Alibaba - Estratégia de Sucesso

by Ming Zeng

Leaders already know that the classic approach to strategy--analyze, plan, execute--is losing relevance. But they don't yet know what replaces it. As everyone and everything becomes more interconnected and digitized, how do you operate, compete, and win?

Ming Zeng, the former Chief of Staff and strategy adviser to Alibaba Group's founder Jack Ma, explains how the latest technological developments, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, the mobile internet, and cloud computing are redefining how value is created. Written especially for those outside the technology industry or the startup arena, this book introduces a simple, overarching framework to guide strategy formulation and execution in this data-rich and highly interactive environment.

Revealing the revolutionary practices that he and his team have developed at Alibaba, Zeng shows how to:

Automate decisions through machine learning
Create products informed by real-time data from customers
Determine the right strategic positioning to maximize value from platforms and suppliers
Repurpose your organization to further human insight and enable creativity
Lead your company's transformation into a smart business

With insights into the strategies and tools used by leaders at Alibaba and other companies such as Ruhan and Red Collar, in a variety of industries from furniture making to banking to custom tailoring, Smart Business outlines a radically new approach to strategy that can be applied everywhe

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management, China, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Buisness

320 pages, Paperback

Published July 10, 2019

Reviews

[Pavel Annenkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

О ЧЕМ КНИГА:
Эта книга - мой новый фаворит 2019 года. Очень своевременная работа, которая на примере китайских IT лидеров показывает, как за последнее десятилетие произошла полная диджитализация бизнеса. То, что всё ушло в цифру, это не просто слова, а реальность. Те компании, которые не оцифруют свой бизнес и не построят "смарт компанию" рано или поздно уйдут с рынка. Процесс во многих отраслях только начинается и сейчас надо к нему присоединяться пока не поздно. Автор детально описывает, как устроен бизнес китайских смарт-компаний и показывает, что из этого мы можем применить сейчас у себя.
Очень важный момент в книге, где автор объясняет почему классический подход к стратегии больше не работает. И главное показывает какой подход будет работать сейчас. Стратегия теперь это не анализ и планирование, а процесс экспериментирования и привлечения клиентов в реальном времени.

КАКАЯ БЫЛА ЦЕЛЬ ЧТЕНИЯ:
- Разобраться во всех составляющих диджитализации бизнеса и понять, что я могу внедрить из этого в своих компаниях.

ГЛАВНЫЕ ВЫВОДЫ:
- Продукт будущего адаптируется под клиента и является результатом машинного обучения в ответ на проблему клиента.

- На смену модели В2С на многих рынках приходит модель С2В. Это когда компания и ее продукт формируются самими потребителями. Всё больше товаров и услуг будут производиться под запрос по приемлемой цене. 'Клиент на первом месте" - это уже не лозунг, а стартовая точка бизнеса.

- В сети компании делятся на три типа: точки, линии и плоскости. Задача предпринимателя, если он использует стратегию точки, искать новые линии и плоскости, которые появляются на рынках. Нужно всегда использовать сетевой эффект для роста и развития своего бизнеса. Новые возможности возникают непрерывно и важно не пропустить новое окно возможности.

- Чем больше компания использует обратную связь от клиентов, тем больше она становится смарт-бизнесом.

- Два главных вывода об успехе сейчас:
1. Правильность решений сегодня зависит от моего видения будущего.
2. Креативность - основной источник создания стоимости.

- Каждый, кто обладает уникальной способностью создавать новую стоимость, найдет способ её реализовать.

- Именно во времена стремительных изменений нам больше всего требуется ясное представление о будущем.

ЧТО Я БУДУ ПРИМЕНЯТЬ:
- Буду смотреть теперь на каждую компанию, как на один из трёх типов бизнеса: точка, линия или платформа.

- Чаще буду проводить стратсессии в своих компаниях.

