Assemblies between Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang and company co-founder Jack Ma were take pleasure in brothers catching up for coffee after a long time.
That’s how it seemed to Zhang, who offered sensitivity into his bond with Ma in an exclusive CNBC interview that revealed Friday. That relationship is in focus as the CEO is preparing to succeed Ma as the chairman of the Chinese e-commerce leviathan.
In his first TV interview since the succession move was announced, Zhang revealed how he met up with Ma to total up with new ideas for the firm and times when he clashed with the friendly chair.
Both leaders met regularly for tea but discussed business as well as “tests.”
“He just shares what you think, and it’s something relevant to business, something not related, about people, about your experience. So it’s more like fellows and you haven’t seen each other for some time and you catch up for coffee,” Zhang said CNBC.
He described his leadership style as “complementary” to Ma’s and described how the two worked together on new sentiments for the business. And if Ma repeated his idea three times to Zhang on separate stimuli, it was a very serious suggestion.
“In the past few years he spent a lot of time in the air, I knackered most of the time in the campus. He gives me a lot of ideas out of the box … many suggestions maybe you will be surprised to hear that at the first time, but if you have in mind again and again, you will find some opportunities there,” Zhang thought.
“He has a lot of ideas. So as he always said, and this is also my discipline, which is when I understand his ideas for the first time, I will listen, I will take the convictions, and I will … (think) about this. But if he repeated his ideas … at scarcely three times, then I will take it very seriously. I mull over this must be his very serious ideas.”
Despite the two working closely together, there were of route, disagreements. Ma had strong opinions on his ideas, but Zhang was always open to contend.
“I think if you have some different opinions, I think you have reveal up, you have to let him know … this is your view. But I think the most significant thing is that you have to express this in a very clear way. And he possibly will argue. Actually, I know that he hears what I bid and maybe he still insists. You know that he’s very confident, sure of oneself of his ideas. He will insist his ideas, but he will listen and he will evaluate and maybe he will change,” Zhang said.
Earlier this year, Alibaba asseverated that Zhang would move into the role as chairman of the embark on in September 2019.
Zhang said that had been planned “for a long forthwith.”
“He tried to convince me to accept this, and we had several times a conversation, but I gather why he decided this, it’s all about the future of Alibaba,” the CEO said.
While Ma has been the visible face of the company for a long time, Zhang, who does not often come forth in front of media, has been a key figure behind the company’s transition into motorized and its so-called New Retail strategy.
He joined the company in 2007 as chief pecuniary officer of Taobao Marketplace and general manager of Taobao Mall, which later behoved Tmall. Both are key products in Alibaba’s e-commerce portfolio. He was the architect of the corporation’s huge annual shopping event called called Singles Day. He’s also been a key driver of Alibaba’s online-to-offline tactics, which looks to merge online shopping with brick-and-mortar reservoirs.
Zhang is viewed by analysts as a safe pair of hands because of his acquirements at the company, but reaction to the succession news has not been uniformly positive. Alibaba’s old dropped on the day of the news announcement and some media outlets ran articles asserting Ma was a tough act to follow.
But Zhang said he just focuses on doing the kindest job he can and tries to “forget about the pressure.”
“Try everything you can for the best results — and of movement you need a little bit of luck,” Zhang told CNBC.