore, these two strategic businesses will be shouldered by the CEO of the group. The next step is to fight a tough battle with a new organizational formation - see how e-commerce can fight the battle of low prices, and how the cloud can fight the battle of growth.
For ** and Alibaba Cloud, Wu Yongming also gave a clear strategic direction - * to adhere to the "omnipotent", to implement the ** force strategy, so that the ** force runs through all levels of goods on the platform from white label to brand. Wu Yongming's intention is also very clear, AI technology is a means, to be the best force, to be consumer-centric to do a good job. Speaking with products and looking at problems from the perspective of users, this is the new change that Wu Yongming expects Wu Yongming to bring to Taotian. Many people still have questions about what "AI e-commerce" looks like, but it is a consensus that AI can not overestimate the empowerment of traditional Internet businesses.
In terms of developing public cloud or private cloud, Wu Yongming made a clearer choice. At the analyst meeting, he clearly proposed to "increase investment in public cloud core products". On November 23, in a letter to all employees within Alibaba Cloud, Wu Yongming said bluntly: "The only product of Alibaba Cloud is our ideal cloud computing network. Winning the competition requires us to give up distractions in the strategic direction, concentrate our greatest pressure, and make resolute trade-offs in our technical research, product definition, sales path, and organizational structure. ”
Looking at the world, whether it is Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google GCP, they are all based on public cloud, which is in line with the development direction of the global cloud computing industry. But on the other hand, Alibaba Cloud's revenue growth has been under pressure for many consecutive quarters. At this time, the pressure to take the initiative to subtract from the income ** is extraordinary.
Dare to make difficult but correct decisions, this is Wu Yongming.
In the face of problems, Wu Yongming often does not evade or whitewash.
On Ali's intranet, Wu Yongming also left a post, "We don't need to bear the false name of being the first in the market and give ourselves some delusions." Today, we should look forward from the perspective of second place and newcomer entering the game, so as to know more clearly what shortcomings we want to make up, what advantages others do not have, and what opportunities the market or technology gives us to create new value. ”
Awaken the entrepreneurial mindset
Despite his decisive strategic trade-offs and business decisions, Wu Yongming should be an "I" person (i stands for "introvert") according to today's popular MBTI (Personality Assessment System) classification method.
According to Ali's internal classmates, shortly after becoming CEO, Wu Yongming participated in Ali's "Five Years Chen" activity. He stood on the stage, quickly introduced himself, realized that he might not have "lasted long enough", and asked his classmates very shyly, or if there is anything else you want to know, you can ask me.
After becoming the CEO, it was inevitable that he would attend more activities, such as the Yunqi Conference and the Wuzhen Internet Conference, in which Wu Yongming participated. A reporter complained in the circle of friends: Is Wu Yongming only this blue suit?
There is also Ali who said that he has seen Wu Yongming stepping on a balance bike and shuttling through the park with a pad, and he will talk a few words when he meets classmates in the elevator. Many students bluntly said that "Wu Ma is very humble", and Ali's middle and senior executives, who have held meetings with Wu Yongming, use more words "pragmatic" - he encourages feedback on problems realistically, direct solutions to problems, and often "plays straight" when giving opinions.
In 2015, Wu Yongming founded Yuanjing Capital, which has more foreign investment affairs, even within Alibaba, new classmates are not familiar with him before.
For Lao Ali, Wu Yongming is the well-known "Wu Ma". In 1996, Wu Yongming graduated from Zhejiang University of Technology with a major in computer science, and started a business with Ma Yun after graduation. In 1999, after co-founding Alibaba, Wu Yongming successively served as the chief technology officer of many important businesses such as B2B and Alipay, and led the construction of the underlying technical architecture of related businessesHe also led the creation of the Alimama platform, innovated and incubated mobile phones**, and promoted the group's wirelessness. Wu Yongming's intranet homepage, there are still many ancient labels posted by old Ali, "Apple Control" and "Chengxi Digital Little Prince". There is also a label of "firm heart".
