Alibaba Ma Yun stands for Starbucks in Chengdu: I don't drink coffee and like to watch others drink

Sichuan online News (Sichuan Daily reporter Li Longjun) on January 12, Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group, appeared at the Chengdu Starbucks staff meeting. It is reported that Starbucks CEO Howard and Jack Ma met as early as 2009. It was with mutual respect and admiration that Jack Ma arrived in Chengdu from Hangzhou after being invited and delivered a keynote speech.

Jack Ma's speech record:

It's a great honor. In fact, Starbucks is a great and great company in my mind. When I first started my business, Starbucks was a myth. I remember going to the United States. I went to many Starbucks stores, and I saw a lot of smiling faces of shop assistants. I've been asking myself this question, how are these smiles trained? Because I have seen that the laughter of many companies is trained. But it feels like Starbucks' smile is not trained, it comes from the heart.

I don't drink coffee myself, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate and like to watch others drink coffee. I especially like watching other people drink coffee in Starbucks. This is true, because I feel very good when I see them sitting inside. I don't shop online either, but I especially like other people shopping online. I don't play football either. I don't know, but I like to watch other people argue about football.

In fact, I was thinking to myself, when Mr. Howard Schultz talked about it just now, I thought it was very amazing. In such a big business of drinking coffee, there are nearly 2,000 stores in a country as big as China, where there are no coffee drinking habits. What happened and what is worth learning? I think Starbucks is a great company with strong learning ability.

We designate May 10th of each year as Ali Day. Because in 2003, this year, when SARS arose, one of our employees went on a business trip to Guangzhou and suddenly had a fever when he came back. After the fever, the whole country was very scared about SARS, so the employee was quickly sent to the hospital, saying that he was suspected of SARS. At that time, we had a judgment, which happened to be May 2 and 3. At that time, as long as there was a suspect, something would go wrong. I called all the employees together, hundreds of employees on the entire floor ready, our company may be quickly shut down. Because all of us will be quarantined.

The purpose of the creation of the Internet is to prevent many computers from being destroyed and paralyzed in military wars. The military does the Internet to prevent paralysis, our company has a preparation, all our employees go home to work. Our engineer connected the line to the home. As a result, the next day, the Hangzhou municipal government informed us that the company was quarantined. We were afraid to tell the outside that Alibaba was quarantined, but fortunately we connected all the network lines and telephone lines to our home. In those days, when customers all over the world called Alibaba, you would find that the voices answered on the phone included old people, children, and also old ladies, because when our employees came home, they told their parents that they first mentioned to say hello, Alibaba.

In fact, within eight days of quarantine, few people knew that more than 500 employees of our company worked at home, and the people who answered the phone were basically family employees. On May 8, the government said that the quarantine had been lifted, but the girl was still in quarantine. In order to thank all the employees, all the family members, freedom and sunshine, we set May 10th as Ali Day. On this day, all young people, all people should understand the value of freedom and thank all their families for tide over the difficulties for this company.

We launched Taobao on May 10, and on the day of isolation, we launched Taobao. At that time, Taobao had a saying, "commemorate those who persist in starting a business in the most difficult times." In fact, we launched Taobao in a few days of isolation. Also thanks to the disaster to Alibaba, to the establishment of Taobao has brought a very meaningful day.

Without family, without staff, without everyone's efforts, it would have been impossible to get to where we are today. So we will give a report to our family and all our family and friends every year. I seldom attend investor conferences. But I must attend the family meeting, because I report to my family how we did last year and what we are going to do in the future. And we hold a group wedding on May 10th every year, and a large number of young people come to Alibaba. There are nearly two thousand weddings. Now we stipulate that only 102 pairs will be drawn every year, because the wedding is too big.

This is actually great. I think it's better than us at Starbucks. I was listening in the back just now. Look. Very moved, thank Starbucks for taking care of our employees, thank Starbucks for respecting our family. Because of a good company, the price paid by the family is beyond our imagination.

But also in Starbucks, I also learned a lot, learned what persistence is. Once I had a conversation with Mr. Howard Schultz in Shanghai, and he told a story. I share this story with my staff more than once, but I still want to tell it again.

Howard Schultz once visited London and saw a very small shop selling cheese in one of the most expensive streets in London, a very expensive brand street. This cheese is so cheap that it doesn't make much money at all. He ran to him and asked him, "look at this old man eating cheese. How could you pay such a high rent in such an expensive store?" The old man said you should buy dozens of yuan of cheese first, and I'll tell you later. He said, young man, this street belongs to our family from here to here. We have sold cheese for generations because we love cheese and this street is so busy. My son is selling cheese, but I am still selling cheese.

