Jack Ma’s Leadership Approach
Jack Ma’s Leadership Approach
by Chris Atkinson
At his retirement party, Jack Ma stepped onstage to celebrate Alibaba’s 20th anniversary looking every inch the rock star complete with a leather jacket, shades, guitar, and jewellery. He sang and spoke to an emotional crowd in Hangzhou, China.
It’s fair to say that Jack Ma isn’t a typical CEO however, he most certainly is part of a new generation of leaders that appear to be more willing to put their personality ‘front and centre’ regardless of typical corporate cultural norms. I won’t write about his backstory, suffice to say it’s worth reading.
I want to illustrate some of the things that have come to define the differences between modern leadership and the historical CEO. I accept that Jack Ma is a fantastic showman and that alone is quite unique, however, I hope you will see that the points below are not limited to wild extrovert characters.
