Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group Holding, has replied to a resignation letter from a long-term employee who criticized internal issues within the company.

The exchange, shared on Alibaba’s internal website, has generated discussion in China’s tech circles.

The employee, who was part of the team behind Alibaba’s enterprise collaboration tool DingTalk, raised concerns about unclear strategies, failed acquisitions, and hiring practices.

The letter also critiqued performance assessments and promotion mechanisms.

In his response, Ma thanked the employee for the feedback.

He said, “Just as a person grows, Alibaba’s development inevitably involves many paths and processes. The company is undergoing changes, and I wish you the best. I hope you visit us often.”

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🔗 Source: South China Morning Post

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Jack Ma’s reengagement highlights founder’s enduring influence beyond formal roles

Ma’s response to the resignation letter demonstrates how founders maintain cultural influence long after stepping back from day-to-day operations.

When Ma retired as chairman in 2019, he implemented a carefully planned succession strategy developed over a decade, transferring leadership to CEO Daniel Zhang while remaining on the board until 2020 1.

Despite having no formal corporate role for five years, Ma’s response to an employee’s concerns shows his continued status as Alibaba’s “spiritual leader,” reflecting a pattern seen in founder-led tech companies where charismatic founders retain cultural authority.

His re-emergence, including attending President Xi’s business symposium and receiving a “rock-star welcome” during company events, illustrates how founder influence extends beyond formal titles or operational roles.

This reflects Ma’s leadership style that combined charisma with corporate governance structures designed to endure beyond individual leaders, creating a partnership model that continues to shape Alibaba’s organizational culture 2.

2️⃣ “Big company disease” represents a common challenge in tech company maturation

The employee’s critique of Alibaba highlights the universal challenge tech startups face as they grow from disruptive innovators to established corporations.

Alibaba evolved from humble beginnings with $60,000 in funding to a company with over 101,000 employees and approximately $420 billion market value, creating inevitable organizational complexity 1.

The critique mirrors challenges faced by other tech giants where bureaucracy, unclear strategies, and questionable hiring practices can replace the innovation and agility that drove initial success.

The timing is significant as Alibaba pivots toward AI, investing $52 billion over three years while its CEO Eddie Wu emphasizes a return to innovative roots, addressing the tension between corporate scale and innovative culture 3.

This pattern of organizational growing pains has been observed across the tech industry, where maintaining entrepreneurial spirit becomes increasingly difficult as companies grow, diversify, and face greater scrutiny from both markets and regulators.

3️⃣ Alibaba’s AI transformation represents its most significant strategic pivot since founding

The employee’s conclusion about embracing AI directly connects to Alibaba’s most consequential strategic shift in years.

Chairman Joe Tsai explicitly stated that “AI will be the mainstay of Alibaba’s business in the next 3-5 years,” representing a fundamental reorientation of the company’s future direction 4.

Alibaba is already seeing significant results from this strategy, with its Cloud Intelligence Group reporting 13% revenue growth and AI-related products achieving triple-digit growth for six consecutive quarters 3.

The company’s Qwen family of AI models has gained international recognition among developers, with over 90,000 derivative models created, positioning Alibaba as a potential leader in the open-source AI landscape 5.

This strategic pivot toward AI represents Alibaba’s response to technological disruption, requiring the company to transform itself to maintain relevance in the next era of technology.

Recent Alibaba developments

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