Actually, it's easy to give up. Just run to the 18th floor and take a step, but how hard it is to come back. I also learned a lot from Starbucks. Starbucks sells coffee, but I don't believe that people go to that store because the coffee at Starbucks is good. There must be someone in this world. I'm sure you didn't go to Starbucks to taste coffee. Starbucks must have put a lot of other things that we people can't understand today. In my opinion, Starbucks has brought countless love, a lot of concern, a kind of communication, a kind of fashion, a kind of lifestyle change. Especially in China.

I personally think that in China, people who go to Starbucks are basically people who have a need for quality of life, or people with quality of life. And here, what you see is a lot of people of the same kind communicating and sharing here. So I feel that this is a way of life, as long as we are here, if Starbucks has only coffee left one day, then Starbucks may also go down. If there is only sales left, only the number of stores left, and only how much coffee we sell every day, I believe Starbucks will not be gone too long.

Today we see that there is love, care, responsibility and sharing in Starbucks, and there is a combination of outstanding young people, the reason is the same as we do Taobao and Alibaba.

When we conceived Alibaba and Taobao in 2003, we didn't know what to do. Chinese people believe in face-to-face communication. Anyway, when everyone doesn't believe it, I wonder why we can't believe it and why we can't do it. I think computers and computers are cold, and the people behind computers must be warm. Taobao does not sell goods, but sells credit. I believe there is trust between people in this world.

Today we see a lot of young people complaining, and we see complaints in the whole society. People think that this society lacks trust, but this social trust exists, but how do you pay attention to it? You buy something online, you have no idea who it is, and you remit the money. Now there are more than 40 million transactions in China, which in my opinion is not a transaction, but a kind of trust. In my opinion, Starbucks is not selling coffee today. Today, Starbucks is telling people about new services, new experiences and new lifestyles.

When we were young, our neighbors went out of the residential area, there were police stations, and there was also a grocery store. The grocery store makes us feel like we're here forever. We can't go to the residential area to chat, we basically chat in front of the grocery store. The owner of the grocery store knows anyone in the neighborhood and cares about anything that happens in the neighborhood. Starbucks is the center of fashion. You see, some people at Starbucks are online, some are chatting, some are negotiating. So I feel that there is a need for good in the city, and today's Starbucks is becoming a powerful company. I think this is my own reflection and thinking. What Alibaba hopes to see is not a deal.

On the first day, we positioned ourselves just as Starbucks did not define itself as a coffee seller on the first day, we did not define ourselves as a selling company from the first day. The company that sells goods, in fact, if you think about it, if you go to any supermarket today, no girl will shop in it for four hours and then leave. Today, the girl spent three hours and four hours online and didn't buy anything. I don't know what I'm looking at. Sometimes I am curious, sometimes when I see the most troublesome party I attend, they can talk for hours when they get half a glass of wine. This may be what makes Starbucks unique. You really care about users. We regard employees as partners. Only employees have the feeling of partners, and only when we have the feeling of partners, can we regard customers as real partners.

In addition, I am concerned about the age of Starbucks employees, very young. Alibaba was just a little over 28 years old, and our women were 48%, which was originally more than 60%, but we acquired several companies, and there were more men, so we got us down. I find that there are a lot of women here. This is a great place for Starbucks. In our company, nearly 50% of our employees are women, 33% of our executives are women, and I think the president of Starbucks China is also a woman. Women care more about others than men.

Some people say that, in fact, there are a lot of women behind me who support me. Of course I do. Employees should, too, because apart from husbands and parents, women do spend more on others than on themselves besides taking care of their children. So in a service industry like this, when it comes to experience, women are unique. So people say, Alibaba, why are there so many women? isn't it nice when I say? On the other hand, there are many young people, which is the most remarkable. I looked at your statistics and found that you are younger than us and have no better wealth than youth.

When I started my business, I didn't think it was fair. It would have been different if I had been born in Bill Gates. He 24 hours, you 24 hours, 24 hours, who is faster, can do more valuable, this is fair. But I think another point is that many people think that it is more unfortunate to be the richest man, especially in China, and it will come to no good end. The core of being the richest man is to be responsible, first and foremost. If you are willing to be responsible for yourself, you are an employee, and if you are willing to be responsible for hundreds of thousands of employees, it is Howard Schultz.

We should pursue blessed people. I think it is a blessing to spend time with family and friends, have time to drink a cup of coffee, have time to listen to music, and have time to make my life better slowly. Whether we are Starbucks or Ali, in today's company, we young people, we can't finish our work and earn more money. We came to this world to enjoy life. I think in our company, we propose to live seriously and work happily. We don't want to work hard and not work too hard. Happiness is more important than seriousness.

