Open Sesame Open – What I Learned From Alibaba

Bugünkü yazımda piyasa değeri 460 Milyar Dolar’a ulaşan ve dünyanın en değerli şirketlerinden biri haline gelen Alibaba’nın misafiri olarak katıldığım etkinliklere dair izlenimlerimi anlatacağım. Yıl dönümlerinin olması nedeniyle 10 Eylül’ün önemi yalnızca şirketin 20. Yılı değildi . Bugün şirketin temelinde özel olarak seçilmiş ve inşa edilmiş pek çok lezzet bulunuyor. Ayrıca Jack Ma’nın vedasının kişisel…

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Bugünkü yazımda piyasa değeri 460 Milyar Dolar’a ulaşan ve dünyanın en değerli şirketlerinden biri haline gelen Alibaba’nın misafiri olarak katıldığım etkinliklere dair izlenimlerimi anlatacağım. Yıl dönümlerinin olması nedeniyle 10 Eylül’ün önemi yalnızca şirketin 20. Yılı değildi . Bugün şirketin temelinde özel olarak seçilmiş ve inşa edilmiş pek çok lezzet bulunuyor. Ayrıca Jack Ma’nın vedasının kişisel bir karardan ziyade şirket sisteminin başarısının bir kutlaması olduğunu da baştan vurgulamak isterim.

Çin’in Hangzhou kentindeki Olimpiyat Stadı’nda 55.000 kişinin katıldığı bu dev etkinlik; pek çok solo, dans gösterisi, rock konseri, geleneksel Çin kostümleri gibi görsel bir şölenle hafızalara kazındı. Bu etkinliğin elbette bir amacı vardı, tüm bu performanslarıyla vizyonu, ekibi, gelecek kurgusunu birçok konuya en akılda kalıcı ve eğlenceli şekilde değinerek, çoğunluğu kendi çalışanları olduğu için bir kez daha izleyiciye aktardılar. Bu doğrultuda gözlemlerimi ve deneyimlerimi sizlerle paylaşmayı faydalı buluyorum.

Kısaca Alibaba Hikayesi

Bugün yaşadığımız her şey, 1999 yılında Çinli öğretmen Jack Ma’nın ülkesinde önemli bir fırsat görmesiyle başladı. Çin’de sayısız üretici olmasına rağmen, dünyada bunların varlığından habersiz yüz milyonlarca insan vardı. Kendisine inanan 16 kişiyle internet üzerinden tanışmanın hayalini kurarak bir apartman dairesinde yola çıktı. Bu ekiple dünyanın sınırlarını kaldıran küresel e-ticaret pazarının altyapısını başlattı.

1,4 milyar nüfuslu ülkelerinin işleyişi ve ihtiyaçların karşılanması konusunda zaten pek çok sorun ve zorluğu beraberinde getirdiğinden, bu ekibin zorlukları fırsat olarak değerlendirmeye odaklandığını söylersek yanılmamalıyız. Çünkü tekrar nüfusa baktığımızda değişen ihtiyaçları, beklentileri, zevkleri ve trendleri hızla anlamanın ötesindeki talep-çözüm-memnuniyet mücadelesi, Ali Baba Grubu şirketlerinin dünyanın en hızlı büyüyen şirketleri haline gelmesine neden olmuş gibi görünüyor.

Alibaba Adı nereden geliyor?

Hayalleri ilk etapta Çin’in dünyaya açılan kapısı olduğundan, dünyadaki her insanın rahatlıkla ve aynı şekilde söyleyebileceği bir isim düşündüler. “Ali Baba ve Kırk Haramiler” hikayesinden yola çıkarak (Aç susam aç) diyerek şirketlerinin kapısını dünyaya açtılar. Bu ismin hikayesi gerçekten onlara yakışmıyor mu?

20. Yıl Kutlaması neden 10 Eylül’de?

  1. Çin’de Öğretmenler Günü (Kurucu Jack Ma idealist bir öğretmendir)
  2. Jack Ma’nın doğum günü
  3. Sonunda Alibaba şirketinin doğum günü.

