Success and profitability are outcomes of focusing on customers and employees, not objectives.
Interpretation
Focusing on the needs of customers and employees leads to success and profitability.
Jack Ma highlights that success and profitability should not be seen as primary objectives, but rather as natural outcomes of prioritizing the satisfaction of customers and the well-being of employees. By cultivating a strong relationship with both groups, businesses can foster loyalty, improve service, and enhance productivity, ultimately leading to greater success.
In practice
In a business seminar discussing how customer satisfaction drives profits.
Hong Kong people say Hong Kong needs to preserve its uniqueness. I say Hong Kong's uniqueness is in its diversity, its tolerance of difference cultures... China does not want to see Hong Kong in decline. I have full confidence in its future.
If we are a good team and know what we want to do, one of us can defeat tons of them.
It's not that other countries steal jobs from you guys. It's your strategy. Distribute the money and things in a proper way.
Helping doing business easier, we choose the name Alibaba because it is a global company. It is founded in China, but it was created for the world.
In the beginning I just wanted to survive. For the first three years, we made zero revenue. I remember many times when I was trying to pay up, the restaurant owner would say, 'Your bill was paid.' And there would be a note saying, 'Mr. Ma, I'm your customer on the Alibaba platform. I made a lot of money, and I know you don't, so I paid the bill.'
Even if your competitor is still small in size or weak, you should take him seriously and treat him as a giant. Likewise, even if your competitor is massive in size, you shouldn't regard yourself as a weakling.
Success in the United States is not an entitlement in China. You have to go there and earn it, and earn it the right way.
It has been just so in all my inventions. The first step is an intuition-and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise. This thing that gives out and then that-"Bugs"as such little faults and difficulties are called show themselves and months of anxious watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success-or failure-is certainly reached.
If 90% of success in life is showing up, the other 10% depends on what you're showing up for.
Success comes to those who become success conscious. Failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become failure conscious.
Winning games, titles and championships isn't all it's cracked up to be, but getting there, the journey, is a lot more than it's cracked up to be.
I do not interfere, and people become rich by themselves.
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