Alibaba: The World According to (Jack) Ma

From Tokyo, Japan and Auckland, New Zealand, this is Down to Business English, with your hosts Git Montreau and Samantha Vega.

Samantha, I have to admit I am very concerned.

What are you so concerned about?

That our little business English podcast here is quickly turning into the What Did Donald Trump Do This Week podcast.

Yeah.

Well, at the time we are recording this, he has only been in office for a few weeks and already he is having such an impact on the business world.

Well, he is a business person after all, and that's what he campaigned on, after all. But uh yes, it is a little unsettling all the moves he's making. What's he done so far? Cancel the T PP

Well which is gonna have a huge impact on what is happening in

He's given the green light to the Keystone and Dakota Access Oil Pipeline projects.

And that is a topic we haven't talked about on D2B, but it is connected to American energy independence and will have a very negative impact on the development of clean energy technologies.

Clean energy tech, something that we just talked about in our last episode together.

Yes, D2B 101, the climate change crisis. But to me, the most dangerous situation the Trump administration seems to be heading towards is a trade war with. Well, with everyone, but especially China.

Yeah, you're talking about the way he's egging China on about Taiwan and his rhetoric about imposing tariffs on Chinese imports to the US. Yeah, well it is concerning. All of that is concerning. But we will just have to do our best not to turn the podcast into what did you call it? The what did Donald Trump Do This Week podcast? That's not a bad name actually.

Hmm. Well, having said that, the topic for today's show does come from a news report I saw during Donald Trump's transition period.

And what was that?

It was a report on Jack Maw, the founder and CEO of Alibaba, going to New York City and meeting with Trump. The headline was something like, Jack Maw promises one million jobs for Americans.

Not sure how that is gonna happen, but Jack Ma is a very interesting guy. He's probably one of the better-known Chinese business people outside of China and has achieved somewhat of a business guru status, like Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos.

That's true. A quick search on YouTube and you can find a lot of interest in what Jack Maw has to say about being an entrepreneur and what it takes to succeed in business. I've always wanted D to B to report on him, his career, and the history of Alibaba.

Great idea, so let's do it. Let's get D2B with Alibaba, the world according to Jack Ma.

Looking at his photo, I'd say that Jack Ma is in his early fifties, is that right? How old is he?

Yeah, you're right on the money there. He was born in nineteen sixty four in September, so that puts him at let me see fifty two. No, he will turn fifty three this year.

A young man. He's the second richest man in China. Let's think about that for a moment. thirty four point three billion and he's the second richest?

Hm, not bad for a former English teacher.

Really? He taught English.

That's right. In fact, that is what he majored in at university. Both he and his wife taught English for several years. Right.

Did not know that. How on earth did he go from teaching English to one of the richest tech entrepreneurs in the world?

Well let me give you a brief synopsis of his career and Alibaba. Yeah.

Why don't you do that?

Well, Jack Maw was born and raised in Hangzhou City, and as a young man he taught himself English by giving free tours of the area to basically American tourists. Now, he wasn't the most academic type of person, and he struggled to get into college. In fact, it took him four years to pass the entrance exam.

Oh yes. I saw him talking about that with Charlie Rose.

That talk show host from Bluebird.com.

Ma also was explaining how he applied to something like twenty or thirty jobs and was rejected each time. He was one of five people applying to the police department. They accepted four people, he was rejected. He went to apply at Kentucky Fried Chicken and when they opened in his city. Again, twenty five people applied, twenty-four people were hired and he wasn't one of the twenty four.

But he finally did get a job as an English teacher at Hangzhou University, where he worked for several years.

So how did Alibaba get started?

When the early internet started rolling out in the nineteen nineties, he actually traveled to the US to learn more about it. And as he was searching, the one of the first things he realized that there was no information about China. In fact, he put in the keyword beer and he saw beers offered from other countries, but there was no Chinese beer. So he realized how far behind China was on the internet.

It's kinda like China's Amazon, right?

A lot of people compare those two companies, but they are very different business models. Amazon is an actual retailer, whereas Alibaba is more of a portal that connects suppliers to manufacturers and businesses to customers. In fact, the Alibaba Group is a collection of separate online companies with each one focused on a different area.

I know that they have had their struggles in the past with counterfeiters. In fact, just before Christmas last year, the US government put Taubao, one of Alibaba's e commerce sites, on their list of notorious markets that deal with knockoff products.

That's true. Counterfeiting is such a huge issue in the Chinese manufacturing sector, but there's not much Alibaba can do about it. It is so prevalent. However, in response to that US listing you just mentioned, in early January, Alibaba took two merchants to court in China, a very unheard of move.