ЕЩЕ НА ЭТУ ТЕМУ
Кевин Келли «Неизбежно»

[Denis Vasilev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Приходит время привыкать к нынешнему китайскому стилю написания книг - напыщенному, многословному, передающему мысли между строк. Есть вкрапления интересных фактов и идей, на фоне длинных пассажей о плоскостях «совместного процветания». Впрочем американские бизнес книги 80х в период расцвета промышленного бизнеса были во многом похожи по риторике. Имеено эта книга - не лучший вариант понять реалии китайского бизнеса

[Marks54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an informed and up-to-date review of the strategies of the Alibaba group written by the former Chief Strategy Officer who currently runs the company business school/university. As a business trade book, this is fairly well done and readable although as an HBS volume, do not expect a gripping style.

Alibaba is a huge firm that dominates Chinese E-Commerce. It boast capabilities to handle unheard of scale and scope in its sales and fulfillment activities, of which its Singles Day is a major example. There is lots about Alibaba that can be better understood with various popular frameworks, but the size of the enterprise and the particular history of the Chinese economy place limits on understanding the story well. This is a related problem to attempts to understand Wal-Mart’s particular history in China and its competition in E-Commerce with Amazon.

Ming Zeng is an interesting combination of executive and academic/consultant. He was actually trained in the US for his doctorate before joining Alibaba. His particular “punchline” for the story of Alibaba is that the firm’s strategy effectively combines aggressive network coordination along supply channels with substantial and well integrated approaches to using “Big Data” platforms across the firm. Yes, I realize that combining networks and “big data” for a single firm origin story risks joining the business buzzword hall of fame for a while, but for Alibaba, the story rings true and is reasonable as a current account of Jack Ma’s empire.

The style is fine and some of the subplots (TaoBao) are especially interesting. There are also lots of references if more reading is desired. The Alibaba websites are also lots of fun.

As books on Chinese business strategy go, this is fairly good and worth the effort to read if this is where one’s interest lie.

[Quintin Zimmermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have ready many books regarding Google, Facebook and Apple, but Smart Business is the first regarding the Chinese behemoth, Alibaba.

Smart Business embraces the innovative power of Chinese business which has a distinctly different approach to the West.

Much like Google and Amazon, there are similar cutting-edge technologies that are applied within Alibaba's business framework, from highly sophisticated machine-learning algorithms to mobile internet and cloud computing, but Alibaba ethos has a distinctive Eastern mindset.

The peculiar incorporation of Chinese web celebs, the creation of Ant Financial and the flexibility and fortitude to continually engage in risky experimentation in order to remain on the forefront of a rapidly evolving e-commerce market. Imagine Amazon deciding one day to split its entire business into into three independent business units that literally compete against each other. Unimaginable, but that is exactly what Alibaba did in 2011 as an experiment to clarify which model served as the best way forward for e-commerce in China.

As interesting as Smart Business was at times, there was a great deal of repetition and certain chapters were much weaker than others. I also felt that Smart Business was divorced from the human element as the focus was primarily on the innerworkings of Alibaba as opposed to exploring the people themselves, their personal struggles and their triumphs as they built a small, modest startup into the global powerhouse that it is today.

[Sebastian Gebski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very hard to assess and review properly.

On one hand there's plenty of valuable content - regarding business model, strategy, market approach, value generation, even culture. But the form sucks - the book is incredibly "dry", like written by robots. I'd even call it "mechanical". As a result, in my case listening to this audiobook was nothing else than 10 hours long, monotonous monologue that felt like a recording of Amazon Alexa.

The fact that the book lacks "human touch" has deeper consequences - at moments it felt like propaganda: there were no struggles, no mistakes, no "journey" in search of the answers. Just the disruption, success, scaling and supremacy.

In the end I find it an interesting learning experience and a rare oppotunity to learn more about Alibaba, Taobao, etc., but if I had to read it again, I'd probably rather strangle myself instead ...

[Vadim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alibaba сегодня уже не просто китайский аналог Amazon. Это конгломерат, включающий в себя банк, логистическую компанию, облачные сервисы и более 20 других бизнесов.