I believe that Starbucks employees are happy. I believe that if you are not happy, it is impossible for you to have such smiling faces. How to make everyone happy is the house allowance just now. But it is impossible to be happy and blessed with allowances and wages alone. In fact, I can assure you that Bill Gates will not be happier than everyone else, and the pressure on him is unimaginable. So each of us should figure out what we have, what we want, and what we give up. So I really hope to communicate with young people. I have just passed the age of 50, and I am getting old. But if you are 20 or 30, be sure to find a good company and a good boss. A good boss is more important than a good company. Of course, it is better to be both a good company and a good boss.

I just walked through your training system, and the uniqueness of all these years shows that Starbucks is a good company. secondly, I see that Starbucks has many good clerks and managers, which is very important. Our company has a Starbucks store, which sells 1200 cups of coffee a day, in our company. It should be pretty good, isn't it? Stand in line every day anyway. This shows a problem, a young man, find a good company, find a good boss, seriously learn how to do things, how to be a person. If you are 30 or 40, remember to do things for yourself and do what you like. If you are 40 to 50 years old, do what you are strongest, don't force yourself, but be the strongest you can be. It is necessary to train young people from 50 to 60 to make them do better. From 60 to 70, just spend time with your family. Spend more time with your grandchildren and young people. From 70 to 80, just spend more time on the beach.

Each of us should position our time well. today, I believe that all the young people at Starbucks are like Ali. Today's company is good, not because the company leaders are great, but because all the employees know what they have and want. We know that we contribute to society, and our contribution lies not in how good our products are, but in how strong our hearts are. This is what I would like to share with you.

Finally, I would like to say that people talk about technology changing the world. Today, Internet companies are very strong. At that time, we said that IBM was very powerful, but now it seems that if it is not high-tech, it is very backward. In fact, it is not technology that changes the world, but the dream behind it. The ideal is that a group of people do one thing together. The ideal is for everyone to unite and do one thing together. I see the dream of Starbucks today. Starbucks hopes to use coffee to convey the love and care of many people, and the communication and communication with others. This is quite remarkable. So I think if technology had changed the world, I wouldn't be standing here today. Because I really don't know anything about technology.

I estimate that my use of computers, there are more than a thousand of you, I must be more than a thousand. Apart from sending emails, I sometimes can't read DVD. It doesn't matter if I don't understand. It's troublesome to pretend to know. I think the high technology of the world is for those of us who do not understand science and technology. Now IT has turned to DT,IT to make itself stronger and stronger, I have, you don't, mine is faster than you. DT, people are moving from IT to DT,DT has undergone earth-shaking changes, but the promotion of ideas. DT requires every company and every company to be more transparent, more sharing and more accountable. DT is more important to make others stronger than you, partners stronger than you, and your competitors stronger than you. Some people say that stronger competitors don't kill you. The level of the police is in direct proportion to the level of the thief. As long as you have a great mission and values, never give up your mission, no matter when you are the biggest or the youngest, no matter how small you are. No matter when you are in pain or at a low ebb, never forget your original heart, your ideal, and your value system and helping hand as a human being. Because it's the only way, then it's a matter of time. Adhere to values, adhere to ideals, adhere to a group of affectionate and righteous people, do something that everyone feels happy, and then it is a matter of time.

So I am very honored to be here to communicate and learn with Starbucks. Alibaba is a very young company. I have seen Starbucks for 44 years. We have only been gone for 16 years. Every day is like a year, like walking on thin ice. Because everyone, every business is not easy. In fact, other people may not think of you, even if a company like us, including every store, you think it is easy, KPI on the head, is it easy? Not easy.

When you work happily or viciously, it's all the same, it's not as good as happy work. So Ali is a very young company, we want to go 102. Why 102, we were born in 1999, and you also came to China in 1999. We have lived for one year, one hundred years in this century, and another year in the next century, spanning three centuries. Let's do the math. There are still 86 years to go. It's really hard. But only when a group of people with common ideals, common values, common culture and common temperament come together, will they feel that time flies very quickly.

Ali also wants to work with companies like Starbucks. You had 100 stores in China in 2004, and you all walked the same way. We, Ali, hope to work together with Starbucks, our partner on the common road, to promote together for the young people of China, because young people are the hope. It is important to reform China, but it is more important to cultivate China's future. The people who come to Starbucks today are all people of the future of China, and we will give them more love together. The more love you give them, the more love they plant and the more love they will release in the future. So thank you, thank you for many companies from all over the world coming to China, you are amazing. Thank you!

Source: Sichuan online