阿里巴巴集团创始人、董事局主席马云公开信

Letter from Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group     

教师节快乐！：)

 Happy Teachers’ Day!

各位阿里巴巴的客户、阿里人、阿里巴巴的股东们：

 Dear Alibaba customers, Aliren, and shareholders,

今天是阿里巴巴19周年。我怀着激动的心情向大家宣布：经董事会批准，一年后的今天，也就是2019年9月10日，阿里巴巴20周年，我将不再担任阿里巴巴集团董事局主席，现任阿里巴巴集团CEO张勇(逍遥子)将接任董事局主席一职。我从今日起会全面配合张勇，为我们的组织过渡做好准备。在2019年9月10日之后，我将继续担任阿里巴巴集团董事会成员，直至2020年阿里巴巴年度股东大会。

Today, as we mark the 19th anniversary of Alibaba, I am excited to share some news with you: with the approval of our board of directors, one year from today on September 10, 2019 which also falls on Alibaba’s 20th anniversary, Group CEO Daniel Zhang will succeed me as chairman of the board of Alibaba Group. While remaining as executive chairman in the next 12 months, I will work closely with Daniel to ensure a smooth and successful transition. Thereafter, I will stay on the Alibaba board of directors until our annual shareholders meeting in 2020.

这是我深思熟虑、认真准备了10年的计划，今天得以实现，要感谢阿里巴巴合伙人的认同，感谢阿里巴巴董事局的批准，也要感谢所有阿里巴巴的同事们以及他们的家人，正因为过去19年大家对我的信任、支持和共同努力，让我们有足够的自信和能力迎接这一天。这标志着阿里巴巴完成了从依靠个人特质变成依靠组织机制、依靠人才文化的企业制度升级。

 I have put a lot of thought and preparation into this succession plan for ten years. I am delighted to announce the plan today thanks to the support of the Alibaba Partnership and our board of directors. I also want to offer special thanks to all Alibaba colleagues and your families, because your trust, support and our joint enterprise over the past 19 years have prepared us for this day with confidence and strength.

This transition demonstrates that Alibaba has stepped up to the next level of corporate governance from a company that relies on individuals, to one built on systems of organizational excellence and a culture of talent development.

1999年，和大家一起创办阿里巴巴的时候，我们矢志建立一家让中国和世界骄傲的公司，让公司能够持久发展102年。我们知道谁都不可能陪伴公司102年，公司持久发展靠的是治理制度、文化体系和源源不断的人才梯队，公司不可能只靠几个创始人，更何况我深知从能力、精力和体力的角度，任何人都不可能永远担任公司的CEO和董事长工作。10年前我们就问自己这个问题，如何保证马云离开公司以后，阿里巴巴依然健康发展？我们相信只有建立一套制度，形成一套独特的文化，培养和锻炼出一大批人才的接班人体系，才能解开企业传承发展的难题。为此，这十年来，我们从未停止过努力和实践。

When Alibaba was founded in 1999, our goal was to build a company that could make China and the world proud and one that could cross three centuries to last 102 years. However, we all knew that no one could stay with the company for 102 years. A sustainable Alibaba would have to be built on sound governance, culture-centric philosophy, and consistency in developing talent. No company can rely solely on its founders. Of all people, I should know that. Because of physical limits on one’s ability and energy, no one can shoulder the responsibilities of chairman and CEO forever.

 We asked ourselves this question 10 years ago – how could Alibaba achieve sustainable growth after Jack Ma leaves the company? We believed the only way to solve the problem of corporate leadership succession was to develop a system of governance based on a unique culture and mechanisms for developing consistent talent and successors. For the last 10 years, we kept working on these ingredients.

我受的教育让我成为一名教师，能够走到今天我非常幸运。为公司未来负责也为自己负责，应该让公司里更年轻、更有能力和才华的人来担任领导工作，继续传承“让天下没有难做的生意”这个伟大的使命。我们帮助全世界的中小企业、年轻人、妇女发展的使命和愿景让我们激动不已，这是我们的初心，也是我们的福报和责任，真正相信并实现这样的使命就需要更多马云、数代阿里人去为之奋斗。

 Having been trained as a teacher, I feel extremely proud of what I have achieved. Teachers always want their students to exceed them, so the responsible thing to do for me and the company to do is to let younger, more talented people take over in leadership roles so that they inherit our mission “to make it easy to do business anywhere.” Carrying out this mission in order to help small businesses, young people and women around the world is my passion. This is not only our intent from day one, but I feel blessed to have this opportunity. To realize the dream behind this mission requires participation by a lot more people than just Jack Ma and persistent effort by generations of Aliren.

