The Tao of Alibaba, Brian A Wong
The Tao of Alibaba, Brian A Wong
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
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The Tao of Alibaba
Inside the Chinese Digital Giant That Is Changing the World

Author: Brian A Wong

Narrator: Brian Nishii

Unabridged: 10 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 11/01/2022

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

From a long-time Alibaba executive and former special assistant to Jack Ma, this is the first book to articulate how Alibaba's unique culture and “tai chi” management principles are providing a business and economic development model for the rest of the world.

If you took the economic might of Amazon, and added the penetration of Facebook, the ubiquity of Google, and the cultural significance of YouTube, you might have something starting to resemble Alibaba. Commonly mischaracterized as a kind of Chinese eBay for businesses, Alibaba and its interlinked network of products and services have exploded into global markets, disrupting conventional businesses and creating previously unimaginable opportunities for millions of small businesses worldwide.
 
This book reveals the Tao of Alibaba—the company’s “secret sauce”—a consciously cultivated ethos and spirit that has enabled Alibaba to weather tough times (including its recent setbacks with the Chinese government) and persist toward a common mission. It is a blueprint of the company’s management philosophy, crystalized into the most important elements that have driven its success, and it provides a road map for how to incorporate these principles into any organization’s operations.
 
Wong distills his nearly two decades of experience inside the company to show readers how to align their organization’s capabilities with performance-maximizing tools in order to achieve success. But most importantly, the Tao of Alibaba teaches the pursuit of greater purpose and meaning, steering entrepreneurs to view their ventures as a vehicle for having profound and lasting impacts on their communities. Ultimately, the lessons shared in The Tao of Alibaba will serve as timeless tools for any entrepreneur seeking to configure their organization toward purpose and impact.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Brian on November 28, 2022

One of the great aspects of this book is that it takes what most people view as a massive billion dollar machine and breaks it down to the smaller / earlier start-up stages of business that got Alibaba to where it is now. It helps to remind entrepreneurs and smaller business leaders that a mountain......more

Goodreads review by Sheldon on November 29, 2022

In the book “The Tao of Alibaba”, Brian Wong has elaborated vividly on the inner workings of Alibaba, a great company that has helped reshape the daily lives of billions of people both in and outside of China over the past two decades or so. This is also the period that China has experienced breath-......more

Goodreads review by Angie on November 29, 2022

The best book for getting amazing insights into Alibaba! Brian understands both the East and the West. He views are from both inside and outside of Alibaba. This combination makes his observations incredibly valuable for understanding the digital giant’s secret to success. A must read for all busine......more

Goodreads review by Rick on November 23, 2022

Insightful insider’s view of what made Alibaba so successful.......more

Goodreads review by Ike on January 07, 2023

Bravo to Brian on this page-flipping book! As I was reading the book, it was as if I was reliving the personal and professional journeys Brian took during most of his life and career. The book is full of soul-seaching adventures, internal dialogues, and dialectical reasonings, trying to make sense o......more


Quotes

“Brian Wong has masterfully laid out the blueprint for how Alibaba built a mission-driven organization that truly empowers its employees. He contextualizes the know-how of one of the world’s greatest tech firms and reveals novel and unique insights that are invaluable to any entrepreneur. For those striving to create true impact, here's the formula!”—Esther Wojcicki, leading American educator, author, and fabled “godmother of Silicon Valley”

“Alibaba is not just a company; it’s part of the infrastructure of modern life for billions of people around the globe. True to its title, Wong’s instructive firsthand account really is the ‘way’ of Alibaba, both its purpose and its strategy. This book will teach entrepreneurs how to build a global business better than any MBA course ever could.”—Dr. Parag Khanna, international bestselling author of The Future Is Asian

“In The Tao of Alibaba, Wong gives us a management philosophy rooted in true purpose and meaning, qualities urgently needed today. The book shows leaders how they can steer their organization toward maximizing performance while at the same time having a real impact on the world around them.”—Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO, Thrive Global

“Digital disruption is impacting all of us no matter the size of the company, and the key is to have a strategy and view of where things are headed. This book is a must-read for anyone looking for invaluable management insights on how to future-proof your company for the digital age.”—R “Ray” Wang, chairman of Constellation Research, Inc., and bestselling author of Disrupting Digital Business and Everyone Wants to Rule the World

“The explosion of the Chinese economy over the past forty years has been an earth-shaking event. Wise government policies triggered it, and a dynamic private sector drove it. Brian Wong has done an absolutely brilliant job of drawing out the special genius of Jack Ma and the Tao of Alibaba. This captivating tale will fundamentally change American perceptions of the China story. An absolute must-read!”—Kishore Mahbubani, founding dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS, and author of Has China Won?

“This should be required reading for business school! The Tao of Alibaba bridges east and west and provides a fresh alternative to western frameworks for leadership and company building. Wong boils down Alibaba’s culture to a systematic, clear, and repeatable process. For the first time, founders around the world have the complete recipe to Alibaba’s secret sauce.”—Connie Chan, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

“People in the west should resist the temptation to discount tech firms like Alibaba just because of how different the operating environment is in China. But being Chinese is core to their corporate DNA. No one is better placed to unpack Alibaba’s secret sauce than American-bred and educated Wong, who was at founder Jack Ma’s side for years. His insights into what makes Jack tick and what makes Alibaba great are invaluable to anyone interested in starting and scaling a tech business.”—Geoffrey Garrett, dean, Robert R. Dockson Dean’s Chair in Business Administration and professor of management and organization, USC Marshall School of Business

“An insider’s account of one of the world’s most important companies and a rare opportunity to see not only what makes Alibaba tick, but also how it helped change China.”—Peter Cappelli, George W. Taylor Professor of Management, the Wharton School, and coauthor of Fortune Makers