Inside Alibaba's 'kung fu' culture
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E-mail China Daily, October 10, 2014
Disputes and overtime
As in any high-pressure work environment, tempers at Alibaba sometimes boil over.
"Harmonious meetings would be a disaster to any Internet company in China. But what's rare about Alibaba is that disagreements were only about work issues, no one is targeted personally," said Li Zhiguo, adding that he's been fostering a similar atmosphere in his startup.
"Quarrelling is a must. It means employees want to excel from the bottom of their heart," he added.
Zhang Lei, an Alibaba spokesperson on corporate culture, said the company has its own words for the shouting matches, referring to them as "critical execution." The spokesperson said obeying orders is less appreciated than inspiration and this attitude is expected from all Alibaba employees.
Working overtime, as in most Chinese companies, is very common, several Alibaba employees told China Daily Online.
"The job is more tiring than my last one, but it's more creative and interesting," said a current Alibaba employee who declined to give his name for fear of disrupting his workplace.
"There are no clear off hours," said the source who is a former investment banker.
Li Zhiguo admitted the Alibaba culture is such that most employees rarely think about working excessive hours.
"Alibaba used to have a punch machine [time clock] a long time ago but later revoked it to give employees more freedom," said Li.
The corporate structure is project-oriented, sources said, with human resources deployed for a specific project and reassigned when it's over.
"With the Internet industry in China changing so fast, you constantly feel the pressure to not fall behind," said the ex-reporter, adding "You have to run fast and also in the right direction."
This ability to be both aggressive and accurate has been an Alibaba trademark, said the former banker.
"Embracing change is true with our peers, too. Only Baidu and Tencent are more like foreign companies than Alibaba. We play less by the rules and add more of a human touch," the source said.
"We are a bunch of young people who aren't in it for the money."
Zhang Yichi, a professor at Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, said this inspiration comes straight from the top.
"The success of Alibaba is in part because Jack Ma is a master at appealing to the noble call in an employee's heart to help small companies by making their sales more convenient," said Zhang, who has studied the Alibaba model.
But Li argues that the evolution is inevitable in an industry that is increasingly global and interconnected.
"Chinese Internet companies are hard-working and have great potential. The gap between China and the US in the development of the Internet industry is getting smaller and smaller," said Li.
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