Zhang Yong Eight Years: From Taobao CFO To Alibaba CEO

Ma Yun once said, "CFO is not afraid of CEO." He was born in CFO, but he became a Alibaba CEO. He likes to use his "stabbing knife" to test his subordinates' preparations. He built Taobao mall and created the "double eleven" himself. He once advocated the whole Alibaba "all in wireless"; in the era of user first, he said he wanted to balance users and merchants, and even tended to the latter.

Zhang Yong's memory of "Xiaoyao Zi" is obscure when he is jokingly referred to as "being on CEO and going to the top of life".

In order to match the visitor, he began to work hard to recall, but still gave people a sense of nothing. "I don't remember exactly when. But it is certainly not May 6th. It should be advanced for some time. This is a big thing, so there must be a reasonable transitional period. The scene seems to be in the company, where I have forgotten it. It was when I talked to him alone (Ma Yun) on two occasions that he happened to chat about this. Surely it wasn't me who told me to tell me about this. Anyway, just let it be. That's it.

He has always been known for his rigorous and logical integrity. In his past conversations, there have never been so many "uncertain" expressions.

"Did he say anything to you when he told you about this?" Ma Yun said.

"It seems not."

"Have you done anything different from the past?"

"It seems not."

"We usually hope that there is a sense of ritual here. Actually, there is really no sense of ceremony." Zhang Yong said. His office is on the 6 floor of building 3, Alibaba group headquarters, Xixi. This is the brain area of the largest Internet Co in China. From the incumbent CEO Zhang Yong to the offices of Group executives including Lu Zhaoxi, Peng Lei, Shao Xiaofeng and Wang Shuai. If you stay on this floor for a long time, you can see the most powerful people in China's Internet world. Opposite to their office, the office area of the executive support team and a conference room, including the "bright summit" in the Alibaba report, appeared many times.

According to Zhang Yong, he calmly passed the time between Ma Yun and CEO, one of the world's largest Internet Co, and passed the appointment by the board of directors of Alibaba group in May 6th, as if nothing had happened. But he knows he will be changed again. Later, he made a joke in his calm tone, which he always used to be, "my reaction seems calm." He (Ma Yun) said that to do CEO needs to make a plan for going to hell. Making CEO is a hard work. So he pushed me to hell.

Lu Zhaoxi sent a message to Zhang Yong, saying he had confidence in Zhang Yong and believed that the new CEO could do better than he did.

In May 7th of 2015, Alibaba The group issued the open letter of Ma Yun, announcing: "since May 10, 2015, Lu Zhaoxi will step down as CEO of Alibaba group and become vice chairman of the board of directors of the group." Lu Zhaoxi, the third CEO member of Alibaba group, was born in 1972 and worked for 8 years in Alibaba, Zhang Yong.

This is the only ritual in the entire CEO change process, which is completely different from the scene when Ma Yun announced the transfer of CEO to Lu Zhaoxi two years ago. In May 10, 2013, at the Huanglong stadium in Hangzhou, Alibaba employees, hundreds of media reporters and friends from the business community invited by Ma Yun watched the transfer of Ma Yun and Lu Zhaoxi's work together, and heard the speech master say: "I believe, I also urge all the figures to support me, support the new team, support Lu Zhaoxi, trust the new team and trust Lu Zhaoxi as trust me."

Thus, Zhang Yong, who was initially seen as a "professional manager" with a strong flavor of Alibaba Group executives, spent 8 years in his career and became CEO, a recognized Internet Co with a strong culture. Even Ma Yun himself said, "to be ashamed, I used to say that I'm not afraid of CFO, but I'm afraid that CEO is the only thing that CFO does."

Before August 2007, Zhang Yong was not a "carefree child".

He is vice president and chief financial officer of Shanda network. At that time, Chen Tianqiao and Tang Jun, the founder of Shanda, were all the hottest figures in the Chinese business world. At the age of 31, Chen was named "the richest man in China" by Forbes magazine. In 2014, Alibaba group became the richest man in China after the listing of Alibaba group in the United States, though he said more than once that he did not care about the title of "the richest man" and how rich he really was. In 2004, he resigned from the position of president of Microsoft China and joined the grand Tang Jun. He was called the first professional manager in China by the media.

This summer, Zhang Yong, who was on a business trip in Hongkong, received a call from the headhunting company. "A company called Alibaba, would you like to know?" this is a headhunting company specializing in serving four big accounting firms employees and employees who left their jobs. Zhang Yong, who worked in Arthur Andersen and PWC, is naturally on their list. The Alibaba is looking for talent for its rapid expansion.

A year ago, Alibaba just dug up B&Q China President Wei Zhe and became president of B2B business. Wang Shi also expressed surprise at the interview: "Wei Zhe has been doing business with us when he was in B&Q. Later, I wondered how IT could excavate people from traditional industries. At least I knew he was unique in employing people, and this gave us a great shock. Of course, no one would have thought that 5 years later, Wei Zhe's way of leaving was even more shocking.

Zhang Yong knows Alibaba knows this is growing rapidly. Electronic Commerce Tycoon. Moreover, he can not have not heard that Alibaba group's B2B business is seeking to be listed on the stock market later in the year. After he expressed his affirmative intentions, the headhunter continued: "if they are free, their CFO will make breakfast for you at Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hongkong tomorrow morning."