Çin ve Alibaba’nın Karşılıklı Gelişimi

Geriye dönüp baktığımızda Çin’in dış ticaret kapasitesinde dil ve konum gibi engeller vardı. Ancak dünyadaki teknolojik gelişmelere hızla uyum sağlayarak en çok dış ticaret yapılan ülkelerden biri olmayı başarmıştır. Bu başarıda Alibaba Grubu bünyesindeki şirketlerin payının çok büyük olduğunu söyleyemeyiz. Ülkede ucuz işçilik ve hammadde maliyetleri bir fırsattı ancak ürün ve hizmetler lojistikten anlaşılıyordu.

Gelinen noktada devletin lojistik desteğiyle e-ticarette önde gelen ülkelerden biri haline geldi. Devlet ve firmalar arasındaki bu uyum, yeni bir gelecek inşa etmemizi sağladı. Bu bence gelişmekte olan ülkeler için çok ilham verici bir örnek.

Alibaba Sadece Bir E-Ticaret Şirketi Değildir

Instead of positioning itself as an e-commerce company, Alibaba has focused on providing easy ways of doing business for resellers and providing a quality of service that allows buyers to have a positive buying experience. Focused on B2B, in time, along with its core business, B2C expanded to advertising, logistics, online banking and payment, cloud computing, mobile services, and even artificial intelligence. I will draw your attention, the magic here is about being integrated and hardwired.

They also purchased several software companies, such as weather forecast, maps, music, and travel applications, to obtain data on their daily lives in order to reach their customers in the most effective ways.

A few of the companies within the Alibaba Group

  1. Alibaba.com: B2B focused global import and export platform.
  2. Aliexpress: Although it is a B2C focused e-commerce company, it is different from TaoBao in different languages. As TaoBao targets the Chinese market, AliExpress targets the world as we know it.
  3. TaoBao: Ali Baba Group’s B2C and C2C focused e-commerce company, which means searching treasure in Chinese language.
  4. Tmall: a company offering wide range of branded products for China’s growing middle class. For example; Nike is the platform where multinational brands such as Apple are sold.
  5. Alibaba Cloud: Global cloud computing and data management company.
  6. Alimama: I can briefly say that it is an online marketing platform. We should add that it is to serve the users of the companies already in the group.
  7. AliPay: 3rd Party online payment platform. It is also a Fintech company, which was established based on the needs of group companies. Ali Micro Finance provides micro-level deposits and loans to small enterprises that have difficulty in obtaining loans from traditional banks. Categorizes and conducts individual credit ratings based on customer behavior data collected from the platforms within the organization.
  8. Cainiao Network: A logistics data platform established to meet China’s logistics demands in the fastest and highest quality way.
  9. Aliwangwang: It is an instant messaging service established for real-time interactions between buyers and sellers.
  10. Juhuasuan: Sales and marketing platform focused on Taobao and Tmall transactions.

When we look at the fields of duty and responsibility of these companies, we can easily say that all of them basically form an integrated structure in order to be a global player of e-commerce. If you are interested, you may also benefit from a thorough research to look at other companies.

Aliexpress and ebebek Relationship

As soon as Alibaba has realized its promise to manufacturers in China to open the door to the world and by focusing on producers in other countries, it has established an office in Turkey. We are also the first player since we are one of the oldest in the country, hence they visited our office together with senior management for listening to us about the Turkish e-commerce ecosystem and for possible cooperation opportunities. As e-commerce, we shifted our focus to the global in September 2018, but because we did not have enough recognition, our order numbers were not directly proportional to our excitement. In short, as a result of AliExpress cooperation, we were very excited to be able to send orders to nearly 200 countries. When we look at the table in terms of them, there were no suppliers from countries other than China. That’s why they made the first experience candidates feel that they would care and value from that day.

Our relationship, which started on this occasion, made us an official AliExpress supplier in early 2019. With an acquaintance from this process, they invited us as ebebek to the 20th anniversary party. There was a high expectation that it would be an important experience opportunity. Therefore, I gladly accepted your kindly invitations without worrying that the transfer would be 40 hours on the way in 3 days. When we went there we saw the 20th year participating in demonstrations just only one from Turkey, but also from the world as important foreign guests.

Not Using Alipay?

On the first day, when my journey from Istanbul to China ends, AliExpress Global Growth Leader and Turkey Manager Yaman met me and checked into my hotel. A welcome 6-piece cupcakes with welcome banners were waiting for us in our room.

