Entrepreneurs should have a mindset to serve society

Curated by Alibaba Business School
Source: Hupan University

Shao Xiaofeng** **(nickname Guo Jing, a Kung Fu master from a Chinese martial arts fiction), used to be a policeman, who joined Alibaba in 2005 by the invitation of Jack Ma. He has been in charge of several businesses including Cyber Security, Taobao, Alipay, and others in the past 13 years. Now he is the Secretary General of the Alibaba Group and one of the 36 partners.

Not long ago, Shao Xiaofeng came to Hupan University to share his experience in Alibaba over the years, especially his understanding of corporate mission and vision. “How big and great an enterprise can be relies on how great-minded the founder is,” said Shao. “And the mission and vision is the most important means to inspire the mind.”

Shao believes that enterprises have a strong social attribute. Entrepreneurs should not only pay attention to the development of business but also to the social value they create. They should effectively combine the problems which the government and society consider with their business development to take certain responsibilities.

1- The size of one’s mission determines one’s potential** **

Everyone here (at Hupan University) are real entrepreneurs. In Alibaba, the real entrepreneur is Jack Ma. And I am only a follower and participant. Since its establishment 19 years ago, Alibaba has developed step by step to its current scale and entered into various fields. However you can hardly find any business is done by Jack Ma himself.

But without Jack, it is impossible to bring together so many people to achieve so much. What helps unify these senior managers and those ordinary people is not only Jack’s personal charisma, but also the mission and vision of the company, which I think is the key.

I believe each of you has a persistent dream deep in your heart just as Jack does. It is the thing that you determine to pursue, it is the direction and goal of the enterprise. And that is what we call mission and vision.

We can understand mission and vision in two perspectives. From the angle of humanity, it is the advanced level of human awareness. I have always felt that people have two levels of needs, one is the material or survival needs, and the other is higher needs on the spiritual level.

And there are also two kinds of the higher spiritual needs: one is the pursuit of art, such as literary works, art works, music works, which transcends the survival and material needs of human beings; the other is that human beings as animals with social attributes would inevitably have the potential needs to be recognized as a contributor to the society.

Mission and vision is a very advanced realm of human nature in many cases. It reflects the recognition and realization of one’s social value, self-worth within a social context. People always hope to achieve a sense of achievement through the realization of social value. From another dimension, how big and aspirational an enterprise can be has a very close relationship with the entrepreneur’s own mindset. Hence the mission and vision of a company is the most important method to link an entrepreneur’s own mindset and the company’s purpose.

It is often said that as an individual, one should have a big mind and broad vision as a human being. But without a relatively high-level mission and vision, it is impossible to reach that high mindedness. The size of one’s mission decides his extend of mind. Mission is something that one truly believe, because there is no right and wrong of mission and vision.

In fact, many entrepreneurs hope their enterprises can become bigger and stronger, have greater value to the society and gain greater influence. Then, when you set goals and directions for the enterprise, you should set your own aspirations and mindset to be as big as possible.

2- Excellent Companies need to Build Common Destiny with Society

A roadside vendors can chase profit without thinking about social impact. A onetime profiting opportunity is good for the micro businesses so long as they can abide by the law and meet the moral bottom-line.

For SME’s, it is important to become more systematic and create sustainable profit. It is not enough for SME’s to survive by just grabbing a one-time opportunity. They must start thinking about customer value. At this development stage, it may still be sufficient to just abide the law and meet the moral bottom line.

When companies reach a certain size, you start to pursue influence and a leadership position in the industry. You have to not only meet the legal and moral bottom-line, but also think about the positive impact you are bringing to the industry. You have to start make decision on things that you should do or should not do. There are certain things you should not do even if it is legal to do and even if it makes money.

When you develop into an exemplary company that creates huge influence to society, you become an important part of the society and **share the common destiny with the society.** The decisions you make are not judged on whether they are legal or not.

In the grey areas where law and policy may not cover, companies need to be self-regulated to create positive impact to the industry and society. These decisions are made based on one’s mission and vision.

Many excellent companies face the same question on how to maximize social value when they reach a certain size. I will give you two examples. When facing aging population, as companies innovate their business models and technological solutions, they need to think about how to solve social problems created by aging population.

As an industry progresses, there will be common issues emerging in the industry, industry leaders have the responsibility and duty to solve these new issues that are beyond the company’s development speed and profit.

3- Social attributes play a vital role in the development of an enterprise

Intellectual property rights violation is a persistent problem, not caused by Taobao, but if you are in the e-commerce industry using the Internet to conduct business activities, you must take responsibilities accordingly and employ better methods to protect intellectual property rights. This is a new way to solve old problems.

Today, the quick development of social media has brought new problems, not old ones. If the social media industry cannot discipline itself and solve these problems, it will eventually bring a disastrous blow to the entire industry.

Sometimes the things which seem to have nothing to do with the business of the enterprise, are the things that entrepreneurs must think about. Therefore, I feel that the mission and vision lays out a very important foundation for your big-picture thinking and macro decision-making.

Seven or eight years ago, we thought about the security of user data on the Alibaba Cloud platform. We tried our best to come up with a reasonable solution. It may not necessarily be the best solution, but at least you did what you could to solve the problem. Even if something goes wrong, the society and the government will understand you.

However, if we were to rapidly expand the Alibaba Cloud market share at that time and completely disregard the protection of data security, once the problem came out, it would be a disaster for Alibaba Cloud. Sometimes, these things may not facilitate the development of the business in the short term, but it can keep you safe in the long term. Survival is the key to an enterprise’s development.

From a long-term perspective, a sound business environment guarantees the stable development of an enterprise. In the short term, such major investment puts a heavy burden on the business, but it **is a very important systematic construction and a protection for the enterprise overall.

4- To perceive your enterprise from the angle of society and government
**
In 2006, the only KPI Jack set up for Taobao was to provide one million job opportunities. Jack sincerely wanted to solve the issue of unemployment, this was not just about making a promise to the government, he really meant it, he wanted to solve the social problems.

Combine what the government or society needs with the business development of the company, this is the foundation of your mission and vision.

If you consider the problems from the perspective of changing the industry, making contribution to the society and taking social responsibility, many problems will be considered by you naturally. However if you only focus on business and how to defeat your competitors, many issues will be neglected.

You must have this vision to plan in advance, to think first, and in the process, to stand in the shoes of the government to observe your business and take the responsibility you should carry.

The growth of an enterprise has something to do with the relationship between the company and the entire surrounding social environment. How to manage the enterprise as if you were managing a society, rather than just a money making machine, decides whether the company will become a large company versus a remarkable one.

As long as the large-scale enterprises can ensure sustainable and healthy income and profits, they don’t need to think that much. But if they want to grow to be an extraordinary enterprise, to influence the industry and the society, and make the company long live, it is necessary to be altruistic.

I believe that the entrepreneurs here today also carry strong responsibilities to create a good society. Some things need to be done first, though it seems to have nothing to do with the business. After three or five years, it may bring big changes. Entrepreneurs must work with the governments and scholars to study social issues, and be committed to solving real social problems, as well as new problems brought about by the new business models. Only in this way can we jointly realize social progress and strive to create a healthier business civilization.

Alibaba Business School’s vision is to empower entrepreneurs, women and youth globally through the education and training programs on the digital economy and the benefits it brings to larger society.