How he keeps his energy is something that even his colleagues are curious about. If anyone asks, Zhang Yonghui laughs about his experience in his first job. After graduating from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, he joined Andersen. Arthur Andersen was affected by Enron, and after he was merged with PWC, he also entered PWC. The experience of working in an accounting firm has made him accustomed to high intensity work. "This is probably my first job training. Adachi Nobu's work has a great influence on my life. This is the first day's work. Zhang Yong said.

Curious people will then ask, "do you mean tired and tired?"

His answer is "yes!"

Tong Wenhong, President of rookie network, said: "I think I have worked hard enough, but I find that Lao Xiao is still working harder than me. I've been a rookie for two years. It's really hard. I often go away late at night, but when I go out, I basically see his car still stopping there.

As an employee who has worked in Alibaba for 8 years, he has no burden in the face of "old Ali". This is unavoidable even in 2000, when Lu Zhaoxi, a former Alibaba CEO, worked.

In an interview with Forbes magazine in early 2014, Cai Chongxin said, "in my opinion, Lu Zhaoxi is feeling much better now than she was when she was a CEO half a year ago. Looking back at the situation at that time, I think he can regard me as a partner of Ma Yun. I am the founder, he is not. This is the situation in May 2013. Now, he is CEO. He should be the man giving the order. For me, I might think, "Oh, if I give orders, will he challenge me? After all, he is more qualified than I am." I tried to make him feel comfortable in the CEO position, which is what I did at that time.

"Never." this may be why I have been there till now. I often do not think I am a new person, nor do I feel like an old man now. Being a simple man is my belief. Don't think so much about what is going on and how to do it. Instead, it is easy to build trust among people. Zhang Yong said.

He and Alibaba's important executives have worked together: Cai Chongxin first picked him in Hongkong, and initially interviewed him including Ma Yun and Peng Lei; when he was doing CFO and COO at Taobao, the most direct partner in his work was Lu Zhaoxi, who succeeded Sun Tongyu as president of Taobao network. He was the first to work in Hongkong.

"Things can be complicated and people need to be simple." Zhang Yong said. This simplistic philosophy may sometimes lead him to do things beyond his authority in the eyes of outsiders.

Cao Yining, general manager of UTC expert e-commerce, recalled that at the meeting with businessmen, some businessmen complained that the ranking of search results on the big Taobao platform with sales volume as an important standard would result in low price "fake or cottage goods" attacking the brand businesses in the mall. But even the complainants find it difficult to change. After all, this needs to change the whole Taobao's search rules.

"Probably the result is that I am the president of Taobao mall. TaoBao I don't want to go back to my control. But he won't do that. He may have done a lot of work internally to make the whole change. This is his pattern. He can solve this problem in a very businesslike way. I think this will definitely make him feel good about his abilities and responsibilities. Cao Yining said.

This philosophy may also make him say that the company veteran union is very surprised. Fei LAN, who once served as HR Director at Tmall, remembers that there were differences between director Philip and director of business department in deciding whether an applicant is suitable for an important job. The director of business believes that the candidate has no problem, but Fei LAN resolutely rejected the candidate. Zhang Yong intervened in this matter, and he asked why the Philippines insisted on not passing. Philippine replied, "this guy has no Alibaba." Zhang Yong asked rhetorical questions, "what is Ali taste?"

Philippine was stunned on the spot. It is very likely that in the history of Alibaba, no senior management has ever raised this question openly with a challenging attitude. "He wants to help you to express clearly and see clearly the nature of the problem." Said Fei LAN. But she also found out, "he will have his own ideas, want to influence Ali."

After taking up the post of CEO, Zhang Yong suggested that it is also an example to balance the relationship between C (consumers) and B (merchants) and even to B for a period of time. When he became president of Tmall, he had similar references inside. Zhang Yong once said that Tmall wants to be a Republican while Taobao is a Democratic Party (Note: among the two major political parties in the United States, the democratic party emphasizes pluralism and equality, while the Republicans emphasize corporatism and free trade). This is unthinkable in the Internet Co, which always emphasizes user supremacy. For example, Wang Xing, the founder of the US group network, has always stressed that the ranking of the US group is: user first, merchant second and US group third.

Alibaba has proved to be a great success in the past 16 years. Success will bring rationality to all existing cultures, rules and ways of doing things. Any change will be seen as a challenge to this rationality. But everyone knows that change is inevitable, and if it does not change voluntarily, the result may be a passive change.

Zhang Yong himself said that the three main tasks in front of the new CEO are: 1., formulate and promote the implementation of the strategy. He has described the strategic map of Alibaba in his speech known as the policy outline, but more importantly, to turn strategy into reality; 2., layout for the future, including from a terminal to multiple terminals, from domestic to overseas, online and offline integration, etc. 3. the work of training and organizational change of young people, he repeatedly mentioned is from the traditional tree structure to the netlike structure in line with the mobile Internet era.

"Do you worry that you will be CEO in the shadow of Ma Yun?" Zhang Yong replied, "first, Ma Yun is the founder of Alibaba, Ma Yun's existence is objective fact; second, shadow is not shadow, it all depends on how you do it. Ma Yun certainly hopes that the people he chooses will succeed. So, what we need to consider is how to make good use of the resources of the chairman of the board, rather than regard him as a burden.

Zhang Yong always presents a stable and invariable image: his hair is in a neat state; his shirt, suit and leather shoes are regular; he is very strict when he doesn't laugh; he likes talking about business problems at the same time, but he doesn't like talking about himself.

It is not easy to enrage a stable person. "I searched through the Internet, and I saw that the media's comment on you was" the lowest and the most boring. "

Zhang Yong still smiled, and his tone changed. Everyone should have the right to keep himself. "