Our Cupcakes in Our Hotel

I decided to take an albeit short walk before going to sleep. When I was walking around my hotel, I came across a grocery store in the middle of the night as the only open shop. I wanted to buy shampoo by entering this little grocery store for a shopping experience. But, I did not have the Chinese currency RMB on me. When the grocer refused to accept my dollar, we tried my credit card, but it did not pass either. In the meantime, should the seller turn around and look at me in surprise, saying that you don’t have Alipay? Where is AliPay by me I thought, we pull down the innovations in Turkey even so, BKM Express took the decision to close down on 9 September, although our Chinese does not understand these systems, of course. Even though we are not Chinese, we did not also understand this decision of BKM Express to be closed down.

We Start the Day with Our Guide Kai

After breakfast, we met with Kai, a wonderful Alibaba employee who would take care of 2 Russian, 1 Spanish, 1 Chinese and 5 VIP guests. According to my impressions, there were not many guests from abroad, it was an organization with 99% Chinese. 80% of the Chinese were employees of the Alibaba Group. Kai presented us with a gift to commemorate the 20th year. It contained commemorative coins that Alibaba had printed every year to commemorate an important event.

20 commemorative coins representing each year

AliBaba Group XiXi Campus My Experiences

We came to the Alibaba Group Xixi campus with our minibus to step into the garden of one of the giant campuses at a point that started in an apartment and reached a business model that no one believed.

Our VIP minibus allocated to us
Alibaba Group Xixi Campus Entrance
    1. “Thanks & Hello” slogan: We Thank Our Past and We are Ready for the Future. We Also Say Hello to You. I met this slogan here. 
    Thanks&Hello

    I must say it was a great highlight. Because, it is a great dexterity both as individuals and as an institution to thank the past and say hello to the future with enthusiasm. We see these slogans all over the campus to commemorate the establishment of the 20th year. They use this word and logo in the most effective way in the communication of this special day.

    Thanks&Hello

    At the main entrance there is a TaoBao Statue inside the giant building. TaoBao is the name and mascots of a company of Alibaba.

    The giant TaoBao mascot at the entrance to the building
  1. Digital Abacus: There was a digital abacus on a part of the campus just like the entrance to ebebek. It says “Welcome to Alibaba.”

    Photos from Electronic Abacus
  2. Creating Meaning, Not Numbers: Aliday 510: On the wall immediately after the information desk, the article 510 Ali Day attracts my attention. When you look at it in the first place, it is possible that you read it “five hundred and ten” and cannot make sense of it. What is this 510? And they have 102. Turns out this isn’t … … five hundred and ten … … but 10 May. May 10 is celebrated as Ali Day every year. Alibaba employees came to campus with their families and celebrated this special day they were looking forward to. They will also get married that year under the sponsorship of Jack Ma. Costs, of course, from Jack Ma. Big man, that’s it. 🙂

    Wall prepared in memory of 10 May
  3. Alibaba Battle Uniform: Inside there was the meaning of Ali Baba t-shirt on a huge wall. Every year, they design a t-shirt, and they have awareness sentences and symbols specific to that year. Alibaba’s t-shirt was called Battle Uniform. Combat Uniform: The meaning is as follows: In all the major Alibaba battles and festivals, all participants wear the same combat uniforms and fight together, just like armor. Combat uniform is not only a t-shirt, but also a soul. It is a symbol of military friendship for the sake of a common vision and our commitment to fighting for customers.

    Alibaba Uniform
  4. Alibaba Traditions: In another wall, the memories given to employees in 1, 3 and 5 years were explained. We use ‘aromatic at the end of 1 year’, ‘aged at the end of 3 years’ and ‘mature at the end of 5 years’. We call members that have been a part of Ali for one full year”. After a year, you, similar to that of a newly sealed bottle of wine are slowly starting to emit your own aroma. Do not forget why you embarked, stay curious and persevere.
    First service year
    Third Service Year
    Fifth Service Year

    Anniversaries of Service: We give a “Smiley Face Badge olarak to our employees who spent 1 year with our company as the first anniversary gifts for their contribution to Alibaba. We offer jade necklace as an anniversary gift to our employees who have continued with us for 3 years. This necklace, derived from the bar, commemorating Alibaba’s 10th anniversary in 2009, is seen as a symbol of our soul. Employees who have worked in Alibaba for 5 years are given a 5th anniversary ring. Employees’ acceptance of the ring also represents their promise to remain strong, despite all their endless difficulties and depressing moments. We tell our friends who have completed 5 years at Ali, that they are ‘mature at the end of 5 years’. When we shine our own star, we ecstasize others. We believe that sharing represents our sincere gratitude.

