Much of Ma’s story resonated with me; his entrepreneurship, his innovation, his risk-taking. But what made him successful?

While Ma is known as a tech leader, he openly claims he knew nothing about technology when he started.  He puts his success down to understanding people, teams and customers. He doesn’t talk like a techie. “I only know about people. Make your customer happy. Get your team. Make your team happy,” Ma is quoted as saying. The customer is the bottom line.

From his origins as a teacher, he preaches the importance of listening and teaching as you lead. He tells his people “Don’t make me happy, don’t love me. Make your customer happy, make your customer love you.” 

Like all good start ups, he began in his garage and set the dream of becoming one of the top 10 websites in the world. Despite its enormous footprint, Ma hopes Alibaba never loses sight of its garage culture, which he calls ‘Hupan Culture’, regardless of how large it gets because that is where the dream started.

“It’s the dreams that keep us working hard. It’s the dreams that keep us never afraid of the mistakes, the setbacks we have.” 

Ma recently released a video tour of the original apartment and garage to share it with the world and he regularly sends his most-talented employees there to spend time working in the space as a reward, in the hope that the experience inspires them to create and push the dream further.

In an e-commerce, Martech world, driven by analytics and automation, Ma reminds us to remember the heart in what we’re doing, and not let that be lost in the machines. ROI, cost savings and productivity are all critically important in this new world, but a great brand and innovative product comes from truly understanding our customers. This is hand in hand, not in competition with data and tech.

We hear creative teams lamenting that they rarely get to create big brand campaigns anymore, but the opportunity is everywhere. The recent revival of Pizza Hut’s iconic character Dougie the Pizza Boy reminded me of memorable brand ideas from the past and how they would exist with the added firepower from our tech and Martech capabilities. Imagine the fun brands could have with the Tim Tam Genie, Bundy Bear or Smith’s Gobbledock in today’s personalised, addressable world.

Given Ma’s technological success, it’s telling that the overwhelming message Ma leaves Alibaba with is one of people and dreams.