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In 1999, a small company with an unknown name was born in Hangzhou in a low-key manner, called "Alibaba". At that time, Ma Yun and his small team just wanted to try to promote the emerging "Internet" thing in China. No one could have imagined that 25 years later, this small company would become a globally recognized Internet giant, making their dreams bigger and bigger.
What's even more incredible is that at the beginning of Alibaba's business, there was a seemingly unknown small staff who experienced all this, witnessed Ali's rise from obscurity to shocking world, and finally shared a lot of wealth. She is now the "Ali Grandma" Tong Wenhong, who is worth more than 10 billion.
In 2000, Jack Ma made a promise
In 2000, the second year of Alibaba's founding, the company had a difficult stage of development and serious employee turnover. Jack Ma faces a huge hiring challenge.
At this juncture, an ordinary girl in her early 30s gave Ma Yun a refreshing feeling. Her name is Tong Wenhong, a recent graduate of Zhejiang University, and she is full of curiosity and enthusiasm for the Internet.
Although Tong Wenhong's education and professional background are average, Ma Yun is quite appreciative of her diligent and down-to-earth attitude and courage to endure hardships. So he resolutely asked this "amateur" to be under his command and arranged for her to try her hand at the front desk post first.
No one expected that this trial would take 10 years. During this period, Tong Wenhong performed well in various positions, especially at critical moments, and never wasted energy on details.
As his impression of Tong Wenhong gets better and better, Ma Yun's attention to her is also increasing day by day. Finally at a party, he made a big promise in front of everyone: "As long as Tong Wenhong can work in Alibaba for 10 years, after the company is listed, I will give her a dividend of 200 million yuan!"
Such a sudden "heavenly commitment" really surprised the people present. Because according to the standards of that era, 200 million yuan was an astronomical amount!
But what does Jack Ma think? Only he himself knows. Tong Wenhong was also happy to see it happen at that time, and she actually didn't know whether she could finally get a reward of 200 million yuan.
But at least this set a lofty goal for her long career at Alibaba. Let's wait and see what happens to this seemingly fantastical promise.
After hardships, we share the same fate with Alibaba
Since 2000, Alibaba has stepped into the fast lane of development. This small and inconspicuous company, through unremitting efforts, has finally made a name for itself in just a few years. With the growth of the company, Tong Wenhong has also grown rapidly in this process. From the initial front desk girl, she has advanced to core positions such as administrative director and administrative director.
Whenever Alibaba encounters major tests and turns, Tong Wenhong behaves calmly and calmly. Take the SARS epidemic in 2003 as an example, when the whole society fell into a panic, and the normal operation of enterprises was also affected to varying degrees.
In this special period, Tong Wenhong, as the administrative director, stepped forward and took the lead in setting an example, leading the team to coordinate various epidemic prevention work inside and outside the department, ensuring the orderly operation of Alibaba, ensuring the safety and health of tens of thousands of employees, and making great contributions to the company's overcoming difficulties.
Such an outstanding performance further strengthened Ma Yun's trust in Tong Wenhong. Since then, she has often been personally summoned by Jack Ma to participate in Alibaba's major decisions. For example, at the 2001 "West Lake Sword" Internet Summit, Ma Yun directly handed over the planning and implementation of the entire conference to Tong Wenhong.
This is undoubtedly another affirmation and challenge to Tong Wenhong's ability and status. As an emerging Internet company like Alibaba, the success of holding such a high-end forum depends largely on the quality of the conference.
In the face of heavy responsibilities, Tong Wenhong is never afraid. She did her best to prepare, carefully planned every step of the way, and always had a keen eye to take into account any situation that might arise. In the end, the forum was not only a complete success, but also won unanimous praise from the guests.
In this way, with every leap of Ali's take-off, Tong Wenhong unconsciously completed self-transcendence. From an obscure small staff member, he has transformed into the mainstay of Alibaba, and everywhere he goes, he is conscientious, steady and steady, and has won the trust of his colleagues with professionalism and discipline.
Opportunities and challenges coexist, step by step to the top
Since 2010, Alibaba has become the leading e-commerce platform in China. But at the same time, the shortcomings of express logistics are becoming more and more prominent. In order to achieve the coverage of the whole industry chain, Ali set up a separate portal in 2013 and founded the "Cainiao Network".