  5. Tradition of Looking at Life from Another Perspective: Another fun corner of my interest while browsing this campus. This is the handstand corner! They made it a tradition to look at life from another angle. Every visitor to the campus is called, and the employees are trained and enjoy doing so. With the help of two people, we did not lack this experience, of course. Don’t worry that if I’m out of order and that my life is sacked. How do you know that the bottom of life is not better than the above of life? Isn’t it also equivalent to the philosophy of Shams Tabrizi?
Our handstand experience

  1. Music Wall from Trash Cans: In this corner, the company designed a music wall from office trash cans. Of course, it has a meaning. By the way, it was written on the wall;

“Playing the trash cans like a drum is a traditional celebration produced by Taobao employees. Every time they set a new sales record, employees play the trashcan drums with great enthusiasm and shout together. Over time, this has been a way to appreciate and motivate team members”.

Music wall prepared from trash cans
  1. Fertility Cafeteria: There are many cafes and various tea drinking points on the campus. Some places are paid, but money is not used. But everywhere, you can pay with Alipay in a very practical way. The scale serves its own ecosystem.
  2. Customer First: Firstly, there was a section with customer slogans, I liked it very much. Here, you can listen to interesting feedbacks from customer services. Constantly exciting and new feedbacks are being added. It is very valuable to keep this slogan in mind. When you have millions of happy customers, you open a shop and make a gift shop with lots of products with the name Alibaba on it, and people are waiting for souvenirs in the queue.
Customer First
Alibaba Gift Shop

10. ALIREN:Alibaba employees and lovers are called ALIREN (It is read as Ally).

11. Campus Environment and Landscape: I liked the greenery and landscaping inside the campus building, and the beverage catering corners inspired me. The ambience is literally serene and exciting. Nature is everywhere, trees are everywhere. As it is not sufficient now, larger buildings are being built next to it.

Frames from Alibaba Campus
Frames from Alibaba Campus

  1. Vision 102: Another frequent figure on campus is 102. This is something that summarizes the vision of the company. In 1999, they set out with the vision of living for three centuries in the establishment, not being a big company, but aiming to be a living and producing company. In other words, Ali Baba had such slogans that he would live at least until 2101 (2101-1999 = 102, a company aiming to live in the twentieth, twenty-first and twenty-second centuries. They gave a book called 102 answers consisting of 102 questions and answers. This corner reminded me of our Parental Loyalty Center as ebebek. You can always listen to the interesting and lively hot stories that Alirens tell. Every customer representative voices their interesting experiences to the portal. It inspires in-house and provides the pleasure of doing meaningful work. In short, these are important parts of culture construction.
  2. Happiness Mirror: We come across a mirror on another wall within the campus. In this mirror you choose the figures you want and then the mirror shows you according to your choices.

  1. Ali Baba Bikes: The campus is so big that transportation is provided by Alibaba bikes within the campus. You can leave the bike anywhere you want, and you can get an empty bike from anywhere you want.

  1. Jack Ma’s House: We saw the door to the place where Jack Ma was staying, but it was closed. Campus became Jack Ma’s house. They say he lives on campus. It shouldn’t be surprising that this dream he has devoted himself to live in the middle.
The road to Jack Ma’s office

  1. Umbrella Rental Boxes: The Chinese use umbrellas both in the rain and in the sun, so the umbrella is an important tool for them that is used for 12 months. Because of this need, even a new sector was born. There are companies that organize their umbrella rental business.
A rental umbrella company
Ready-to-use umbrellas for Alibaba employees
  1. After visiting the campus’s giant garden and a few more points, we boarded our minibus and arrived at the “Westlake” area where we would have lunch. There are lakes, but this lake is very important and valuable for them. They say that it is a must-see place of China. If we had to make a comparison, imagine how wonderful it would be to consider Lake Abant in the center of Bursa. I think I can simulate China’s capital city Beijing with Hangzhou city to the benchmark of Istanbul and Bursa in Turkey.
Alibaba Campus around the lake

There are various touristic places around the lake and a hotel. On the edge of the park around the lake, there was a glazed enclosed section resembling a closed bus stop, which we could call a “vending point” and there was an unmanned mini-buffet where you can shop from vending machines. Snacks ranging from hot coffee to ice cream are sold.

However, even restaurant payments were made with Alipay.

