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Strategic Management and Leadership

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Strategic Management and Leadership
Q1:

The Alibaba Group’s Success

The Alibaba Group’s (Alibaba) success can be measured by using the Balance Scorecard – a method to measure a company’s qualitative and quantitative critical success factor (Kaplan and Norton, 2006). In terms of financial achievement, according to Wulf (2010) in 2007, the IPO of the business-to-business (B2B) raised $1.7 billion and almost tripled in value in the very first trading day. In 2009, the Group’s revenue had grown to $636 million under the year-to-date statement after the founder Jack Ma launched the various independent businesses. Pure optimistic financial indicator doesn’t equal to a business success, it needs to be measured from other areas such as, customer, process and learning and growing perspective (Kaplan and Norton, 2006). This Group reached about 200 million users in more than 240 countries and regions’ Internet users. The value-added programs like Gold Supplier and China Trustpass membership program with ‘Storefronts’, which expose the company profile, and real performance analysis has increase buyer’s confidence and satisfaction. Likewise, the Alipay launched in 2004, held payments on behalf of consumers until the purchased good confirm been delivered has encouraged online commerce.

From the process perspective, ever since the Group businesses become increasingly complex, various permutations of the top management team always considered by Jack Ma. In this respect, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) will responsible to catalyze the cross-platform business development in order to cut cost. Also, there are many common core technologies used by Alibaba’s subsidiaries, but a decentralized technology strategy has expedited the process for the Group to become the China’s e-commerce market leader. In addition, product diversification strategy from Alibaba.com to Taobao, Tmall, Etao, Aliyun, China! Yahoo, Alipay, Ali-Advance, Alisoft and Alimama has expanded the channels offering, improve company



References: Alibaba Group Holding Limited (2008) Alibaba Group: Company Overview. Available at: http://news.alibaba.com/specials/aboutalibaba/aligroup/index.html (Accessed: 1 August 2012). Alibaba.com Limited (2011) Annual Report 2011: Chairman’s Statement [Online]. Available at: http://img.alibaba.com/ir/download/.../06_Chairman_Statement_E.pdf (Accessed: 2 August 2012). Arthur, C. (2012) ‘RIM Chief Thorsten Heins has a Tough Road Ahead’, TheGuardian, [Online]. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/23/thorsten-heins-tough-road-rim (Accessed: 2 August 2012). Chao, L. (2012) ‘Alibaba’s Next Challenge: Managing Growth’, The Wall Street Journal [Online]. Available at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303665904577451452319467744.html (Accessed: 2 August 2012). Forbes.com LLC (2012) Jack Ma. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/profile/jack-ma/ (Accessed: 1 August 2012). Hamel, G. (2000), Leading the Revolution, Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Johnson, G. (1992) ‘Managing strategic change – strategy, culture and action’, Long Range Planning, 25(1), pp: 28–36. Johnson, G., Scholes, K., Whittington, R Kaplan, R.S. and Norton, D.P. (2006) Alignment: Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create Corporate Synergies. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Kotter, J.P. (1999) What Leaders Really Do. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Kotter, J. (2012) Barriers to Change: The Real Reason Behind the Kodak Downfall. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2012/05/02/barriers (Accessed: 5 August 2012). Porter, M.E Quinn, J.B. (1980) Strategies for Change: Logical Incrementalism, Homewood, Ill.: Richard D Irwin. Research In Motion Limited (2012) Company. Available at: http://www.rim.com/company/ (Accessed: 3 August 2012). Shiying, L. and Avery, M. (2009) Alibaba: The Inside Story Behind Jack Ma and the Creation of the World’s Biggest Online Marketplace. New York: HarperCollins Publisher. Sull, D.N., (1999) ‘Why Good Companies Go Bad’, Harvard Business Review [Online]. Available at: http://hbr.org/1999/07/why-good-companies-go-bad/ar/1 (Accessed: 2 August 2012). The Economist Newspaper Limited (2012) RIM and Its Troubles: BlackBerry Blues: Research In Motion can Ill Afford Embarrassing Service Interruptions. Available at: http://www.economist.com/node/21532312 (Accessed: 3 August 2012). The Economist Newspaper Limited (2012) The Last Kodak Moment?: Kodak is at Death’s Door; Fujufilm, its old Rival, is Thriving. Available at: http://www.economist.com/node/21542796 (Accessed: 3 August 2012). Wulf, J. (2010) ‘Alibaba Group’, The HBR Alibaba Group Case Study, [Online]. Available at: http://www.papercamp.com/essay/56829/The-Hbr-Alibaba-Group-Case-Study (Accessed: 1 August 2012).

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