Ali "Ballast" Joseph Tsai

Tech 2023-06-20 19:57:53 Source: Network

Wen | XiaoxiOn June 20, Alibaba announced that Joseph Tsai would replace Zhang Yong as the chairman of the board of directors of Alibaba Holding Group from September 10. This adjustment was a bit sudden, but not unexpected

Wen | Xiaoxi

On June 20, Alibaba announced that Joseph Tsai would replace Zhang Yong as the chairman of the board of directors of Alibaba Holding Group from September 10. This adjustment was a bit sudden, but not unexpected.

On March 28th of this year, Zhang Yong, Chairman of the Alibaba Board of Directors, issued a letter to all employees announcing the launch of the "1+6+n" reform and the establishment of the Cloud Intelligence Group, with him personally serving as the CEO. On May 18th, Zhang Yong also served as the Chairman of Cloud Intelligence Group. So far, Zhang Yong has four roles: Chairman and CEO of the Board of Directors of Alibaba Holding Group, Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Cloud Intelligent Group. Both his personal energy and the compliance requirements of the cloud intelligent group after its spin off decide that this situation cannot last forever.

At that time, there was speculation in the industry that Zhang Yong might step down from his position at Alibaba Group. Now, this speculation has been verified. Zhang Yong will allin Cloud Intelligent Group. Joseph Tsai and Wu Yongming will take over his duties as Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Alibaba Group respectively.

On June 20, Zhang Yong (middle), Joseph Tsai (right) and Wu Yongming (left) officially started the handover.

Joseph Tsai was a low-key person, and few people knew him in his early years. Until 2018 and 2019, he personally made a big purchase of the NBA Basketball Nets, and many sports fans knew him from then on. The last time Joseph Tsai was reported by the mass media was when he was interviewed by an American reporter in 2021. In the face of all kinds of tricky questions, he was neither arrogant nor arrogant, and answered them reasonably. The netizens described him as "1/2 calm, 1/3 logic, and 1/4 story telling ability".

Joseph Tsai experienced legend, Alibaba's official evaluation of him is very high: "Joseph Tsai has always played an important role in the birth and development of Alibaba. From the founding of the company in 1999 to 2013, he served as the CFO of the group; in 2014, he led the company to go public in New York, and later was responsible for strategic investment. His experience in globalization and insight into the macro environment are strong supports for Alibaba to further promote internationalization. His full understanding of Alibaba's development process and grasp of the strategic direction And the inheritance of culture will help Alibaba Group continue to develop in the future

A number of Alibaba insiders feedback that the official evaluation is objective and fair, and Joseph Tsai has played a "ballast" role in the development history of Alibaba. "After Ali's' 1+6+n 'reform, the holding group has a new position. Joseph Tsai's ability and qualifications determine that he is the most suitable successor to this position," said an Ali manager.

01. Key events of Joseph Tsai

Based on the information of all parties and the key events surrounding Joseph Tsai, three key words can be summarized: courage, emotion and leadership.

Have the courage to give up 5.8 million yuan in annual salary and join Alibaba to earn a monthly salary of 500 yuan.

Joseph Tsai joined Ali as early as 1999, which was a crazy decision that ordinary people could not understand at that time.

Joseph Tsai, whose ancestral home is Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, was born in Taiwan and studied in the United States. He is a Doctor of Law of Yale University. In 1995, at the age of 31, he moved his family to Hong Kong and became the Vice President of AB Investment Group's Asia division in Sweden. His annual salary was $700000, which was approximately 5.8 million yuan based on the exchange rate at the time.

Joseph Tsai's job is to invest. As an investor, the most important thing is to "invest in shares physically". Joseph Tsai once recalled in an interview with Sun Yanjun, a media person, that the first time he met Ma Yun was in May 1999, at Ma Yun's home in Hangzhou lakeside garden. At that time, Ma Yun had formed a team of 16 people to start his business, and Joseph Tsai went to investigate as an investment manager.

The two talked for a long night, and Joseph Tsai was convinced by Ma Yun. A month later, Joseph Tsai offered to resign and work with them without Ma Yun inviting him. Ma Yun was shocked and said that he could only pay 500 yuan a month. He advised Joseph Tsai not to be impulsive and think again.

Cai's wife, Wu Minghua, was a vice president of a Hong Kong company at that time. After Joseph Tsai said she wanted to resign and change jobs, she thought her husband was "crazy". But Wu Minghua did not completely oppose it. She followed her to Hangzhou and after a face-to-face conversation, she also felt that Jack Ma was reliable, ultimately supporting her husband's decision. In this way, Joseph Tsai gave up his annual salary of 5.8 million yuan and officially joined Alibaba on October 1 of the same year, becoming the founding CFO with a monthly salary of 500 yuan.

After the event, Joseph Tsai said modestly that he made this crazy decision purely by feeling, without rational basis. He believes that Jack Ma has ideas, a team with passion, and is worth taking risks. In fact, Joseph Tsai has played an important role in all stages of Ali's development since then. After the team achieved great success, his "God" level job hopping story became legendary.

Emotional: There are numerous public welfare donation projects, with heavy financial support for the development of Chinese women's football and their hometown of Huzhou.

After taking over the chairmanship of Alibaba's Board of Directors, Joseph Tsai may come into public view more often. Prior to this, as the Executive Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, he was low-key and his only few public appearances every year were mostly for public welfare activities.