Today, Ali stands at a turning point. On the one hand, it is the development potential accumulated in the past 20 years that makes Alibaba a company with a volume and value that can make the entrepreneurs of the year proud. On the other hand, if you take the initiative to change, you will inevitably cut off from all the familiar aspects of the past, including the path dependence on the past, the "baggage" of success, and the mindset of conservatism.
Wu Yongming knows this very well, so since he took office, he has taken "re-entrepreneurship" as a repeated reminder to Ali people. "Don't indulge in the past, don't stick to the old rules", "Reshape user value with the determination to start a business again", "No matter how successful the past business model is, we must turn the page back to zero and awaken the mentality of starting a new business." ”
Wu Yongming also made it clear that 1688, Xianyu, DingTalk, and Quark four products will be regarded as the group's first batch of strategic innovation businesses. For the market, this straightforward way of naming and promising, is not common.
As for why he likes the "Four Little Dragons", Wu Yongming sees a different future from his perspective - 1688 is a source of goods made in China to go to sea, and at the same time has the service ability to support cross-border transactions, and it is also developing from a B2B business to a platform for young people to buy affordable and good thingsXianyu is a lifestyle platform that can carry the hobbies of young consumers;DingTalk plays the role of young people who come into contact with AI productivity for the first time;Quark is expected to create a "revolutionary search product in the era of large models", which coincides with Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) ......
Some analysts believe that Wu Yongming brought out these products and innovated the layout for young people and technology trends, which is to create a greater non-linear imagination space for Ali's future.
Reinventing Alibaba
2023 is a year of change for Alibaba. Maybe "don't toss", Ali's market value is still the first in China today, but the problem of development is objective anyway, and the change in market value is only a representation. Today's problems are not caused today, but tomorrow's problems are caused today.
Today, Wu Yongming not only leads Ali to solve the problems that need to be solved urgently, but also thinks and lays out for the future.
In Wu's view, "successful tech companies must have the ability to navigate the tech cycle".Throughout the history of global technology companies, the technology cycle is not that long. Alibaba is one of the first companies in China to grasp the opportunity of Internet development, and has successfully realized the transition from PC to mobile, which has the shadow of Wu Yongming. Today's Alibaba, core e-commerce and cloud businesses are facing fierce market competition, and AI has brought new variables. Will he be able to lead Ali to success in the AI era?
Ma Yun also spoke on the intranet: Ali will always be a future-oriented company ......I believe in Joe, I believe in Wu Yongming, we have been working together for 25 years, and what they bring back to Ali is not only determination and ability, but also the ...... of "the feelings of the founders" that Ali people will never forgetPlease Ali people continue to innovate in their own positions and make every effort to help Ali young people grow up.
It is understood that the founder of Alibaba Group.
1. Dai Shan, the former CEO of Taotian Group, will next assist in the establishment of Alibaba Group Asset Management Company, which is also a new business function after Alibaba's transformation.
In the first letter to all employees, Wu Yongming left a foreshadowing: "We will resolutely implement the rejuvenation of the team, let the young main managers refresh the business management team, and create a mechanism and cultural environment for more young Ali people to become the core strength of Alibaba." ”
We may need to use a longer time scale to observe Wu's decision-making. It can be reasonably estimated that from the perspective of Alibaba Group, its core structure changes should have tended to a steady state, but the reshaping and "refresh" of business, organization and culture should have just begun.
More than 20 years ago, we didn't have anything, and we can create ** with the mentality of entrepreneurs making something out of nothing, and today we have a user base, cash base, and talent base that we didn't dare to think about 20 years ago, and technical variables such as AI are also creating more new opportunities. As long as we have the determination to let go of the past and start all over again, and firmly seek change for consumers and the future, we will definitely have the ability and strength to win in this never-ending business competition. Wu Yongming said.