Alibaba's Jack Ma shares insight into innovation, entrepreneurship

Jack Ma smiles as he attends a roundtable with Kenyan business leaders in Nairobi, Kenya, July 20, 2017. [Photo/IC]

Jack Ma, the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, has offered some of his insights into running business and the role of innovation and entrepreneurship.

The business magnate also shared with people how Alibaba has grown into what it is today.

As a Hanghzou native, Jack Ma attributes his success to the hard-working ethos and innovative spirits that was instilled in him at a young age.

The business tycoon stresses the role of competitive and innovative ideas while opportunities, in his opinion, are open to those who own those creative thoughts.

"There are all kinds of problems every day when you start a new business, and these problems need to be fixed, either by yourself, or by others, because someone has to do it. And those who are able to solve these problems will have seized their opportunity," Ma said.

Ma is encouraging entrepreneurs to have a broader vision and take a wider picture into account in running business.

He describes an innovative entrepreneur as being someone who always sets their sights on the future:

"Being innovative means you look at today from a viewpoint of tomorrow. We need to look at today's China from a viewpoint of the world, and look at ourselves from the viewpoint of those outside this industry. When you think this way, you will do things in a different way," Ma noted.

The Alibaba conglomerate, which just celebrated its 18th birthday earlier this month, has made Ma one of the richest men in China, and in Asia, with a fortune valued at some $30 billion.

Despite the huge success, Ma says he remains cool headed and still stays true to his dreams:

"It's important to retain a 'simple' and 'naive' outlook for the world. If a man still maintains his 'simplicity' and 'naivety' when he turns 100, I think he will be a very noble old man. I hope we can all hold on to a simple mindset and stick to our dreams, because if we lose our dreams, everything we strive for will become pointless and we will only become money-making machines. "

Alibaba's revenue in the 12 months ending in this March rose by 56 percent to $23 billion.

Now, its business has expanded into many other areas such as cloud computing and entertainment, from the original online retail.