Jack Ma as an Entrepreneur - Case Study Example

Jack Ma as an entrepreneur Student’s Name Institution Affiliation Introduction An entrepreneur is a person who usually engages himself in making discoveries and inventing business in a bid to ensure that he succeeds in life. He always tries to achieve his or her goals by ensuring that something unique is done through hard work, coming up with ideas on how to improve existing business and having different ways of undertaking activities. An entrepreneur is always regarded as one who is a leader in any business and at the same time innovator of new ideas and business processes. In this paper, I am going to look at a man by name Jack Ma who is a Chinese business magnate and he was the founder of Alibaba.com which is one of the largest internet business in the world. The company was built as a family business with the guidance of Jack, it has grown and be one of the successful stories that can be use (Soper, 2015). Jack makes one of the person of interest to study as he has been able to raise Alibaba.com from just a start up to a worldwide company. One cannot mention internet business without the mention of Alibaba.com. Alibaba has grown over years to become one of the giants where business people can transact and advertise their services freely. It has made business easy as people can coordinate transact business and conclude the business in this online platform. Some have described the platform as the best discovery that has ever been made in online business. The whole story of success beneath the company gives me a reason to study the founder and the characteristics he has in regard to entrepreneurship (Soper, 2015). Jack Ma as an Entrepreneur In my classification, Jack Ma can be said to be an entrepreneur due the characteristics and the way he did his things to make him a successful businessman known all over the world. He had to undergo struggles to see his business attain the status it is at today. He has never left his path of ensuring that the business is always being improved and taken to the next level. However, the most outstanding thing that makes Jack Ma be classified as an entrepreneur is his characters. The following characteristics played a significant role to the success of Jack to emerge as one of the greatest entrepreneurs the world has ever seen as at his time. Motivation - Jack was enthusiastic, optimistic and future oriented. He believed that at some point it was a must for him to be successful in what he was doing. This made him to risk resources in order to be successful. Persuasiveness and Creativity - Jack had the creative and had the capacity to identify and pursue opportunities to the end. He had strong selling skills which were persuasive and persistent. Versatility - Instead of relying on staff and colleagues for service and support, he began as a soloprepreneur. Superb business skills – his ability of setting up of procedures, internal systems and the process that are necessary to ensure that businesses are operating well was one of the things that made him successful as an entrepreneur. In carrying out business, he focused on sales, cash flow, and revenues in every process in business. Risk tolerance – jack was able to come out of the phobia of landing into loses and instead he pursued his dream to the rather. He never lost hope because of the risk that he was glaring at. Instead he thoroughly id research on the idea and laid a strong foundation. Drive - Jack was proactive in his approaches to everything he did. He did everything by himself, he rarely relied on other people to get things done. Vision - as the founding member of the business, he was the person who determined the direction that the business will take. He had the roadmap that could be used in ensuring that the whole business is a success. Jack looked forward and always saw where he wanted to be. From this he was able to lay a strong foundation that was being used in achieving the company success. Open-mindedness and Flexibility – Jack show the need to always adjust according to the changing business environment. He was always open to advise from other people and the staff he was dealing with. Always he could take positively suggestions that were being given to him. Therefore, you need to find new and better plans all the time. Decisiveness - To succeed as an entrepreneur you need to make quick and sound decision every now and then depending on the different situations at hand. These one of the things that Jack was good at something that always saved him from hitting the rock. As a successful entrepreneur, Jack Ma was passionate about learning. According to him, learning should never stop. As an entrepreneur, he was never satisfied with the knowledge he acquired. He always wanted to seek more. Learning was interesting to him, from formal education to his business discoveries. Jack Ma used to see opportunities everywhere unlike other people who see problems everywhere. His ideas were unconventional. It is said that entrepreneurs are the ones that change the world, so was jack’s thoughts. He always saw the world as he wanted, not as how it was. As an entrepreneur, he made up his mind to pursue ideas that other people considered crazy. Jack strongly believed that unconventional ideas can change things (Soper, 