Introduction: What thoughts does Jack Ma's intranet voice bring to me? Today we will talk about this topic.
Two days ago, Alibaba's intranet published a post entitled "To Reform, To Innovation".
The signature of the post is: The wind is clear. As we all know, "Wind Qingyang" is Mr. Ma's flower name.
This is also the first time in the five years since Mr. Ma's retirement that he has written a thousand-word long article on Ali's intranet to express his opinions.
I have read the post several times, and I am very touched in my heart, and I would like to talk about some of my thoughts.
Perhaps, it will inspire you.
Making mistakes is the cost of growth
At the beginning of the post, Mr. Ma first responded positively to the statement that "Ali admits making mistakes". He said that it is not terrible to make mistakes, no one does not make mistakes, and what is really terrible is not knowing mistakes, not admitting mistakes, and not correcting mistakes.
Indeed, in the process of business management, we will inevitably encounter all kinds of mistakes, including decision-making errors, mistakes in employing people, and mistakes in work.
I myself have made mistakes, in the early days of entrepreneurship, I made two mistakes in employing people, one was to recruit people with inconsistent values, and the other was to recruit "pseudo-executives" who could not bow down to enter the game.
These two mistakes in employing people cost me a lot.
It's not scary to make mistakes, it's about how you face your mistakes.
Some people are afraid to admit their mistakes. Why? Because he is afraid that admitting his mistakes will reduce his professionalism and authority, and others will not trust him.
A mistake that is not acknowledged, not corrected, and falls repeatedly in the same pit, then the mistake is no longer a mistake, but a decision.
When you make a mistake, first face up to your own problem, then review, think deeply, find the root cause of the problem, and finally go all out to correct the mistake and solve the problem.
Remember one sentence: making mistakes is the cost of growth, and correcting mistakes is the process of maturity.
Customer-centric, or boss-centric?
Mr. Ma also mentioned the "big company disease" in the post.
The disease of large companies does not only exist in large companies, but also in some small companies. One of the most common manifestations of the disease of large companies is formalism and superficiality.
For example, some managers always like to have meetings, no matter how big or small, they have to have a meeting, as if they don't have a meeting with the leader, they can't show their value, and if they don't have a meeting with their subordinates, they can't show their authority.
There are also some managers who are not busy with the scene but are busy with the process, designing cumbersome procedures and processes, simplifying them into complexity, adding layers of code, and letting everyone follow in circles.
Emphasizing "form" rather than "performance", the prevailing style of retreat will bring great harm to the organization.
So, what's behind the big company disease?
In my opinion, it's culture. Culturally, it's not customer-centric, it's boss-centric. With your eyes on your boss and your ass on your customers, you will be abandoned by your customers sooner or later.
Customers are divided into internal customers and external customers. External customers are the ones we sell our products and services to. And internal customers are our colleagues.
Customers are the lifesaver of business. At all times, you have to be customer-centric and ask yourself from time to time: who is my customer, what does my customer look like, what does my customer like?
You also have to think, "Is what I'm doing valuable to other people, is it going to solve other people's problems, is it what other people want?"
Treat your customers as you would have them do to you.
Never forget about the user
Customers are important, but you can't forget about users either.
Many people confuse customers with users, but there is a difference between the two.
What is a customer and what is a user?
The customer is the customer, the person who pays the bill, and the user is the user, the person who uses the product.
For example, parents buy stationery for their children. The little one uses this tool, he is the user, and he will decide whether to like it or not. But the customers who buy stationery are the parents of their children.
You see, there may be discrepancies between users and customers.
So, relatively speaking, whose experience should be more important?
Of course, it is the user, because the user influences the customer's decision-making. If the child likes it very much, then the parents are likely to buy this product. If the parent likes it, he may buy it once, but if he finds that the child does not like it, there will be no repurchase.
Peter Drucker said, "The purpose of business is to create and retain customers." ”
So you can understand how to create customers? Where do customers come from? Combined with the above cases, we can see that it is generated in the needs of users.
As I've said before, all business strategies are built around customer value, and the starting point of the strategy is growth, and the end point is user experience.
So, at all times, don't forget about the user and pay attention to the user experience.
Innovation is not a slogan, but a problem solving
From B2B to Taobao, to Alipay, to Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba has always been on the road of innovation over the years.
Mr. Ma said that innovation is not to change others, but to change oneself, nor to surpass opponents, but to catch up with the future and let oneself live in this era of rapid change.
Indeed, the market demand changes rapidly, and the user's expectations for the product are also changing rapidly.
Nowadays, many bosses and managers also say "innovation, innovation" all day long, but in fact they don't know how to do innovation.
Innovation is not a slogan, but a problem solving.
There are three key points in how to innovate:
First, find answers from customers. If you sit in the office all day, but don't visit your customers, to perceive the real pain points of customers, to gain insight into the real needs of customers, and to help customers solve real problems, how can you innovate?
I'll give you a simple example, when we sit in the passenger seat in the car, sometimes we hope that the passenger seat has a place to put the mobile phone. The recently popular Xiaomi Su7 solves this problem, and its co-pilot has a special mobile phone placement position.
The second, dead knock. After gaining insight into the needs of users, you must be able to calm down and make products seriously.
Third, institutional guarantees. For innovative business, there must be a fault-tolerant mechanism, and the innovator's back road cannot be cut off, and if it is done wrong, it will be "liquidated", then no one dares to do it.
These are my four thoughts.
Finally, I would like to say that whether it is Tsai Chongxin's interview a few days ago or Mr. Ma's recent statement, I can feel Alibaba's determination and will to change. At 25 years old, Ali is young and has endless possibilities. I sincerely hope that Ali will get better and better, and I also believe that Ali will get better and better.
Bless Ali, and bless all the companies that are still stumbling and running forward in 2024!