At least he's making an attempt. I get the sense that Jack Ma and by extension Alibaba is quite ethical.

I agree. The corporate culture at Alibaba is renowned for their focus on customers and employees. One of my favorite Jack Maw quotes was his answer to a question on his attitude towards stakeholders.

What did he say?

Simply he said put the customer first, the employees second, and the shareholders third.

That's a very different approach to running a business. But he has had a lot of great quotes. I believe when you have a million dollars, that's your money. When you have twenty million, you start to have a problem. When you have a billion, that's not your money. That's the trust society gave you. They believe you can manage the money better than the government and others.

Interesting. He has a very different attitude. I personally would be very happy with twenty million dollars.

Ditto. Uh another good quote is never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine. If you give up tomorrow, you'll never see the sunshine.

He has such a resilient outlook on life. Another similar quote from him is, a stupid thing, if you improve it every day, it is going to be very smart. He learned this from years and years of making mistakes and being called stupid by investors. There is just no keeping this man down.

Well, hopefully his attitude will have some influence on global business in the future. As you mentioned He has already met with the new US president, and as such a major figure in the Chinese business community, perhaps he can act as a go between or moderator as the relationship between China and the US heats up in the coming months.

I don't know about that. He once famously said, My relationship with the government is be in love with the governments, but do not marry them.

That is probably the key to his success right there.

I'm sure that cautious approach has served him well. But I think it is time for you and I to get D two V down to vocabulary.

Down to business English audio scripts are a great learning tool. Be sure to visit the D2B website and download your free audio script of today's podcast. Down to businessenglish.com. That's www.down to businessenglish.com

Today in D2V, we will be exploring five different words and expressions. But there are other useful words and phrases in the story. So to get the most out of this episode, or any D2B episode, you will want to be sure to visit our website and download the audio script. Then, with the script in hand, you can go back and listen to the story again, this time reading along.

I bet there are usually a few phrases listeners don't catch the first time.

don't catch or perhaps initially misunderstand. For second language learners, there is often a big gap between reading comprehension and listening comprehension.

You recently changed the D2B audio script system, didn't you?

That's right. And before we get into D2V, let me take a moment and explain the new system, just to clarify it for everyone. Sure. It is very important to us that everyone can have access to the audio script. We really think they are an important learning tool. However, in order to continue producing D2B on a regular basis and to try to improve on its quality, we really do need more listener support.

Sure, a lot of time and energy goes into producing each episode.

That's right. So moving forward, only the most recent episode of Down to Business English will be available for no charge. Once we release a new episode, the previous story is no longer available for free.

A new episode of D2B is released roughly every 10 days, so if a listener wants the free audio script, they have about 10 days to download it.

Correct.

And if someone wants an older script,

There are two ways listeners can get older audio scripts.

And what are they?

The first and most economical way is to become a D2B member. Listeners can choose from one of four different membership levels the D2B monthly consumer, the D2B quarterly shareholder, D2B semi-annual stakeholder or the D2B annual executive director.

Sounds very executive.

It is. Now, each type of membership gives you access to the entire audio script library. Including this episode, there are now 104 audio scripts in the library. And it will just keep growing.

And members get newly released audio scripts emailed to them as well?

Yes, there is that benefit too. After signing up, D2B members can opt into the AudioScript Delivery Service, and we will send them a link to the new audio script as soon as an episode is released.

And if someone doesn't want to be a D2B member, what is the other way they can get scripts of the older episodes?

If a D2B membership is not for you, you can always buy audio scripts in a one-off purchase. Just visit our AudioScript store for more details on that.

So to recap, the most recent episodes are always free. If you want an older episode, you can either become a D2B member, which gives you unlimited access to the AudioScript library, or simply visit the AudioScript store. Choose the audio script you want and make a one-time purchase.

That's it precisely.

Great, now that we have that out of the way, let's get going with today's vocabulary. Shall I start?

By all means, ladies first. Thank you.

First off is the adjective to be unsettling. When you say that something is unsettling, you are saying that it makes you upset or worried. In the introduction of today's story, I commented that some of Donald Trump's decisions have been a little unsettling. In other words, they have made me a little worried.

Recently there was some unsettling news here in Japan coming out of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station that was destroyed by the March 2011 tsunami.

I heard about that. It is very worrying news indeed.

Yes, the radiation levels coming from the damaged number two reactor are now at the highest level since the accident six years ago.

I was reading that a human exposed to the level of radiation detected would kill a human in a few hours. Apparently even robots can only operate for two hours under those conditions. Are they ever going to be able to clean up that mess?