In August 2018, Joseph Tsai donated to establish the "Joseph Tsai Public Welfare Foundation". The foundation's official website shows that it is mainly committed to donating education and sports projects, spreading the concept of "sports education integration", encouraging the young generation to pursue healthy and comprehensive development, and shaping leadership and sound character through sports. Joseph Tsai injected his management experience into the foundation, which has brought good operating results. In 2021, the foundation was rated as a 5A social organization.

In the past five years of operation, Joseph Tsai Public Welfare Foundation has initiated and participated in more than 11 public welfare projects. For example, in July 2019, it donated 100 million yuan to the Chinese Football Association for the Chinese Women's Football Support Program. Another example is the establishment of Joseph Tsai Basketball Scholarship, which has funded 15 Chinese basketball talents to study in the United States.

Joseph Tsai's hometown is Shuanglin Town, Nanxun District, Huzhou. He has deep feelings for his hometown and is generous. The official account of "Huzhou United Front" revealed in an article in August 2022 that by then, Joseph Tsai had donated more than 67 million yuan to his hometown, including: donation of Joseph Tsai Stadium, Shuanglin Town Youth Culture and Education Base, establishment of Joseph Tsai Scholarship and other projects.

Leadership: Provide timely assistance to Alibaba and lead the team to create the largest IPO in the history of the New York Stock Exchange.

Joseph Tsai's entry 24 years ago made up for the lack of professional ability in finance and legal affairs of the grass-roots team, which not only enabled Ali to start smoothly, but also from the first day of its establishment, it had a modern corporate governance structure and a global development pattern.

When Joseph Tsai first joined, the Ma Yun team had not even had time to register the company, and the 500000 yuan venture capital that everyone pieced together was already tight. Joseph Tsai explained to everyone what is a share, what is a shareholder's equity, and how to dilute the equity after the introduction of investment. After everyone signed and signed, the company was formally established.

Under the cooperation of Joseph Tsai, Alibaba introduced the first round of US $5 million venture capital in October 1999, including his old owner AB Investment Group of Sweden. This money provided timely assistance, marking the beginning of their legendary entrepreneurial story.

From 1999 to 2013, Joseph Tsai served as the CFO of Ali for 14 years, and then became the Executive Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors after 2013. He managed his money bag well to ensure that Ali survived all the hardships such as the cold winter of the Internet and grew rapidly in the continuous incubation of new businesses such as Taobao, Alipay and Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007 and the New York Stock Exchange in 2014- the largest IPO in the history of the New York Stock Exchange. Joseph Tsai led the team twice.

02. Why is Joseph Tsai the successor to Zhang Yong?

From the perspective of the Board of Directors of Alibaba Group, Joseph Tsai may be the most suitable successor to Zhang Yong. After the "1+6+n" reform, Alibaba Group transformed into a controlling group, with significant functional changes and no longer directly managing the daily operations of its business departments. According to Alibaba's official press release, the holding group will mainly do three things in the future: first, to support and coordinate the development of various business groups; second, to become a discoverer and promoter of new technologies; and third, to become a base for innovative business incubation.

The "6+n" business under Alibaba has a complex track, varying stages of development, and there is also a collaborative relationship between them. Decision makers of the holding group must have a comprehensive and thorough understanding in order to carry out their work. Joseph Tsai has long served as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and a member of the Ali Investment Committee. He knows all the businesses from the past to the present, as well as the context, whether they are internally incubated or externally acquired.

Last month, Joseph Tsai served as the chairman of Cainiao Group and the director of Taotian Group, and now will serve as the chairman of the board of directors of Alibaba Holding Group. The two things are logically connected. Alibaba is the controlling shareholder of Cainiao, and Cainiao is currently planning an IPO. Taotian Group is wholly-owned by Alibaba and is the main source of Alibaba's profits. Serving as a director helps him gain a more comprehensive understanding of Taotian's business.

In the future, CEO Wu Yongming will partner with Joseph Tsai. Joseph Tsai's global vision+investment ability and Wu Yongming's technical insight+investment ability will become the key for Ali to discover and promote new technologies and incubate innovative businesses.

According to public sources, Wu Yongming became the chairman of Taotian Group last month and served as a director at Alibaba International Digital Business Group and Alibaba Local Life Group. These three positions echo his latest tenure as the CEO of the holding group.

Wu Yongming is a founding employee of Alibaba. He has successively served as CTO of Alibaba B2B, Alipay and Taobao, and led the development of mobile phone Taobao. Wu Yongming also possesses both investment and commercialization capabilities, which is relatively rare in CTO. He is not only the founding general manager of Alibaba's cash cow business, but also has led the investment and acquisition of UC and Gaode. In 2015, Wu Yongming founded Yuanjing Capital, whose investment fields cover hard core technology, industrial intelligent manufacturing, industrial digital intelligence, medical technology, cross-border shipping, etc., and participated in star projects such as Li Auto.

Based on the new positioning of the holding group, the future value of Alibaba may depend on four aspects: firstly, whether Taobao and Tmall can continue to grow; The second is whether the track of globalization can be rapidly expanded; Thirdly, can businesses such as Cainiao, Hema, and LAZADA be independently listed; The fourth is whether the new technology and new track can be used to incubate the next Tmall, Alipay and Alibaba Cloud. It should be said that the capability model of Joseph Tsai and Wu Yongming together can well meet the challenges in these four aspects. Foreign investment and globalization are possible new highlights and will also become the focus of attention of the outside world.

Source: Alibaba official official account

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