Построенный за 20 лет школьным учителем, он продает больше товаров чем Walmart, хотя персонала в нем в десятки раз меньше. Во многом это заслуга автоматизированных облачных решений, активно использующих искусственный интеллект.

Вообщем, нам есть чему поучиться у Джека Ма.

[Steve Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was Stevo's Business Book of the Week for the week of 9/30, as selected by Stevo's Book Reviews on the Internet. http://forums.delphiforums.com/stevo1 https://amzn.to/2DSQaxl

[Igor Gorchakov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Залпом проглотил рекомендованную мне книгу. Возможно, она, действительно, станет одной из лучших бизнес-книг года... как минимум, в моём персональном рейтинге. Читать, изучать, разбираться и применять обязательно!!!
Вот, что сам автор в конце повествования говорит о своей книге: “В каждой главе этой книги представлялись осуществимые концепции будущего бизнес-стратегии. В первой части мы обсудили, как меняется логика бизнеса под влиянием двух новых факторов создания стоимости — сетевой координации и интеллектуальной обработки данных. Во второй части было показано, как компании, использующие эти два фактора, меняют свое стратегическое мышление и деятельность, от автоматизации процесса принятия решений до переориентации на C2B-модель и позиционирования в деловой экосистеме. Третья часть расширила представление о том, что означает переход к смарт-бизнесу для стратегического планирования и организационной структуры: смарт-стратегия становится экспериментальной и самонастраивающейся, а смарт-компания приобретает организационную структуру, создающую возможность. Каждая из этих новых граней является отражением какого-либо аспекта одного и того же фундаментального изменения.
Деловой мир вступил в очень интересный переходный период. Цифровая революция идет уже так долго, что, перефразируя известную поговорку из Кремниевой долины, горизонт уже ясен, но расстояние не поддается определению. В то же время ясность горизонта распределена крайне неравномерно. Большинство людей не могут видеть его. В этой книге я не пытаюсь предсказывать будущее. Я просто рассказываю о том, что происходит на переднем крае интернет-бизнеса и в Китае, самом богатом в мире источнике инноваций. Я считаю происходящие изменения концом начала”.

[Deepak · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that fleshes out the network coordination plus data intelligence moat built by Alibaba. A must read for those working at platforms.

My notes from the book -

Tmall and Taobao have different sellers. Former has bigger ones / latter has smaller ones. Taobao does not charge any commission but makes money off ads; Tmall charges 0.3 to 0.5 percent commission.

10mn active sellers and 400mn active customers on the Alibaba ecom platforms.

Network coordination and data / intelligence. Network coordination example - creating tools logistics companies could integrate into .. to manage flows between ecom platforms and logistics partners

Taobao has a feature that allows customers to interact with brands (a dedicated chat forum per seller). Pre order and post order queries / resolutions etc.

Taobao allows even offline connection between buyers and sellers. It still retains its consumers by facilitating safe transactions on its online platform. As against ebay which always kept the interactions via its platform

Taobao enabled network
- taobao partners (tp) - helping offline brand come online
- 3p service providers (crm, order management, marketing, seo) via APIs

Network coordination works only when most of the offline business processes are brought online

Datafication can set off a virtuous loop wherein more data leads to better machine learning / recos which invites more customers and creates more data

Building a smart network
- datafication of physical world activities
- Softwaring business decisions / putting data online
- Get machines to talk to each other through data flows and APIs
- Get live data
- Apply machine learning algos

Taobao moved the popularity and reputation based search algo to machine learning, including various other metrics such as seller trustworthiness (based on credit scores), seller service levels, buyer returns etc

Taobao personalizes product recos to the tune of 100bn combinations on singles day

C2B - consumer to business
Product development basis inputs from customers (shares / discussions / comment mining) to identify which products to keep in the sale and in how much qty. And softwaring across apparel procurement, manufacturing, warehousing and customer feedback from social media

Point, line and plane.
New Lines (brands) take advantages of platform infrastructure offered by planes. They also call upon points rather than building those in house
Planes enable points (social media influencers, logistics capabilities)

Plane businesses need to be on the constant lookout for new points that can be folded into the network

Lines will make the choice of a plane not on consumer access alone, but also which plane can provide the most efficient access to point players - suppliers / tech providers / other service providers. Points work on finding the best planes which in turn help with finding the best lines.

