11 September 2019 Business Lifestyles News
Alibaba announces a refresh of its six core values to strengthen the company culture for navigating through the fastchanging digital era.

ALIBABA UNVEILS SIX NEW COMPANY VALUES FOR THE DIGITAL ERA

 

Alibaba Unveils Six New Company Values for the Digital Era 
 
 
Hangzhou, China, September 10, 2019 – Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) today announced a refresh of its six core values to strengthen the company culture for navigating through the fastchanging digital era. 
 
The Company unveiled its changes to the six core values on the 20th anniversary of its founding. Just as its business has evolved, the world has evolved, and the Company’s values have to evolve to remain relevant to its global workforce. Success on Alibaba’s 102-year journey must be underpinned by strong beliefs and a sense of mission. It views corporate values as a vital guide to make the best decisions that are focused on the long term. 
 
This is the second refresh of company values in the past 20 years. The core values have helped propel Alibaba’s growth from an 18-person startup founded in a Hangzhou apartment to one of the world’s most innovative technology companies with 100,000-plus employees and over 30 business units. 
 
Alibaba values are at the heart of its people management process, from hiring to remuneration to promotion. Especially at the company’s current size, a clear set of values is important for enabling employees across different businesses, functions and geographies to act in concert and stay on course towards achieving Alibaba’s vision and mission. 
 
The latest evolution of its six values follows Alibaba’s recent reaffirmation of its mission statement – “To make it easy to do business anywhere.” The Company also sharpened its vision to clarify its intent is to be a “good company that will last for 102 years” in the digital era, rather than pursuing power or scale. 
 
With businesses across the e-commerce, fintech, logistics, cloud and entertainment sectors, Alibaba aims to serve 2 billion consumers, help create 100 million jobs and enable 10 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to be profitable by 2036. 
 
The updated values and the rationale behind them are: 
 
1. Customers first, employees second, shareholders third Understanding and addressing the needs and pain points of our customers is our mostimportant responsibility. Only by creating sustained customer value can our employees grow and shareholders achieve long-term benefit. 
 
2. Trust makes everything simple Trust is precious and must be constantly nurtured and protected. We want our Aliren to continue to be straightforward, standing up for the right values and relying on one another via trust.   

 
 
3. Change is the only constant The world is changing even if we are not. Embracing change, either by changing oneself or fostering change in the company, is a unique part of our DNA and must be valued. 
 
4. Today’s best performance is tomorrow’s baseline This onward-and-upward approach has helped Alibaba survive our most challenging moments and thrive when we are ahead. Alibaba spirit means we need to constantly challenge and motivate ourselves and strive to exceed normal parameters. 
 
5. If not now, when? If not me, who? This was a tagline in Alibaba’s very first job advertisement. It’s still how we want our employees to view themselves as owners of the business. This gives them a sense of purpose and drive. 
 
6. Live seriously, work happily Work is for now, but life is forever. We want our employees to treat life seriously when they work and enjoy work as one enjoys life. We respect the work-life balance decisions of every individual. 
 
 
About Alibaba Group Our mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. We aim to build the infrastructure of commerce. We envision that our customers will meet, work and live at Alibaba, and that we will be a company that lasts at least 102 years. 
 
 

Factsheet on Our 20-Year Journey 
 
 
OVERVIEW 
 
Alibaba Group was established in 1999 by 18 people led by Jack Ma, a former English teacher from Hangzhou, China. From the outset, the company’s founders shared a belief that the Internet would level the playing field by enabling small enterprises to leverage innovation and technology to grow and compete more effectively in the domestic and global economies. 
 
Since launching its first website helping small Chinese exporters, manufacturers and entrepreneurs to sell internationally, Alibaba Group has become the global leader in mobile commerce and enabler for digital transformation. Today, a digital economy has developed around our platforms and businesses that consists of consumers, merchants, brands, retailers, third-party service providers, strategic partners and other stakeholders. 
 
 
MISSION, VISION AND VALUES 
 
Our mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. Our vision is to be a good company that lasts at least 102 years. Our values is the backbone to our company culture and guiding principles for doing the right thing by our customers and stakeholders. 
 
1. Customers first, employees second, shareholders third Understanding and addressing the needs and pain points of our customers is our mostimportant responsibility. Only by creating sustained customer value can our employees grow and shareholders achieve long-term benefit. 
 
2. Trust makes everything simple Trust is precious and must be constantly nurtured and protected. We want our Aliren to continue to be straightforward, standing up for the right values and relying on one another via trust. 
 
3. Change is the only constant The world is changing even if we are not. Embracing change, either by changing oneself or fostering change in the company, is a unique part of our DNA and must be valued. 
 
4. Today's best performance is tomorrow's baseline This onward-and-upward approach has helped Alibaba survive our most challenging moments and thrive when we are ahead. Alibaba spirit means we need to constantly challenge and motivate ourselves and strive to exceed normal parameters. 
 