This new army, which Jack Ma has high hopes for, has shouldered the mission of subverting the traditional logistics industry since its inception, and must build a new and efficient logistics network in the shortest possible time to meet the needs of Alibaba's accelerated development. And whose shoulders does this burden fall in the end? That's right, it's Tong Wenhong. Perhaps for the average person, this is a daunting challenge. But for Tong Wenhong, this is just a new big stage.
From scratch, starting from scratch, Tong Wenhong did not retreat, but rose to the challenge. She led the team to immediately carry out a large-scale field investigation, and it only took more than half a year to visit nearly 100 major logistics hubs at home and abroad. Through an in-depth analysis of the industry, she quickly established a development strategy of "intellectual outsourcing + preemptive strike".
With keen insight and innovative thinking, Tong Wenhong is always at the key moment of decision-making. She did not hesitate to invest heavily in advanced equipment, and at the same time upgraded the existing traditional logistics system. She boldly used cutting-edge technologies such as big data to introduce the artificial intelligence unattended system into the logistics business for the first time, completely subverting the management model of the industry.
In this way, under the wise leadership of Tong Wenhong, Cainiao Network has emerged only two years after its establishment, and has achieved remarkable results, becoming the largest logistics platform in China in one fell swoop.
In 2014, Jack Ma finally made good on his promise
September 19, 2014 will be a day that will go down in history forever. Because on this day, the world's largest technology IPO was born - Alibaba successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange, raising a total of $21.5 billion.
The company's successful listing is undoubtedly the result of the long-term hard work of Ma Yun and his generals. But at the same time, there is a small promise that has been fulfilled.
Do you remember the "heavenly promise" that Ma Yun made to Tong Wenhong at the beginning? Yes, it was after the company went public, she was given a promise of 200 million yuan in dividends. Now, with the end of the listing drama, the time has finally come for Jack Ma to fulfill his promise.
Counting the 0.2% stake held by Tong Wenhong before Alibaba's listing, the dividend of 200 million yuan is actually just a conservative estimate. To everyone's surprise, Ma Yun not only fulfilled the promise of the year at one time, but also far exceeded the dividend amount of 200 million yuan. According to the official disclosure, Tong Wenhong's Alibaba listing dividend this time is as high as 6.6 billion yuan!
6.6 billion yuan! This astronomical figure is 33 times the amount of dividends promised by Jack Ma 14 years ago. For a while, almost the entire public opinion field was blown up by this news. From the little sister at the front desk step by step to today, to get such a geometric return, Tong Wenhong's 25 years of hard work can be described as powerful and legendary.
Regarding Ma Yun's "generous" approach, the outside world has interpreted it differently. Some people believe that this ultra-high dividend of 6.6 billion yuan is the highest reward for Ma Yun's contribution to Tong Wenhong for many years; Some people also analyzed that Ma Yun wants to use this example to further embody Alibaba's core concept of "valuing talents and contribution".
However, no matter what the reason, Jack Ma's approach undoubtedly gave the whole team a dose of medicine, which greatly encouraged the fighting spirit and enthusiasm of Ali people.
In the future, where will she, who is worth tens of billions, go?
In this way, from a small clerk in his early 30s to a top rich man with a net worth of more than 10 billion, Tong Wenhong used his personal experience to interpret the purest "civilian inspirational legend".
According to the latest Hurun Report, as of 2022, Tong Wenhong has become the new richest woman in China with a net worth of 10.5 billion yuan, and she is also one of the few women who can climb a fortune of hundreds of millions from scratch in the workplace.
However, Tong Wenhong doesn't seem to care too much about the rich and expensive life. Even though she has been wealthy, she still chooses to live a low-key life and rarely shows her wealth outside. She said that it is not only the banknotes, but also the persistence and concentration of things.
Interestingly, Tong Wenhong also revealed that if he had the opportunity to choose again, he would not want to become a business giant like Jack Ma. "Because the life of an entrepreneur is too tiring and anxious, I prefer to live a stable and peaceful life."
This open-mindedness and indifference come from her 25 years of honing in Alibaba. From a small employee to a corporate executive, she has seen too many ups and downs, and has also understood the transience and impermanence of her career. Therefore, she prefers to treat life with a peaceful mind and live a quality life.
Isn't this simple wisdom of life the best inspiration for each of us?
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