Embrace change, learn to give up

Change is always full of variability, and the possibility of disasters must be constantly predicted, even if there is no disaster. The core idea of ​​Eastern and Western philosophy is to embrace change and create change. When the situation is good, we must prepare for the bad situation. When the situation is not good, I will adjust my mentality and say to myself: The opportunity is coming.

Adjust your mindset and learn to adapt to the crisis

I said in 2008 that after 1 year, we will adapt to the economic crisis. Today, I feel that everyone has begun to adapt. From the faces of all of you here, I saw panic last year in 2008. I saw this in 2019 this year. It is calm. I believe that the first risk facing a company is whether it can adapt to the crisis. The crisis always exists, so we only say "post-crisis era", not "the era after the crisis". This is essentially different. I want to ask, the crisis came so fast, went so fast, what kind of signal was passed, what did we get from it? Why did the crisis come so fast, when will it happen again? In the past, the crisis was once in 10 years, now it is In the past five years, the future may become three times. Are we ready, have we adapted to the crisis? This is the first question I want to say.

We are facing tomorrow, we must use the crisis to change ourselves and change society. I can't be proud of going through the crisis, and I can't be happy to get through the current disaster. If we have not learned anything, thus changing ourselves and then creating the future, then at best it is only through the current financial crisis, and the psychological "crisis" has not been resolved.

We are all doing business, no matter how much people think we are doing, compared with the world's top 500, we are small businesses. Only when you look at yourself first can you grow your business. Last year, I felt that this crisis was a disaster for big companies. When the storm came, the unlucky ones must be big trees, the grass would not be a problem, and there would never be a typhoon to roll up the grass. However, after the typhoon passed, everyone will only save the big tree, no one will save the grass, and step on the grass to save the big tree. At this time, the unlucky one is the grass. I want to use this metaphor to remind everyone that the post-crisis era is the crisis of small businesses.

See the situation and decisively give up

I personally believe that the era of change has arrived. But change is also painful, because it is very difficult to change habits. I will share with you the experience of Alibaba last year. At that time, all the people were asking, Ali should not go forward in 2019? Seeing that they are considering growth, I said: forget about growth, and grow to zero next year. When the change comes, what you have to do is to give up what was considered to be the most important thing yesterday - just like playing Go, and seeing the whole set will "discard the child." We canceled all assessments of turnover and profits in 2019, not what I want employees to do, but employees who tell me what they want to do and what they can do for the company.

So we canceled the assessment indicators. That is to say, I removed the factor of 8% of the country's GDP growth. I want employees to give me healthy and real data when I forget the pressure of KPI. As a result, the company is doing more. The better. You must learn to give up the best things of yesterday, but there are three things you can't give up, that is, the feelings of dreams, first love, and thoughts.

If you only learn to seize the opportunity, you can only be a businessman. Opportunities are not on call, using institutions, culture, talents and other supporting means to make opportunities bigger and stronger, from businessmen to entrepreneurs, this is the biggest challenge. In the past few years of reform and opening up, we have seen how many merchants are ups and downs. Only when the company is truly integrated with the system, culture, and talents can the company go long.

About M&A: Learn to respect and understand

For 10 years, Alibaba has been lucky and has been here until now. Why can we, many companies can't do it? Not because we are smart, but our employees are constantly learning, constantly challenging themselves, and always repairing the roof when the sun is shining. Now that the economy has recovered, if you don't make adjustments at this time, you will only fall down.

The development of Alibaba matches the characteristics of the new commercial civilization - openness, sharing, responsibility, and globalization. “Openness” is a kind of mind that all entrepreneurs must have, including mergers and acquisitions. We acquired Yahoo China, which was extremely painful at first, facing a lot of problems such as cultural issues and talent issues. Although some people think that Yahoo China does not seem to recover, I never regret it. I realized a truth: the previous acquisition was "used for me" and today is "used for it." There is no difference between big and small, state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises. Only the difference between honesty and integrity. Similarly, companies do not have the difference between acquisitions and acquisitions, only the difference in their dreams. If your dreams are better than my dreams, I will support you; if my dreams are better than your dreams, then are we together to realize this dream? Therefore, "openness" in the acquisition, should be mutual respect and understanding. After 5 years, I will share with you the details of Yahoo integration.

Regarding "sharing", I only want to learn to share with employees.

About faith: remember responsibility and cherish "wealth"

"Responsibility" is the purpose of our existence. If you want to be an entrepreneur and want to grow your business, then you should solve social problems. You will find that your efforts will create unlimited value for your business and dreams in a few years. One of the reasons for the excessive greed that caused the last century was to believe in “shareholders first”. Of course, I respect shareholders. Without investors such as Softbank, there would be no Alibaba. However, if I completely obey them, then there will be no Alibaba. Most of the shareholders are short-sighted, and Guo Guangchang may be a small part outside this part.

After Ali went public, the stock price rose from 14 to 40, and all shareholders ran away. In the most difficult times of the enterprise, it is often the shareholders who abandon you, the employees who insist on following you, and the customers who have high hopes for you. Remember, it is the customer who pays for your money, the employee who creates value for you, and they are the greatest asset. If you fail to change the lives of your employees and influence them and help customers through your employees, you will only be a money-making machine, and you will regret it sooner or later.

If you do the real thing, you can become a good entrepreneur. What is “real”? It refers to the visible benefits of turnover and profit; what is “virtual”? It refers to the invisible content of enterprise value, culture, mission, process and system. This is what I learned from Tai Chi and the truth of doing business.

2019 will not be too bad, but it will not be too good. I believe that in the next 10 years, China and the world will continue to face disasters or changes in the financial sector, and we must learn to adapt. If you are afraid of crisis and risk, then don't do business. Meeting the crisis and competition, welcoming the break of the capital chain, the departure of employees and various disasters, this is where the enterprise is. Be kind to your employees, respect your customers, and the company will survive. Enterprises must have faith, and even more so.

How far you can go depends on who you are with.