Founder of Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group, Jack Ma, has decided to drop his roles in five of the company's subsidiaries. Officials said the move was made to improve the firm's governance and administrative transparency.
According to Asia Times, the Chinese retail giant's administration record revealed that Ma exited Alibaba's Technology, Education Technology, Taobao Software, Network Technology, and Software departments.
Previously, rumors emerged about Ma's potential move of transferring Taobao shares before leaving the company he founded from scratch. An unnamed spokesperson has denied these rumors.
The spokesperson also explained that Ma's decision to exit Alibaba subsidiaries before his retirement in September is a normal industry practice. A sina.com report said the insider pointed out that the business mogul's choice is a goodwill move to help bolster transparency and effective governance once he retires.
Alibaba Group has been going through some changes ahead of Ma's official retirement. Aside from the founder's step-down move from five of the company's subsidiaries, the online retail mammoth and its finance arm, Ant Financial, will establish a new committee.
China Knowledge reported that the committee will be headed by Zhang and Ant Financial Chairman Eric Jing as his right-hand man. The committee is expected to lead joint ventures to ensure that Alibaba Group and Ant Financial's interests are on the same page in the coming years.
Committee members will be tasked to make sure that Ant Financial will not steer away from Alibaba's e-commerce standards and practices even if the former decides to go public sometime in the near future.
Over the years, Ma has established a leadership environment that other companies have tried to copy and adapt. He is also known for his strong business philosophies and traits that allowed him to build the empire representing China's answer to American retail giant Amazon.
During the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, Ma shared business insights that Verdict compiled to help new entrepreneurs in their journey. On choosing people to succeed him, Ma said, "You find the right people, working together, training him, developing him, and he's training you, developing you."
On making money and doing business, Ma stressed that it is more important to improve the world through business centered in "doing good things for the world." In terms of priorities, he said customers should come first, employees second, and finally, shareholders.
Ma is set to relinquish his Alibaba Group chairman post on September 10 to allow CEO Daniel Zhang Yong to take over the company's chairmanship.