Continuous Iteration through experimentation replaces strategy in a smart network

Alibaba has an ongoing annual program focused on rotating a share of its leadership across different roles

Management needs to enable people than manage them.

Zappos pays newly joined employees for leaving after 2 weeks if the employee feels the culture fit is missing.

Alibaba - named after the popular Arabian nights story … open sesame : opened the doors for China’s small and medium enterprises

[MuuLee · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was an okay book, mainly about the 2 secret of a smart business

[Sỹ Hiếu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Complicated book both in the writing way and the content. Will need more time to understand

[Ha Bui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing- probably think deserves from describing the content written from Alibaba internal strategist.
4 points for content except for overexplaining concepts to boost page numbers and one more point for how the book affects my current work :D

[Greg Hawod · Rating 5 out of 5]

For someone like me who is just only starting getting familiar to the nuances of the business world, this book provides a lot of information on how the Chinese behemoth Alibaba works. You will really learn a great deal in terms of the strategies employed by this company to make it successful today.

I learned about web celebs who espoused entrepreneurship in modern China and fuel the success of of Taobao.

There are so many things to learn in this book that I would certainly buy a copy of this one someday and put it on my online bookshelves.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harvard Business Review Press for letting me read and post my views on this book.

[Rasmus · Rating 3 out of 5]

It brings up a lot of good points about business and technology for which I find it very interesting - however it suffers from the common problem of overexplaining concepts to boost page numbers. I'd recommend this book for anyone who's interested in business, and technology, and want to see how they can work together to optimize each other.

[Austin Gaghadar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book did a great job at highlighting important aspects of strategy in the internet age in a way that was both easy to digest and implement. This was largely facilitated through the connections between more amorphous and general principles and the experience of Alibaba. This structure allowed me to learn a lot more about how the core relevant capabilities could develop in practice as well as shine a direct light on the business practices of Alibaba, a company that I did not previously now much about. Beyond the company itself I appreciated the willingness of the author to engage with and describe all the related businesses and entrepreneurs that have been necessary to enable the company itself to be successful. Finally I felt the book was generally well organized with a clear structure prevalent and well adhered-to throughout. This made it easy to follow the authors line of reasoning and understand the material being presented. The appendices which allowed for reorganization of the information to supplement the main text was also very effective in providing a reference for important background information and context to ground the main text.

This book also had a number of limitations that I felt could have been improved upon. In particular while it was useful at times to draw the ideas being discussed back to the main thesis of the importance of network co-ordination and data intelligence the degree of explicit connections made caused the book to seem very repetitive at times. This made it more monotonous and thus detracted from the degree to which I was engaged with the materials. In addition, this book could have touched on some of the limitations of the strategies that were being espoused. Specifically, there could have been more discussion of the shortfalls that are wont to arise when relying on algorithmic decision making. While this was engaged in to some extent through the discussion of the importance of creativity this did not seem sufficient given the high degree to responsibility for algorithms that the book seemed to be advocating for.

Overall this provided practical and relevant commentary on new ways of doing business, elucidated a fascinating business and business model in Alibaba and fostered interesting thoughts on the future of business in the internet age. Ideas that I will continue to draw from and become increasingly relevant as technology continues to progress.

[Varun Srinivasan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been amazed by Jack Ma, the way he speaks disperses humility, his wisdom gained from building Alibaba and multiple organisations.

Because of social media, many of you would be of the opinion that Alibaba is a copy-cat of the common household name firms from the Silicon Valley - it definitely is not. The book exposes the vision of Jack Ma in building Alibaba and what strategies worked for the organisation. Written by Ming Zeng who was a senior executive in Jack Ma’s leadership team, we get a first-person view into the inner workings of Alibaba.

