Alibaba Innovation Analysis
Jack Ma struggled to attend college, it took four years for him to pass the entrance exam.
After that, Ma attended Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute and graduated in 1988 with a B.A. in English. He was also the head of student council.
After graduation, he starts his career as lecturer of English and International Trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University.
Jack Ma met his wife Zhang Ying when they were studying at Hangzhou Normal University. They married shortly after graduating in the late 1980s. The couple later blessed with two children, a son and a daughter.
Jack Ma’s Creativity Approach
Jack Ma is ranked No 3 in global tech innovation visionary
Jack Ma key success factor is focus on customers, focuses on operating internationally, and making sure to build a strong and smart team who knows the best for the company”
Jack Ma thoughts was to find a problem in the world to solve it. Primary concern was to make customer happy, followed by employee and lastly stockholders.
Jack Ma creates much more nurturing environment which encourages teamwork. Ma strongly promote communication between workers and their superiors.
Jack Ma is ethically responsible to society by giving donations to schools programs to increase creativity for Chinese schools and workers in his company. Any worker within Alibaba that has a business in fully funded and supported to follow through his ideas.
Jack Ma clearly communicates innovation and gives straightforward plans.
Analysis & Assessment of Jack Ma’s Personality (Trait & Behaviour) using Big 5 Model
Analysis & Assessment of Jack Ma’s Personality (Trait & Behaviour) using Big 5 Model
EMOTIONAL STABILITY – Jack Ma, the founder of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, is never afraid of breaking the rules, but he makes sure he gets his way, he is a trendsetter, an Internet wizard and a role model(DeYoung 2015)
EXTRAVERSION – He passed his college exams in 4 attempts, got rejected by 30 different jobs. He was the only candidate among 24 who was rejected by KFC. He also faced refusal from enrolment in Harvard University 10 times. All these rejections were a new motivation for him due to which he is now among the world’s richest personalities.
OPENNESS – Jack was one of the first few individuals who saw Internet as a business opportunity even at a time when the rest of the world didn’t believe in his thoughts (Judge and Zapata 2015)
AGREEABLENESS – Jack Ma will set high expectations of himself and the team. And expect everyone to complete it because he believed everyone will never know what we can achieve if we do not push our self to the limits
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS – Jack Ma venture into e-business, which he could foresee as a great money making scheme of the 21st century
Crtical Review of Big 5 Mode
Advantage
Personality assessment are useful tool in hiring decisions – example employers get better at selecting candidates, employees become more successful and stay longer in their position without getting fired or quitting
Big Five can identify perspective qualities of associates – to predict both academic and workplace performance
Big Five can efficiently and accurately describe important individual differences in personality in personality characterstics of traits (Dale & Harrison, 2017)
Disadvantage
Big Five dimensions are too broad and heterogeneous, and lack the specificity to make accurate prediction in many real-life settings (Boyle, 2008)
Big Five doeant help to understand culturally-specific, gender specific, and age specific personali expressions
Validity of traits change with time for example Extroversion, Neuroticism, and Openess decreases as a persona age
Rely of self report methods – implicit self bias for example factors like current health, or mood can change a person’s response (Lehmann et al 2013)
Jack Ma’s Leadership Influence
He leads his business with an enlightened mind
He believes in the empowerment of future generations
He keeps an eye on circumventing unethical business practices
He faces criticism with grace
He is an example of a leader with Global Intelligence (GQ)
Recommendation
Leaders like jack ma never underestimated or neglected their weakness. Instead he showed immense respect and curiosity to overcome that drawback and find a better result. The leaders of future generation must keep this in mind.
Jack Ma was poor in mathematical skill and technology. The leaders in future generation following his skills must maintain a good hold on these field.
Jack Ma never gave up from failure. Even after a lot of failures he chose to stick to his target and achieve it. In leadership patience plays a vital role as it is reflecting in Jack Ma’s success.
Conclusion
Thus , to conclude it can be said that patience and positive hope along with hard-work and well-framed strategies can lead a person to success. Jack Ma had faced infinite rejection and failure in life and yet he decided not to give up. He was determined towards his goal and hence today he has achieved it. His achievement are not only limited to China, he is one of the most powerful man in the world.
References:
DeYoung, C.G., 2015. Cybernetic big five theory. Journal of Research in Personality, 56, pp.33-58
Judge, T.A. and Zapata, C.P., 2015. The person–situation debate revisited: Effect of situation strength and trait activation on the validity of the Big Five personality traits in predicting job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 58(4), pp.1149-1179.
Lehmann, R., Denissen, J.J., Allemand, M. and Penke, L., 2013. Age and gender differences in motivational manifestations of the Big Five from age 16 to 60. Developmental psychology, 49(2), p.365.
