Jack Ma, the founder of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, received a Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award on Tuesday in Singapore, making him the first entrepreneur from the Internet sector to win the award.
Ma is the third business figure from China to take home the award, following Hong Kong typhoon Li Ka-shing in 2006, and Wang Jianlian, the chairman of the Wanda Group, in 2016.
Ma was presented with the award during an event hosted by Steve Forbes, the chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, at the high-profile Forbes Global CEO Conference 2019 held at the Shangri-La Hotel Singapore.
At the event, Ma talked about his plans for the future. He retired as the head of the Alibaba group last month, handing over the reins to its CEO Daniel Zhang. Ma said he would be spending more time and energy on his interests in education, philanthropy, and environmental protection.
In his role as the founder of the Jack Ma Foundation, Ma said he will look at ways that education can be done differently, and especially how young entrepreneurs in Africa can be empowered. He called for an end to the old industrial-period style of education, where children passively receive knowledge in the classroom. Ma believes that teaching can be revamped to allow children to be independent, critical thinkers who are innovative and creative.
“You never learn wisdom from the classroom. Wisdom, you only learn through a tough life… In the classroom, you only learn about knowledge, but life is about experience,” said Ma, who added that he will spend the next year visiting more countries and schools to study their different teaching models.
Outlining his vision, Ma said that subjects like music, painting, dancing, and sports are equally important as math and physics, as they teach people how to be artists who can use their heart and imagination. “This is human knowledge… and I want more people to do more things on that,” he said.
Another important aspect is to teach young entrepreneurs to learn how companies fail.
Explaining the reason why he gives case studies of failed or bankrupt companies to his staff, Ma said, “When they learn too much (about success stories), they think they can easily succeed. But going into business is like going into the battlefield … only those who survive win.”
“So when you learn the failure cases, you know how to face these mistakes, how to solve it and challenge it. This is wisdom and this is what we should teach our kids.”
Ma also outlined his plans for Africa, where he plans to work to empower the young entrepreneurs there and help “discover” more Jack Mas, Bill Gates, Warren Buffetts and Steve Jobs, which can go a long way in uplifting Africa. Recalling how he first visited Africa four years ago, he said he was impressed by how smart the young entrepreneurs were and their mobile-first culture.
Unlike most entrepreneurs in other countries who just aim for IPO (initial public offering), the entrepreneurs in Africa are “different” because they have a vision “to change Africa” and their lives, he said.
The goal is to make these African entrepreneurs the “heroes,” because entrepreneurs are the “most important element to develop a society,” said Ma, adding that more can be done to support female African entrepreneurs as well.
“In Africa, we need three Es: e-government, to make the government transparent; entrepreneurs, make them heroes; and education, make the people know what they want and what they don’t want,” he said.
“That’s why it’s my great honor to go there and do something … It may not be successful, but at least we tried. So that’s where I want to go,” said Ma.
As the world enters a new era of change, Ma said that the important thing is to work with young people, as they represent the future. “When you work with most of the successful people, they only talk about yesterday,” he said.
While other countries has had a long history of building their philanthropic scene and foundations, China is just beginning to do so, said Ma, who vowed to be among the first to pave the way of creating such an infrastructure or system in China.
“I believe that China, one day, hundreds of thousands of business people will build up their own charity or foundation … We need a way, so I will be the guy who is testing that and I will share the (mistakes I make),” he said.
On the legacy and vision he left at Alibaba, Ma said it is the spirit of entrepreneurship and creating and the belief that technology will give people a better future.
“We always think about what we can do to solve the social problems, instead of complaining. That’s the journey. And I’m having great fun, when you see millions of people’s lives changed.”
The Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award honors achievements in what Forbes describes as entrepreneurial capitalism. It is the highest recognition of global business success awarded by Forbes.
Jack Ma, co-founder and former executive chair of Alibaba Group, speaks during the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore on October 15, 2019. [Cover Image: AFP/ Roslan RAHMAN]