The book names network coordination and data intelligence as the two critical drivers of value creation and looks at a C2B (Customer to business) strategy which was very interesting. He also goes on to say that Smart businesses are the ones who have established a synergy between network and data thereby making your organisation powerful and dangerous to the competition. The other key strategy to building a smart business is to embed rapid feedback loops in every relationship and action in the network of your organisation by means of data intelligence and live data.

Though the book is a bit dated (published in 2018), the insights are very relevant. I would highly recommend this book if you ever think of building a business yourself.

[Wojtek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this one is tricky, as Ming Zeng very dangerously dances between stating the obvious while repeating the importance of combining data intelligence and network effects and unveiling the fascinating world of Alibaba to the reader.

It took me over two months of reading the book one chapter every couple days - it doesn't read that lightly and could use some editing, but the parts that do are simply fascinating. The book provides many stories, business cases and economic models surrounding the Alibaba Group and its companies, which are simply stunning to a western reader and that's a good enough reason to explore this book. It is a bit repetitive but you will surely enjoy it more than most of the traditional Silicon Valley success story records.

[Vinh Khang Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The relationship between point (点), line (线), side (面) and body (体).
Numerous points form a line, numerous line form a side, and numerous sides form a body.
The books share how Alibaba is now a body that is contributed by a various points, and this whole body also grants the power for its points.
Key learning : if a point chooses the body wrong, no matter how much effort it put in, it won't be as successful as just a normal point choosing the right body.

[Yauheni Shauchenka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Компании бывают точками (умеют производить, но не продавать конечным потребителям), линиями (умеют координировать производство и продвижение товара) и плоскостями (помогают развиваться линиям, предоставляя гибкую инфраструктуру). Готовность к изменениям - лучшая стратегия. Актуальные Миссия и Видение - ключи к успеху. Как тренировать видение будущего - постоянно пробуйте новые возможности. Не управляйте сотрудниками, а создавайте возможности для развития компании

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy-to-read view into the Alibaba companies and the growth of e-commerce in China written by their chief strategy officer. Definitely gives a sense of one possible future for the rest of the world, especially with the rise in power of social media influencers. Other countries and companies have some catching up to do.

[Alvin Soh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smart business = Network Coordination + Data Inteligence.

Automating Decisions = Datafy, Software, API, Live data, Machine Learning

C to B business model = Enhanced demand pull model

Positioning in the new world = Point (niche), line (differentiation), or plane (cost efficiency)?

Agility and learning in running smart business.

[Xiang Yang Ng · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book that tells the story of the rise of one of the most innovative tech companies in the world: Alibaba. To be honest this book is technically like the book by Eric Schmidt on Google’s success. So does that mean that successful internet companies all follow similar cultures and ways of doing business? Apparently, yes.

[Darya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book although times challenging if you are not tech savvy. There is a good mix of strategy and it's application to technical implementation. For me this book is about of the quotes that strategy is not planning and analytics, it is about execution and experimentation. There are a couple of good ideas and thoughts to reflect on.

[Zombie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Step by step guide to set up a modern day internet (and others too) business. He talks about how business should be build around 'Network Coordination' and 'Data Intelligence'. Amazing read on Alibaba. Writer has an academic, text-book type approach throughout the book.

[Shubham Kabra · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's rare to get in depth knowledge about Chinese companies if you don't know mandarin. Excellent guiding book for all new ceos, companies and leaders on how they should structure their business to stay relevant and thrive. If you don't read business books often, at times, it might get boring.

[Lukas Mares · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about Alibaba and the Chinese e-commerce

It’s a really good book about Alibaba’s rise and interesting overview about the Chinese e-commerce situation and its turbulent development.

[Book Chui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I have read this year. Read some books with similar themes but this is the only one that put it in an applicable framework.

[Mars D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read: if you want to understand innovation and strategy in the east

[Nahian Iftekhar Alam · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful book that describes the progress of Alibaba's transformation from a small business to a retail behemoth.

[ΔRT · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book of the year.