LU Upsizing Roadmap: from a hotel waiter to a CEO

On the afternoon of November 18, the Bloomberg news agency interviewed Alibaba's new CEO, Lu, about the setbacks in his early career, the challenges Alibaba faced and how he and Mr Ma shared management responsibilities:

Lu's first job was not his previous ideal. Because he forgot to do the last page of the exam, he failed to enter the architecture department, but he studied hotel management, and as a result, he became a receptionist at a holiday hotel in Guangzhou.





, the chief executive of Alibaba Group, told the story of his ability to overcome difficulties and how he had been a small hotel receptionist in just 15 years as a candidate for the largest e-commerce company in China by billionaire Jack Ma.





's 43-Year-old LU's current main task is to lead the company to complete an initial public offering that could be as high as hundreds of billions of dollars, while defeating competition from powerful rivals such as Tencent and shifting the company's business to mobile computing.





"I get very excited when I'm frustrated, which inspires my potential," Lu said.





Lu in the company is the other ego of Ma Yun. Jack Ma, the founder and Dreamer of Alibaba, has always been outspoken and has often been the protagonist of the headlines. He has mercilessly scolded ebay and other competitors, and last week lashed out at China's environmental pollution, saying the severity of pollution has reached the point where water cannot be drunk or food can not be eaten. The LU, who are not so big and soft-spoken, are mostly behind the scenes, quietly holding the company's business.





"We complement each other very well," Lu said. "He jumped out of the box and looked forward, and I focused. ”





IPO





Alibaba is starting to prepare for an IPO. Once listed, Alibaba is likely to become the second-largest internet company in global market capitalisation following Google, analysts said. Or next year's IPO will be larger than Facebook INC's initial $81 billion trillion, up to $190 billion, or about 12% above Amazon's current market capitalisation.





on this occasion, Lu need to take out all the perseverance to put Ma's dream into practice. All he has to do is to develop a large business that is equivalent to ebay, Amazon and PayPal in a country where the use of credit cards is not common and traffic jams can lead to delays in delivery times.





"There's so much pressure, there's a lot of things I need to do," Lu said in an interview at Alibaba's Hangzhou headquarters. "The battle in the field of E-commerce has never stopped, because this cake is too big." ”





Although the unlisted Alibaba did not disclose detailed financial statements, Yahoo, which owns some of the company's shares, disclosed some basic data. Alibaba's second-quarter revenue soared 60% to $1.73 billion, while net profit rose by more than $707 million trillion. Such revenues are a match for Facebook, which is twice times more profitable than the latter.





Unexpected Harvest





Lu was a good student when he was at school, imagining his future after graduating from high school, thinking that he might be an architect later. However, contrary to the foregoing, as mentioned before, he graduated from college in Guangzhou, a holiday hotel fell feet. His life, however, proved to be a stepping stone to a brighter future.





after six years of working at the hotel, a foreign guest has founded a network fax company in Guangzhou and asked him to be a customer service manager.





a year later, Lu became the sales director of Alibaba, the Alibaba network of the Enterprise (business-to-business) E-commerce subsidiary. When Ma Yun came, Lu drove him to visit the clients and gave speeches in all parts of Guangdong.





a long drive, Lu will put forward his ideas on how to fine-tune sales incentives and other policies, and Ma will outline his vision for the future of the company.





Upsizing Roadmap





"That's when we really started to get to know each other," Lu said. "He says I listen, he sleeps I drive." ”





Lu thus became one of the key players in the implementation of Ma's ideas about building internet giants. In 2004, Lu was responsible for leading the "Alipay" development team, a payment system that could secure online transactions without credit cards.





"Lu very low-key, do not like to promote their own," medicine website Clove Park's chief technical officer, has been in Alipay for LU work Feng Dahui said. "But it can be seen that he acted decisively. ”





2008, Lu was promoted as CEO of Taobao. This is a personal (consumer-to-consumer) trading site similar to ebay. During his tenure, Taobao's trading volume soared more than seven times times.





2011, Ma Yun again to find Lu in charge of the independent listed Alibaba network. The former CEO resigned after an internal investigation found that more than 2000 users had made false sales. Lu took the initiative to take steps to quickly rectify the site. Companies such as Wal-Mart and Procter and Gamble also search for Chinese suppliers through the site.





Determine direction





"He's sure about the direction, and then he can really let everyone do what needs to be done," says Angel investor, Brian Wong, who worked for LU at Alibaba.





2012, Mr Ma bought up the shares of the listed company's Alibaba Network and reintegrated the subsidiary into the parent company. Lu then became Alibaba Group chief data officer, responsible for the development of Alibaba mobile operating system Amos, until Ma Yun elected him to be the group CEO.





Ma Yun was in February this year in Shanghai Waitan Peninsula Hotel tea together to make Lu as Alibaba CEO. Ma Yunyo Lu out for a new job. This is not the first time. He would have a meal together, a cup of tea or a foot massage to get things done.





"He's been talking about 90% of the time," Lu said with a smile on his side. "And then I said well. ”





to employee letter





In March, Mr. Ma wrote to all employees announcing Lu's appointment as CEO, Lu "the ability to appreciate and learn about new things, the judgment and determination of critical issues, and strong executive power are impressive." Alibaba refused to arrange for an interview with Jack Ma for this article.





, who was just married earlier this year, said he was ready to play a more high-profile role when needed, Lu.





"Our idea is that Ma Yun doesn't need to come in often," Lu said. "I will face the public more, but it takes time and I need to improve myself," he said. ”





Although Alibaba has not yet officially announced when to go public, people familiar with the matter said last month that the group could be listed next year. Two people familiar with the matter said in September that Alibaba might be listed in New York after the talks with the Hong Kong stock exchange broke down.





190 billion dollars





based on an average estimate of six analysts in October, Alibaba is worth about 120 billion dollars. Sanford Bernstein analyst Carlos Kirjner last month raised his estimate for Alibaba by one to 190 billion dollars.





Kirjner's valuation is based on the expectation that Alibaba's net profit will increase from $2.6 billion trillion this year to $6.1 billion trillion in 2015, with revenues from 6.6 billion to $13.5 billion. The market value is 30 times times the expected profit in 2015, he said, and Tencent's valuation level is the same.





Lu in the slightest. The closest competitor he has recently is Tencent. Tencent, headquartered in Shenzhen, has moved from gaming to Web services, search and E-commerce. Tencent has a huge customer base, has 990 million registered instant Messaging users, and increasingly offers them the opportunity to buy and sell products, much like Alibaba. Tencent itself even has a service like Alipay, called "Tenpay".





in terms of business strategy, Lu's first task is to make Alibaba ready to transition to the mobile computing field. The group is developing an instant messaging application called "Traffic", which competes with Tencent's micro-letter. The company is also developing better applications that allow consumers and businesses to trade through mobile platforms.





All this may just be a warm-up before the IPO, when investors and bankers will examine Lu and his lieutenants to determine whether Alibaba's IPO is worth comparing with Facebook.





"You have to believe in yourself," he said. "The difference between success and failure is often the ability to stick to it." ”