Towards the 20th Anniversary

We are finally approaching the start of the celebration as written on our ticket. I brought an elegant suit, patent leather shoes and a favorite tie for me tonight. But tonight, I was unaware of everyone coming to wear the same outfit, the same t-shirt, to feel the common excitement. Of course, dressing like this would look a little inconsistent. I wore my extremely good quality “battle t-shirt”, which was presented to us in memory of the day.

Admission tickets printed exclusively for guests

Most of the 55,000 people moved to the Olympic Stadium by bus without a single hitch. We arrived at the stadium without any disturbance, no waiting. Noises were heard from outside, and there was a big excitement screaming inside. I felt to pray that God will grant everyone to be one of the leaders of this success.

There were long panels at the gates describing the past 20 years. Kai gave us information on how to meet if we get lost in the huge crowd, thinking that there may be technical problems with the intensive use of mobile phones inside. Thank goodness we had no problems however.

Huge stage set up for celebration

Conversations in Chinese, but Excitement is International

There was one bag each waiting for us in our seats. During the night, the amount of snacks, food, drinks which were enough to satisfy our stomachs were selected and put from generous and high quality products. A body-powered watch, raincoat in case of rain, trash bag for waste disposal and a few cheering equipment. In short, all possible details were considered.

The narratives, of course, were in Chinese, so you could feel what the servers were saying through their voice during the night because excitement was international.

It was really very valuable that they appealed to this common sense of unity from our t-shirts to the details of the led lighted clocks that they distributed requiring me to talk about in just a moment. In addition, they had left us a simultaneous translation equipment in the seats that we as foreigners would sit in such a large space and an admirable infrastructure that worked smoothly in the crowd.

We put lights on our arms like a huge clock. The 55,000 hours of burning led lights with the energy it received from the body stopped rattling throughout the stadium during the night, the Chinese carried what we do in the stadiums with cell phone lights to a much more visual dimension.

Uzaktan kontrol edilen ışıklar

Moreover, by registering an application that you downloaded, the team that made the organization knew our location and could change the light color of the clocks instantly. Even from time to time in the stands, they were making Alibaba logo thanks to this clock lights. I can only say that even this detail is a magnificent example of work.

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Giving Future Messages by Breaking Clichés   

I have had the opportunity to watch many musical events until today until today including musicals landing helicopters in the middle of the stage in London. But on this scale, I think no other activity in the world has ever been done. As I emphasized earlier, these shows have unique message content and detail. Instead of telling their vision of the future in the usual way through speeches, they aimed to express them in all these demonstrations in the most different and memorable way. Moreover, to make all of his stories feel alive by addressing the sense of unity. For example, from any demonstration and solos, you could have access to information that Alibaba will continue to invest in the cloud computing field. Therefore, I will refer to the shows below separately.

If not me, Who?

When the founder Jack Ma arrived during the parade, the earth moved in the stadium. Like everyone else, Jack Ma was wearing a custom-designed white t-shirt special to today. It is writing “If not now, When? If not me, Who?” on the back theme of this year’s t-shirts. These two sentences were the first time in 1999 that Jack Ma and 17 of his friends set out on the “Lakeside” coast to become the largest Internet company in the Chinese state. Six months later, I think it was a slogan a British newspaper heard from Jack Ma’s mouth and made headlines.

It has been a very important sentence since that day. An inspiring and motivating question that should be asked before actually starting a job: “If not now, When? If not me, Who?”. Many of us spend our productivity by making excuses by delaying our dreams and believing that we are not the right persons. We must also emphasize that all of Jack Ma’s steps are a matter of daring.

Some Sections of Shows

  1. Connect the world, shape the future: Again we watched an Alibaba sentence and dance and stage show referring to this sentence.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcxg_vuAhPk
  2. A chronological video show from past to present: From the days of computers in 1999 to the Windows 98 screen, they described the development to this day in an impressive scenario. Ali Baba’s first screenshot and so on was a complete nostalgia.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFrnz_FzCnM
  3. Senior Manager’s Show: He came up with a special film on the screen. He portrayed whatever he had gone through in 1999. The doors closing on his face, nobody’s reputation, telling about what they want to do from one company to another, but their getting the gates, having phone lines closed on their faces, in short, a film preparation that revives what they have experienced. He told us a story that he insisted on going on a job he believed in. Especially, AliPay was a film about the subject and the challenges. Looking at the world from a different point of view that started in those years with perspective, so the understanding of looking at with handstand position was a really important iconic movement.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6-__QQMdCk
  4. One of the songs composed for Alibaba: There were also English translations underneath. It was like we were all lecturing, but we were fascinated and watching them. Faith, determination, respect for the customer, working hard to describe the success with songs is a good idea. Some of the Alibaba songs were known to the 80% of the audience, and the whole stadium was moaning.

