Page 29 - Forbes - Asia (July - August 2018)

“The organization
of the future will look
more like a network.”

In your Alipay or lending operations, you nd out quite a get away from this traditional structure of core competencies
lot about individuals and their ability to repay loans, to be to become as you are—really a huge conglomerate in many
responsible lending prospects. How do you convince people respects?
to give you that information? I can argue the core competence of Alibaba Group is to build
For individuals or SMEs who have no access to lending at all, the infrastructure of the future—diferent types of platforms or
giving some information to us so we can assess their credit risk ecosystems. So we just apply our core competencies in diferent
so they can get access to loans is worth some imposition. contexts. hat’s one way to answer your question. he other is
that concepts such as core competence are becoming obsolete.
hat’s how you develop huge databases of lenders and con- he organization of the future will look more like a network.
sumers as well? A network grows by diferent dynamics. he old, diversiied
hat is a fundamental question in this data age: To what degree conglomerate was like a complex machine of the old industrial
are you willing to give out your information or data so you can age. It collapsed when it reached a certain complexity. But the
get much better service, including tailor-made oferings. If the future of business is more biological rather than mechanical.
concern about privacy protection or data usage is not severe, And a company like Alibaba is growing organically, with very
most people would opt for better customer value. important and inherent connections of diferent parts of our
ecosystems. So an ecological system grows and becomes more
Clearly, you have to understand the culture where you are and more sophisticated, even more robust when it becomes
operating. richer and more diverse.
here is a certain element of culture, but also there is an aspect
of fast innovation of tailor-made products and services. You You’ve tried to expand in other areas. For instance, Ant was
can get much faster access to loans, simply because you have trying to take over Moneygram in the U.S. And the U.S.
very good data that you can share with others. government refused to allow that. How does a company get
around those kinds of obstacles?
he traditional model for corporations is that they need to Any new business, while growing up, always encounters obsta-
stick to their core competencies. Yet you seem to be diversi- cles. We understand that. It is part of the cost of doing business.
fying into every form of business imaginable. How did you So we might be frustrated. But because the value we create is so
IMAGINE CHINA/NEWSCOM

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