5. If not now, when? If not me, who? This was a tagline in Alibaba’s very first job advertisement. It’s still how we want our employees to view themselves as owners of the business. This gives them a sense of purpose and drive.  
 
6. Live seriously, work happily Work is for now, but life is forever. We want our employees to treat life seriously when they work and enjoy work as one enjoys life. We respect the work-life balance decisions of every individual.  
 
 
OUR COMMITMENT 
 
Our focus on empowering businesses reflects our commitment to be a pivotal stakeholder in the future of commerce. By 2036 we aim to serve 2 billion global consumers, empower 10 million profitable businesses and create 100 million jobs. We want to be a company of and for good in our collective journey towards this vision by empowering the community we work with. 
 
1) Empowerment: Our Alibaba Digital Economy has directly and indirectly created tens of millions of jobs in rural communities, and helped countless female entrepreneurs find success. Our ecosystem enables businesses both big and small to thrive. Our commitment to incubating talent has been critical to inspiring a new generation of young digital entrepreneurs. This has been the function of the Alibaba Business School, which offers programs run by Alibaba trainers and employees. We also have partnerships with international bodies like the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, with whom we hope to train and help over 1,000 entrepreneurs prosper in the digital economy. 
 
2) Innovation: We will continue to push the boundaries of innovation to create new value for our customers and for the benefit of society-at-large. This includes New Retail, shoppertainment, smart logistics and cloud computing, among many others. From day one, our focus on innovation has differentiated our business and value proposition to customers, enabling them to stay ahead of the curve. 
 
3) Social responsibility: Social responsibility is baked into our DNA and it begins with individual contributions from each of our employees. We have also established e-philanthropic initiatives to inspire our vast userbase to make charitable donations through our platforms and take action to support social causes. By combining our innovative technology and advocacy for philanthropy, we hope to encourage a sense of responsibility and action that will spread beyond our employees and users. We hope to inspire global citizens to contribute positively to causes such as poverty alleviation, conservation, women’s empowerment and education. 
 
 
KEY MOMENTS IN ALIBABA’S HISTORY 
 
1999 Alibaba was founded in Jack Ma’s apartment in Hangzhou, China. Business-to-business e-commerce platforms Alibaba.com and 1688 were launched. 2001. Alibaba defined its mission and corporate values. 2003. Alibaba established online shopping platform Taobao Marketplace and was able to maintain business operations during the SARS epidemic. 2004. Alipay, currently a business of Alibaba’s unconsolidated related party Ant Financial, was launched as a third-party online escrow payment platform. 2007 Ad monetization platform Alimama was launched. 2008 Brand-focused marketplace platform Tmall was launched to complement Taobao Marketplace. 2009 Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba’s cloud computing business, was established. Alibaba held the first 11.11 Global Shopping Festival. 2010 Global consumer marketplace AliExpress was launched. The Alibaba Partnership was established to ensure the sustainability of Alibaba’s mission, vision and values. 2011 Alibaba established the Alibaba Foundation, which was dedicated to social causes. 2013 Alibaba established Cainiao Network together with a consortium of logistics companies. 2014 Alibaba Group went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Alipay’s parent company Ant Financial was formally established. Taobao Travel became independent platform Alitrip, which was subsequently rebranded Fliggy. 2015 Local services company Koubei was established as a joint venture of Alibaba and Ant Financial. Alibaba initiated its globalization strategy with the expansion of international offices into France, Germany and Italy. 2016 The first store of Freshippo was launched, marking the debut of the New Retailpowered grocery retail chain. Alibaba exceeded RMB 3 trillion in FY2016 GMV on its China retail marketplaces and became the largest retail economy in the world. Alibaba acquired a controlling stake in Lazada, a leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia. The concept of an Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) envisioned by Jack Ma was endorsed by G20 leaders. Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Group was formally announced. 2017 Alibaba and the International Olympic Committee announced a long-term partnership through 2028. Alibaba DAMO Academy, an innovative global research program, was launched. The first overseas hub under the eWTP initiative was established in Malaysia. 2018 Alibaba’s New Retail strategy rolled out on a large scale. eWTP was launched in Rwanda and Belgium. 2019 Alibaba Group was named China’s most-valuable brand in the annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands rankings. 

  1. 00:00 – 00:50 / Pre-event and employee performances
  2. 00:51 -- 02:23 / Speech Highlights from Jack Ma, Founder, Alibaba Group
  3. 02:24 – 03.23 / Speech Highlights from Daniel Zhang, Chairman & CEO, Alibaba Group
  4. 03:23 – 03:36 / Happy Birthday to Alibaba and Jack Ma
  5. 03:37 – 04:57 / Jack Ma and Execs Rocker Performance
  6. 04.58 – 06:58 / Execs Performance
11 September 2019