Even if I spilled blood

I’ll keep running a proud dream chaser

Life will salute me with a crown

I’m ashamed to die until I have won some victory

I’ll live out my dream

I’m fight on no matter what.

  1. The first customer and first employee stories show: The first customers and first employees selected from Ali Baba Group companies told their stories live on the stage. One of them caught my attention. Alipay’s first client was a student at the university 16 years ago and wanted to buy him a digital camera. When he was not given enough descriptive information in the stores, he turned to the internet and found his product from Alibaba. He asked some overwhelming questions. He paid through Taobao using Alipay. This first Alipay user caught the attention of AliBaba. The next day they called the person to see if they felt their expertise in camera comparison and whether they would like to work for Alibaba. This university student began to work in Alibaba here on this occasion.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lDx6MBxoxA

The Small One is Strong; The Small One is Beautiful

Firstly, video footages of Jack Ma’s various images and speeches were given.

I share with you the Turkish of this sharing which will be in the nature of a lesson directly below:

The video can be summarized as follows.

Today, given the same conditions and opportunities to do it all again, it would not be the same.

He left the conference hall 20 years ago and embraced the internet with his dream. It’s okay to admit you don’t understand anything. You can find people who help you with things you don’t understand. The more successful you are, the more modest you must be. Especially for things we haven’t achieved yet. People tell you how good you are. Actually, I’m not that smart. And then you really thought of yourself as a hero. Then you’re everything but a hero.

He has been a teacher for over 20 years. He never left class.

If Chinese e-commerce does not work well, Alibaba takes responsibility. Our ideal is to realize the dreams of 10 million people.

We can serve many people. If we can do this. This is a blessing, and we are very lucky. Real power doesn’t come from power. More of love. Empowering others and helping others. We hope to serve this period. By doing something meaningful. This trend of our time shaped Alibaba. We should be grateful and respectful. The small one is strong, the small one is beautiful.

And the Expected Moment: Jack Ma on Stage

He himself must have been very impressed by the show that he first started by saying: “They will think we are a performance company. I don’t think they can be performing like this in the world”.

Emphasizing that making such a beautiful party is beyond every company’s depth, he underlined that the parties held in previous years were also very nice and it would not be a surprise that the thirtieth years would be wonderful with this vision and team.

10 Different Lessons From Jack Ma’s Speeches 

  1. Formula is in the 102 Year Vision  

We have 102 years of vision; We believe that we will achieve with our culture and system. We are different from many other companies. Some companies transfer their management to Generation 2, some to professionals. But we’re different. We transferred innovation and proactivity to a culture that will create. We just thought about the future and raised many Allies. We have achieved sustainability through our culture, system and capabilities.

2. This is not a Farewell and Retirement, but a System Success

  1. Being a Good Company is Harder Than Being a Strong Company 

What we think and want is not to be a strong company. We just hope to be a good company in the hearts of society, the world, our users and the people around us. Being a strong company is not easy, but it is much more difficult to be a good company. You understand a strong company from its performance, but a good company from its sense of liability and responsibility and courtesy. The future of Alibaba is not how we can make enough money for the next 102 years, but how we can take responsibility for the next 102 years. Since 20 years ago, no important decision of Alibaba has been shaped by money. We weigh each decision, our technology, whether they serve to solve the problems of society before the product we produce, and how much they overlap with our mission, vision and values.

  1. Changes Will Change Even 

Today is a day of change. Whatever you like, everything will change, it will continue to change. Technology will change. The transformations will change. The method of changing changes will also change. A new era is coming. In the next 30 years, there will be a great transformation. There will be a great revolution. The revolution and success of big data will come. The success of IoT (internet of things) will come.

  1. What Makes Success Itself is Sustainability

Technology is useless if we don’t confront sustainability and become universal. If we don’t produce benefits for a world, all of this is of no importance.