2015). Entrepreneurs always want to do things, so was Jack. To him, the best reason to begin a company was to create service or product that make meaning and ensure that the world was a better place than he found it. As an entrepreneur, Jack was unsatisfied with life, he loved doing and exploring with a voracious appetite. According to Block 1992, there are several types of entrepreneurs, each of them is different and unique. The universal element between them is the desire for freedom in their work and life. The most common types are; the skeptical, the copycat, the research entrepreneur, the determined entrepreneur and the accomplished entrepreneur. Jack Ma was a determined entrepreneur. He wanted to make it no matter what. He knew the value of entrepreneurship, and was confident that his success was possible without copying and he did everything to start and grow his business (Soper, 2015). Motivating factors Entrepreneurs take major risks in terms of finance, working hours and torture themselves in the journey of trying to realize their dreams. Below are a number of factors that motivated Jack Ma (Hisrich 2002). Below are some of the things that motivated Jack Ma get into the business that he was undertaking; Money - Just like any other person, Jack wanted to make a lot of money in the long run. He had a good idea to become a billionaire. Flexibility - Jack was a boss of his own, something that freed him from all restraints. He wanted to work his own hours, wherever he wanted to and set his own goals. Control – He had the desire to have control of his own company and becoming his own boss. Entrepreneurs always want that they want to lead and control people. They always want to undertake activities according to their wish. Jack Ma formed Alibaba.com so as to be in control of a business empire. Teamwork - Some people like jack love working with other people. Jack wanted an environment where he could work freely as a team and ensure that everything is moving as he wished. He wanted others to assist him in solving some of the daily problems that he was facing in order to excel in the business. Legacy - Apart from making money and controlling his business, Jack was determined to be remembered for a lasting legacy. Jack wanted to become a brand and make himself famous throughout the world. He always wanted to leave behind something that appreciates him. This motivation even lasts longer than money or experience. This made him to get into business and work hard. Here are the main takeaways from Jack that I found interesting. Just like Jack, the average age of those who are the founders of different companies in the world is forty years which is almost the exact age of Jack. The starts is in line with the current owners of different companies. Like him, less than one percent of entrepreneurs came from extremely rich or extremely poor backgrounds. I also found out that seventy percent of entrepreneurs were married by the time they launched their first companies so was Jack. It was also interesting to find out that most of the entrepreneurs had worked as employees of other companies before launching their own companies just like Jack. Contradictions about entrepreneurship Business is a funny game. In undertaking all businesses, flexibility is one of the things that can bring about success, however its experience that can lead to it and only time will teach these. Entrepreneurship is a trial and error thing and non can ever assure you that success is on the way. Undertaking business always taking decisions that are always faced with contradictions hence one must have the qualities of being able to choose the best among the contradictions. When undertaking this decisions the following should be in mind; The larger vision should be in mind while giving attention to details Working hard and smart at the same time ensuring that you find time for yourself and those who are around Ensuring that you recognize strengths while working on the weaknesses To celebrate successes while planning for the losses Ensuring that you are compassionate and empathetic while being tough for oneself and those around Thinking on the short term while focusing on the long term. To fail first while believing that success is slowly at the end of the tunnel New insights to entrepreneurship From this study, the following emerged; Preparation of the business pitch takes place anywhere For one to get into starting a business, then it is good that you pay attention to the world around you. To grow a business, then it is best that one gets out of the comfort zone a factor that is unavoidable. The identification of a talent is a hard task but satisfying employees in an organization is hard enough since the company has its own challenges It takes courage for one to leave his permanent stable job to pursue dreams of startups. Importance of teamwork in entrepreneurship According to Stickon 1986, the pace at which a business will grow will largely depend on the efforts that individuals in an organization will put. Jack’s wish that to work as team in order to ensure that the company success is attained. The contributions that are made by each member of a team is always important in ensuring that everything is on the right direction. As a leader of the company, Jack always encouraged the