If you want to invest in us, we believe customer number one, employee number two, shareholder number three. If they don't want to buy that, that's fine. If they regret, they can sell us.
Interpretation
Prioritizing customers and employees leads to a successful business model.
This quote by Jack Ma emphasizes the importance of placing customers first, followed by employees, with shareholders coming last in the hierarchy of business priorities. It conveys that a company should focus on delivering value and satisfaction to its customers and ensuring employee well-being, as this will ultimately lead to success and profitability, even if some shareholders may not initially agree with this approach.
In practice
In a company meeting to discuss team culture and priorities.
Hong Kong people say Hong Kong needs to preserve its uniqueness. I say Hong Kong's uniqueness is in its diversity, its tolerance of difference cultures... China does not want to see Hong Kong in decline. I have full confidence in its future.
If we are a good team and know what we want to do, one of us can defeat tons of them.
It's not that other countries steal jobs from you guys. It's your strategy. Distribute the money and things in a proper way.
Helping doing business easier, we choose the name Alibaba because it is a global company. It is founded in China, but it was created for the world.
In the beginning I just wanted to survive. For the first three years, we made zero revenue. I remember many times when I was trying to pay up, the restaurant owner would say, 'Your bill was paid.' And there would be a note saying, 'Mr. Ma, I'm your customer on the Alibaba platform. I made a lot of money, and I know you don't, so I paid the bill.'
Even if your competitor is still small in size or weak, you should take him seriously and treat him as a giant. Likewise, even if your competitor is massive in size, you shouldn't regard yourself as a weakling.
In business, if you realize you've made a bad decision, you change it.
Owning a popular sports team is very different than any other type of business. They don't throw parades when Apple has the biggest quarter in corporate history. People don't call and email asking for anyone from the team to come visit their sick child. They don't cry as they request a jersey of their child's favorite player to be buried with them.
What is good for our customers is also in the long run good for us.
I strongly believe the business of a business is to improve the world.
Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.
There's a fundamental distinction between strategy and operational effectiveness.
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