On the occasion of his 54th birthday (September 10), Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma announced his retirement as chairman of the company.





In a letter sent to customers, employees, and shareholders, Ma explained that in exactly one year, on September 10, 2019—which is also Alibaba’s 20th anniversary—Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang will replace him as chairman of the board. Ma will remain on the board of directors until the company’s annual shareholders meeting in 2020.

So who is Zhang, Ma’s replacement?

Zhang has served as CEO of Alibaba since 2015 and worked at the Alibaba Group more broadly for 11 years. Ma expressed confidence in his CEO, writing that “the company has run smoothly for five years on the back of these institutional ingredients,” and highlighting that China’s business news media named him the top CEO of 2018.

Zhang has an impressive track record. He is the mastermind behind the biggest sales bonanza on the planet – Singles’ Day, held annually on November 11, or 11.11 (four ones to represent four single people). Launched in 2009, years before Amazon invented its Prime Day, Singles’ Day is now the world’s largest retail event, topping $25 billion in sales for Alibaba alone, which makes it four times the size of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined – and that’s before Alibaba’s competitors get in on the action. For Alibaba, some 140,000 brands took part in the event, offering their products on Taobao and Tmall, the company’s business-to-consumer platform, also created by Zhang.







He’s more pragmatic and more reserved than Ma, but then most of China’s (and the world’s) business elites are more reserved than Ma, who has a rather unique leadership style. “Where Jack was the bold visionary and organisation builder, Daniel is more of the shrewd strategist and operator. Climb into the ring with either and you will probably get knocked out,” says Jeffrey Towson, a business professor at Beijing University. Alibaba, he adds, is the stomping ground for some 66,000 of the smartest people in China. How smart do you have to be to be at the top of that pyramid? “Daniel is widely regarded as crazy smart and very tough,” Towson says.

Zhang is a known quantity not just at Alibaba, but in the global business world. He’s been with the company for 11 years – and the past three years as CEO, effectively managing the firm, with Ma acting more and more as its figurehead. Under Zhang, Alibaba has switched from PC-based transactions to mobile, which now accounts for about 80 per cent of entire gross merchandise volume.

With a diploma in accounting from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Zhang first worked as a senior manager at global auditor PriceWaterhouseCoopers and then chief financial officer at Shanda Interactive Entertainment, a leading Chinese developer of online games. He joined Taobao, the Alibaba-owned e-commerce site, as chief financial officer in 2007. He stayed, climbing the ladder – becoming chief operating officer before taking over the chief executive role from Jonathan Lu in 2015. Zhang has also been seen a lot in the West, frequently appearing at the World Economic Forum in Davos and other high-profile events. “With a strong finance background, he can also build more confidence with investors,” says Jason Yu, general manager of Kantar Worldpanel China, a company analysing consumer behaviour.



Zhang has also been developing the company’s New Retail concept, fusing physical retail and e-commerce. Alibaba’s futuristic Hema supermarkets, launched in 2015 and already buzzing in 13 cities across China, offer deliveries within half an hour when you shop in store or on the app – no delivery slot booking needed.

Continuing to provide a premium shopping experience for millions of people a day is not an easy task though, and despite the tangible success of the past few years, Zhang does have pretty large shoes to fill. Connecting brands and consumers anywhere in the world is another priority for Alibaba in the near future, says Lloyd – with the aim of delivering any product from anywhere in the world to anyone within 72 hours. Will that happen during Zhang’s time as chairman? At Alibaba, it seems, anything is possible.\
http://tellmystory.com.ng/who-is-alibabas-new-chairman-daniel-zhang/

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