importance of teamwork. He knew the benefits of teamwork and the extent it will assist in ensuring that department to achieve its goals (Hisrich & Peters, 2002). Some of the benefits of teamwork are as listed below; It leads to stress reduction as members will assist one another in solving the problems that may be difficult to be solved as an individual. Teamwork always ensure that things are achieved on time and members can assist one another hence reduce the pressure of carrying out activities. It leads to Improved Communication. When members are working as a team it becomes easy to pass information. Members can assist one another in ensuring that they understand what has been said at any particular time. It can be easy to rectify situations if the members work in a team as they will always try to ensure that each one of them is doing the right thing. The same way that Jack also did to his employees. Team work leads to Efficiency. When people cooperate it becomes easy to solve a given problem that they are facing. Each of them will enable activities to be carried out on time and in an easy way. Improved Problem Solving. This was achieved by combining different skills that the team members had in solving problems hence making everything easy. Hurdles Jack overcame Like any entrepreneur, Jack overcame hurdles in starting his business. Some of the hurdles that he overcame include; The development of the market strategy that would be used. This is the one that could determine how the business was to move on Management of funds within the company was another problem. However, he was able to allocate funds in a way that could benefit the company in general Having the long term goal can also be another problem. However, jack was able to determine the roadmap that the company could take over years. Expansion strategy of the business. The issue of managing the fast growth of Alibaba was somehow a problem however, he was able to overcome it (Abdin, 2010). Jacks’ mistakes Like any entrepreneur, Jack made some mistakes in undertaking his business. The following are some of the mistakes that Jack made in the course of his business; At the beginning jack thought that he had no competitors that were directly competing with him. This made him to relax a lot leading to loose of some business to competitors. He made hiring decisions on the basis of cost instead of using skills, value addition and productivity of the person being employed. He had set goals that were unrealistic and unattainable at the beginning. He had small profitable margins goals something that that was making the business to perform well (Birley, 1985). Benefits of networking As an entrepreneur, it is important to note that networking is one of the most important things that will determine the success of the business. Jack knew this and he spent substantial time and resources in undertaking networking. Some of the benefits that were driven out of networking include; Sharing of knowledge with people who gave new ideas that could assist the company move forward Networking will lead to discovering new Opportunities. This was important as it will lead to ensure that the company is exploring new areas Networking will create viable connections for the organization. This will ensure that additional customers and other important stakeholders get into the company. Networking leads to increased confidence. This is because sharing of information with other companies is undertaken which at the end will lead to do away with those areas that are unwanted (Heilbrunn, 2004). Trade tools used Just like any other activity, tools are the most important aspects to the success of a small business. Through the research, I found the following tools very important. Web Hosting, Email marketing and Content Management Platform (CMS). This website is built on WordPress content management system. WordPress is secure, strong and dynamic. It powers 25% of the whole Internet (Bruno 1982). Factors affecting entrepreneurship Like any other activity, entrepreneurship is being affected by different factors. Some of the factors that do affect entrepreneurs are as listed below; Cultural factors Economic factors Technological factors Social factors Educational factors All these factors are the ones that affected Jack Ma as an entrepreneur (Abdullah &Mohammad, 1996). Conclusion Entrepreneurship is an important undertaking that will lead one to achieve personal goals. As indicated above, Jack Ma passed through a lot in growing Alibaba.com. He was determined to make it a success something that most of the entrepreneurs need to emulate. References Adeleke, A., Oyenuga, O.O. and Ogundele, OJ.K. (2003). Business Policy and Strategy. Mushin, Lagos:Concept Publications Limited. Abdin, MJ 2010, Bangladesh‟s SMEs facing so many challenges, the independent, http://theindependentbd.com/paperedition/others/ panorama/2385-bangladeshs-smes-facing-so-manychallenges. html, accessed on 16 October, 2011. Ahmed, R, & Chaudhury, H, 1980. Female Status in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies: Dhaka, Bangladesh. Abdullah, Mohammad (1996). Entrepreneurship Development in Light Engineering Industries in Bangladesh: Problems and Policies. Management Development 25 (3) July-September. 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