Here’s Jack Ma’s memo to Alibaba staff

Jack Ma / Photo credit: Alibaba

A year after restructuring Alibaba Group amid increasing competition, Jack Ma posted a memo on the Alibaba intranet in a bid to boost morale among his staff. Below is Ma’s letter, translated from Mandarin to English using ChatGPT and lightly edited to align with our style standards.

To reform, to innovate

— Written on the first anniversary of Alibaba’s restructuring

In these past few days, many people have sent me videos of Joe [Tsai]’s interviews. Some have said to me that this video reveals our past mistakes with great openness. Indeed. Thank you to Joe for his courage and sense of responsibility. Making mistakes is not terrifying; nobody is immune from errors. What’s truly terrifying is not knowing, not acknowledging, and not correcting them.

In the past 25 years, Alibaba has achieved numerous successes, innovations, and leadership positions. But in these 25 years, we have also made countless mistakes. In the coming 77 years, we will continue to make mistakes along the way.

Facing problems calmly is not about negating the past but responsibly seeking the path to the future. Without blaming the past, without complaining about others, the era has changed, and we must keep pace with it.

We must not only courageously admit and promptly correct yesterday’s issues but also reform toward the future. This is why we keep moving forward.

Last year, I wrote on the intranet: Alibaba will change, Alibaba will transform. In the past year, Cai Chongxin and Wu Yongming, with admirable courage and wisdom, have led Alibaba through a series of future-oriented reforms.

The most fundamental change this year is not about chasing KPIs but about recognizing ourselves and returning to the track of customer value. We have tackled the problems of a big company, transforming from an organization with slow decision-making back to one that prioritizes efficiency and the market, making the company simple and agile again.

The new management team faces problems and the future head-on, believes in young people, fully empowers young teams, and decisively chooses what we need and what we don’t. Our idealistic aspirations and the mission of “making it easy to do business anywhere” will never change.

However, the new management team has made various changes in the past year, not only breaking through the hardened strategies of yesterday but also shaping the future Alibaba.

From B2B to Taobao, to Alipay, and then to Alibaba Cloud, our innovation has never been about pursuing higher profits but about striving to survive in an era of rapid change. Our innovation is not about changing others but about changing ourselves. Our innovation has never been about surpassing competitors but about catching up with the future.

Innovation is not about being trendy; it tests your true survival capability. It requires you to overturn your cognition from within, to challenge yourself forever and to do things that others dare not, don’t want to, or haven’t done.