  1. Changes are Opportunities for Pioneers 

There will be new opportunities in the next 30 years, just like in the past. But it depends on you. If you lead the changes, it can be successful. Everyone was young in the past. Many people say I sound like a philosopher. I believed what I knew and worked for them. The next generation after World War II is very lucky. We have seen the change of culture. We saw the triumph of industrialization, and we saw digitalization, and we were caught between the two. This transformation was very painful. You have to be strong. No matter what kind of company you are, big or small, be good and produce benefits. Everybody think about change.

  1. We were not Lucky, We Learned by Making Thousands of Mistakes 

Everyone in my recent history told me you’re very lucky. Alibaba made thousands of mistakes. We weren’t that lucky. We had many choices, we had to make very important decisions. But we never gave up.

  1. Value Priority, Not Money

For 20 years, we have never focused only on money for all our important decisions. Surely, we had a social vision. We have created value with all our business decisions. We have created value that will encourage everyone more. That was our strength. Some of us, sometimes we chose the easy ones. But, we often chose the hardest decisions. Alibaba did not want to be an ordinary company to produce money. It was the case in the past, and it won’t be a bigger company to make money in the future.

  1. Your Priorities are Your Facts
  • To be the pioneer of new changes that are important to us.
  • We want to make everything different.
  • We wish to be a strong company to be a good company.
  • We want to be an exemplary company that produces favor to our country, the public and the whole world.
  1. Thanks to the Past for Hello to the Future

We would like to thank everyone who supported us to be a good and big company. However, we would like to thank all the companies that helped us to create opportunities for all humanity. I think the best thanks you can do in bad times. Combining capabilities and technology will make the world more sustainable. The Chinese opportunity was very strong for us. Living in such a large country is a great opportunity to serve over a billion people. Living in the Chinese country provided us a great opportunity. We thank China.

Giant Team of 17 People 

This time, a picture of the 17 people at the Great Wall of China from 20 years ago, was brought to the screen. Then, the other 16 people were invited to the stage. They all embraced each other in a very warm way, while the giant screens displayed photos with a deep memory of the early years. The old legend COO (Chief Operating Officer) took the microphone and shared some important sentences.

  • The Customer comes first, then the employee and then our suppliers and then our shareholders.
  • The whole team is one and we all work for this purpose.
  • Today is our day to show our best performance, if it is to be a lower standard day, now is not the time. We must be the best today.
  • We would like to thank all Alibaba customers and Alibaba employees now.
  • We always had many opportunities for employees, but we couldn’t leave, we were connected. Even after retirement, we did not break our ties and we were honored that we were invited to this party today.

Happy Birthday AliBaba

A representative 20th birthday cake came to the stage, with a big announcement the whole stadium started to sing Happy Birthday AliBaba, and the fireworks placed on the stadium were synchronously bursting one after the other. Meanwhile, a singer on the stage began to sing an Ali Baba song to be accompanied by everyone. It was a different experience for us. Alibaba, who was a “Love Mark” in itself, even had an “Alibaba” song that the whole stadium could accompany by heart. As far as I can tell, some of the words were as follows.

One, two, three, four

I never saw it, I heard about it

We love Alibaba

I’ll walk to talk.

Why do you say it’s hard?

Don’t be afraid, start walking

Just stay young

Keep your dream alive

Brave out what’s inside, be the best you can be.

Extraordinary people, Modest hearts, Extraordinary works

Imagine a wild dream, love deeply, never give up.

Bring changes to the whole world. Let’s do our part.

Don’t ask how far you must go to heaven

Do not pray for the mountains to come to you.

We cry, laugh, make friends.

Stay cheerful, stay young. Dear Alibaba.

Brave out what’s inside, be the best you can be.

Extraordinary people, Modest hearts, Extraordinary works

Imagine a wild dream, love deeply, never give up.

Alibaba, we love you.

Common Spirit of Success in Unique Organization

I can reiterate that there could not be another organization in the world where so many different performances could be exhibited on the same night with extraordinary stage decor methods. Because, this organization is not made for money, money is not enough to do. It can be put on stage with a common spirit by a team that believes and deserves to watch it.

Yes We Can/ Evet Yapabiliriz

The name of the new song that played in the show was “Yes we can”. I think it helps to internalize all the words with the repetition of the employees. It’s exactly our faith. You know, we always say, but beware of what you say turns into prayer. “Yes we can” song and other Alibaba songs were made just for this purpose, I think.