They expect it to take forty to fifty years, but with this setback, who knows?

As you said, very, very unsettling.

Next up is the expression. Give the green light to something. This expression is easy enough to get a mental picture of. Just imagine when you are driving a car and the traffic light turns green. You are then allowed to go. Idiomatically, when you give somebody a green light, you are giving them permission to go ahead and do something.

In the report, again in the introduction, I mentioned that Donald Trump had given the green light to some oil pipeline construction project.

In other words, he gave construction companies permission to go ahead and continue building those controversial projects, which President Obama had previously canceled.

To get or give a green light is a very common business expression. Listen to this example of a conversation you might have with a coworker. Hi Skip. Are you very busy these days? Oh.

Oh not so much. I'm just waiting for Des to give me the green light for my proposal. If that gets approved, I will be up to my eyeballs in work.

Des green lights everything, so I'm sure you will be busy very soon.

I can't wait. Now, everyone should notice that in that example, green light was used both as a noun and a verb. It is a very flexible word.

Skip, do I have a green light to continue with the next word?

Absolutely, Samantha.

Moving on, let's take a look at the noun synopsis. A synopsis is a brief outline or summary of information. In the story, Skip gave us a synopsis of Jack Ma's career. It was just a short summary, he didn't give us every detail.

Can you give us a business example? Sure.

Any small business owner or entrepreneur who is trying to raise money for their company needs to prepare a business synopsis. This document is a short summary of their business plan, and it briefly outlines their company goals for the next three to five years. A well-written synopsis will help a potential investor understand the business in just a few minutes.

Nice example. I don't know if you have ever written an actual business synopsis, but they are very difficult to write well. It is very hard to be brief and make an impression on an investor at the same time.

I suppose so. What's our next word?

Next is the adjective persistent. Persistent means to never give up or do something until you succeed. In the story, Samantha commented that Jack Maw was a very persistent person. In other words, he never gives up.

Any business leader will tell you that the key to success is persistence.

I agree. Just look at the big names in business. Jack Maw, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban. Persistence is the one quality that they all have in common. Samantha, can you give us an example of persistent to describe a company?

I remember many years ago in Canada when Hyundai first started selling cars in that market. Initially, they were pretty cheap and not very reliable, but the company was persistent. Today they are one of the most popular automobiles in Canada.

My mother drives one as a matter of fact. Everyone, please notice that both of those examples of persistent used it to describe the positive quality of never giving up. But this word can also have a negative nuance when you use it as an adverb.

For example, it is not a good idea to persistently hand in late reports to your boss or persistently complain to your manager about how much work you have to do. Doing either of those persistently will damage your professional reputation.

And if a company's sales drop persistently or it persistently loses clients, That company may soon be out of business.

Our final word is the adverb ditto, which is a very effective reaction statement. By saying ditto after someone finishes speaking, you are communicating that you agree with what they have just said. In the story, Skip said he would be very happy if he earned$20 million, to which I replied, Ditto. In other words, I too would be very content with$20 million.

Say, Samantha, if you did have twenty million dollars, would you retire from professional life? Or would you keep working?

Twenty million would certainly be a game changer, but I'm sure I would keep working in some manner of capacity.

Ditto. If I stopped working, I'm sure I would get into way too much trouble.

And subscribe.

Why don't you Libra?

This will help D2B reach more people wanting to improve

English skills.

Down to Business English. to improve your business English.

Thank you for joining me today, Samantha. Once again, it has been great speaking with you.

You too skip. I enjoyed hearing about Jack Ma and Alibaba. He seems like quite the character.

He is. And as a little extra bonus today, I am putting a clip of Jack Maw at the end of the show. In this clip, he is speaking to a group of young business people, giving them advice as to how to map out their career.

That will be interesting.

It is a very good talk and I only wish somebody had given me that kind of advice when I was in my twenties. So everyone be sure to listen to the podcast right until the end to catch Jack's advice. Thanks for listening everyone. next time.

Take care.

Have a comment or question about today's show? Visit the D2B website or the Page and post any comments or

You'll be sure to leave a reply.

D to B newsletter and receive updates on some of the stories covered on T.

English.

That's w dot down to businessenglish.

Sounds of this.

improve your business English.

So I told myself and told my young people, before 20 years old, be a good student. When you do entrepreneur just to learn some experience. Before thirty years old. Follow somebody. Go to a small company. Normally in a big company it is good to learn processing. You are a part of a big machine. But when you go to small company, you learn the passion, you learn the dream. You learn how to do a lot of things as one one time.