今天的阿里巴巴最了不起的不是它的业务、规模和已经取得的成绩，最了不起的是我们已经变成了一家真正使命愿景驱动的企业。我们创建的新型合伙人机制，我们独特的文化和良将如潮的人才梯队，为公司传承打下坚实的制度基础。事实上，自2013年我交棒CEO开始，我们已经靠这样的机制顺利运转了5年。

 Alibaba is amazing not because of our business or scale or accomplishments. The best thing about Alibaba is that we come together under a common mission and vision. Our partnership system, unique culture and talented team have laid a strong foundation for the legacy of our company. In fact, since I handed over the CEO’s responsibilities in 2013, the company has run smoothly for five years on the back of these institutional ingredients.

我们创建的合伙人机制创造性地解决了规模公司的创新力问题、领导人传承问题、未来担当力问题和文化传承问题。这几年来，我们不断研究和完善我们的制度和人才文化体系，单纯靠人或制度都不能解决问题，只有制度和人、文化完美结合在一起，才能让公司健康持久发展。我深信，今天阿里巴巴合伙人制度和阿里巴巴所捍卫的文化，假以时日，将会越来越赢得客户、员工和股东的支持和拥护。

The partnership system we developed is a creative solution to good governance and sustainability, as it overcomes several challenges faced by companies of scale: continuous innovation, leadership succession, accountability and cultural continuity.  Over the years, in iterating our management model, we have experimented with and improved on the right balance between systems and individuals. Simply relying on individuals or blindly following a system will not solve our problems. To achieve long-term sustainable growth, you need the right balance among system, people and culture. I have full confidence that our partnership system and efforts to safeguard our culture will in time win over the love and support from customers, employees and shareholders.

1999年创始之日起，我们就提出未来的阿里巴巴必须要有“良将如潮”的人才团队和迭代发展的接班人体系。经过19年的努力，今天的阿里巴巴无论是人才的质量和数量都堪称世界一流。作为教师出身的我，看到我们今天的团队、领导群体、以使命价值观驱动的独特文化，以及不断涌现出的一大批以张勇为代表的杰出商业领袖和专业人才，我深感自豪！

Since the founding of the company in 1999, we have been of the view that Alibaba’s future will need to depend on “droves of talent” to enable us to iterate on our management succession plans. After years of hard work, today’s Alibaba has a world-class talent pool in quality and quantity. The teacher in me feels extremely proud of our team, our leadership and our unique mission-driven culture, as well as the fact that we continue to develop exceptional business leaders and professional talent like Daniel Zhang.

张勇加入阿里巴巴已经十一年，自担任阿里巴巴集团CEO以来，展现出了卓越的商业才华和坚定沉着的领导力，连续13季度实现阿里巴巴业绩健康持续增长。他具有超级计算机般的逻辑和思考能力，坚信使命愿景，勇于担当，全情投入，敢于站在未来创新设计新型商业模式和业态。他被评为中国2018年最佳CEO排名第一，这份荣誉当之无愧！他和他的团队已经赢得了客户、员工和股东们的信任和支持。阿里巴巴的接力火炬交给他和他领导的团队，我认为这是我现在最应该做的最正确决定。这几年我和张勇的合作配合经历，让我对他和他领导的新一代阿里巴巴领导团队充满信心！

Daniel has been with Alibaba Group for 11 years. Since he took over as CEO, he has demonstrated his superb talent, business acumen and determined leadership. Under his stewardship, Alibaba has seen consistent and sustainable growth for 13 consecutive quarters. His analytical mind is unparalleled, he holds dear our mission and vision, he embraces responsibility with passion, and he has the guts to innovate and test creative business models. Deservedly, China’s business news media has named him the No.1 CEO in 2018. For these reasons, he and his team have won the trust and support of customers, employees and shareholders. Starting the process of passing the Alibaba torch to Daniel and his team is the right decision at the right time, because I know from working with them that they are ready, and I have complete confidence in our next generation of leaders.

关于我自己未来的发展，我还有很多美好的梦想。大家知道我是闲不住的人，除了继续担任阿里巴巴合伙人和为合伙人组织机制做努力和贡献外，我想回归教育，做我热爱的事情会让我无比兴奋和幸福。再说了，世界那么大，趁我还年轻，很多事想试试，万一实现了呢？！我可以向大家承诺的是，阿里从来不只属于马云，但马云会永远属于阿里。

As for myself, I still have lots of dreams to pursue. Those who know me know that I do not like to sit idle. I plan on continuing my role as the founding partner in the Alibaba Partnership and contribute to the work of the partnership. I also want to return to education, which excites me with so much blessing because this is what I love to do. The world is big, and I am still young, so I want to try new things – because what if new dreams can be realized?!

 The one thing I can promise everyone is this: Alibaba was never about Jack Ma, but Jack Ma will forever belong to Alibaba.

马云

Jack Ma

2018年9月10日

September 10, 2018