  • New President MR. Daniel ZhangAfter this song the new president was invited to the stage. Mr. Daniel Zhang is one of the 17 people who have been working together again for 20 years.He gave a speech titled Shaping the Future.First of all, he thanked the customers, the founding team, Jack Ma and the employees and started his speech of which I shared by translating.“Thanks to you, we’re here. You’re the only reason we’re applauding here. 20 years ago, we come from a period when the internet was very limited. Now, 20 years later, Technology has come to these days. Thanks to this speed of change, we will be in a different place after 20 years, business life and social life will take a different shape. After 20 years, if we can still survive, we have to be playmakers and shape the future.
    • Customer is always in the first place with us.
    • It is unthinkable that we do not improve the customer experience.
    • Change and simplify the concept, work seriously and work responsibly but work happily.
    • All employees of Alibaba must find happiness that encompasses the entire world.
    • Find new values that will carry us to the future.
    • Let us support each other in good and bad times” and

    He concluded his words by saying that “We can overcome all difficulties”.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIufspogKhA

Satirical Karaoke Show  

In addition to many shows in the performance, this satirical karaoke song also attracted my attention. A chorus of employees sang the song Alibaba again. But this time the lyrics were different. I share the translation below:

My boss’s boss is still in the office

For sure, he’ll talk behind my back

Everyone has their own accounts

Honesty is about to end

Scheming people are just pretending

Life is like walking on a tightrope

They think I’m just slowing down

They’ll be sneaky about me getting started

Come on!

You’re all paranoid helplessly

Tell me what you think, so what?

Without the time to take a shower I’ve crossed the mountains hills

Business travel never ends

My wife is protesting me

Your world says I wasn’t

When will I be able to go back and get them back?

When?

This karaoke, which shares its emotions in the most realistic way, is another from the Alibaba Jiwai Choir: ?

Between Shanghai’s CBD and the suburbs of Hangzhou

I went and stopped

Business travel means being away from home for weeks

Sometimes also a three-day round trip between Hangzhou and Paris

I can only sleep on the plane

Our snoring leads to turbulence on the plane

Love is love I only say it once

You know, I act like I talk

Scout hunters

My dream is all I think about

If you cannot set priorities correctly

3.25 we have a common destiny

You said I could trust you with technology

You promised to meet all my criteria

Now you tell me you have no resources

Boss said we had to launch all the products on Q4

You keep hooking me, write your code first

What is this last minute change now?

Old demands, nothing changed

Expression style outside

Let’s fix our differences

Sometimes we squeeze each other’s throats

Ours is a love and hate relationship

Let’s fix our differences

Let’s make peace and eat crayfish

At the end of the day we are a big family

Emphasis on Growing Together

This time, with a new choreography and stage arrangement, a musical work depicting the lives of the people working in the office was exhibited, of course both with singing and dance and theatrical performance. Towards the end of this session, real pictures were projected from the lives of the employees. The name of the song was very meaningful. “We’ll grow old together”

Final Scene: Jack Ma and His Team

We came to the finals. The last performance of the scene was “Jack Ma” and his companions. A big TIR stage was set up, Jack Ma with his unique crazy outfits gave a recital by performing the guitar and toured the whole field and greeted the field. It is another comfort to be able to dress up those clothes with great self-confidence and then be able to face the world as a guitarist.

The demonstrations ended with a very spectacular fireworks show around 22:30.

If I summarize what remains in my mind from this celebration:

  • Customer First
  • Try not to be a big company, but to be a company that produces goodness.
  • If you strive to be global, the big picture makes you more successful.
  • Keep “the spirit of continuous improvement” alive.
  • If not today, When? If not me, Who?
  • Without faith and great effort does not come to success.
  • Company culture, systems and talents must be together for success.
  • The vision of the company is not the formality, but the vision to be lived and sustained.
  • You can see 3 centuries in 102 years.
  • Size inanan bir ekiple büyük başarılara imza atabilirsiniz.
  • Şirketin gelişmesi için her zaman kendinizi geliştirmelisiniz.
  • Geleceği şekillendirirseniz hayatta kalırsınız.
  • Bazen yardım alarak amuda kalkın ve hayata başka bir noktadan bakın.
  • Geçmişe teşekkürler, geleceğe merhaba.
  • Geleceğin ilerisinde olmak için robotların yapamayacaklarına odaklanın.

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