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A Successful Businessman With The Big Five Personality:

Jack Ma
Organization Behaviour (Hong Kong Baptist University)

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A Successful Businessman With The Big Member List

Five Personality ---- Jack Ma

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Content

A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN WITH THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY ---- JACK MA .... 1

Content...................................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction............................................................................................................................................... 3

Big Five Personality Model .............................................................................................................. 5

HIGHER LEVEL OF EXTRAVERSION....................................................................................................... 6
LOWER LEVEL OF EXTRAVERSION ....................................................................................................... 6
HIGHER LEVEL OF AGREEABLENESS.................................................................................................... 6
LOWER DEGREE OF AGREEABLENESS ................................................................................................. 7
HIGHER LEVEL OF CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.............................................................................................. 7
LOWER LEVEL OF CONSCIENTIOUSNESS .............................................................................................. 7
POSITIVE EMOTIONAL STABILITY......................................................................................................... 8
NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL STABILITY....................................................................................................... 8
HIGHER LEVEL IN OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE ..................................................................................... 8
LOWER LEVEL IN OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE ...................................................................................... 8

Application of Jack Ma with the big five personality ......................................................... 9

EXTRAVERSION .................................................................................................................................... 9
AGREEABLENESS................................................................................................................................ 10
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS ......................................................................................................................... 11
EMOTIONAL STABILITY ...................................................................................................................... 12
OPENNESS .......................................................................................................................................... 13

Conclusion............................................................................................................................................... 14

Reference ................................................................................................................................................. 15

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Introduction

There are many successful business entrepreneurs in the world. We would like to analyze the

success path of Jack Ma in term of the big five personality model. At the first part, we will

give some background information of Jack Ma. Then, we will give a deep illustration of the

big five personality model. Hence, we will use different examples to illustrate how do the

personalities of Jack Ma lead to his success.

Jack Ma, or Ma Yun, is the main founder and first CEO of Alibaba Group, known as one of

the most successful businessman and the richest man in China. He was born in Hangzhou in

1964. He is in the top 20 richest person over the world. He is popular not just among young

people but all the age groups because of the online shopping website (Taobao) Taobao which

he had set no more than 20 years ago is now bringing big changes to the whole society. Thank

is given to Jack Ma, Chinese people soon develop a great interest in online shopping, which

brings much increase in commercial area, thus acting as a major role in the country’s

economics development. You can’t imagine what miracles have come true because of the rise

of Alibaba. With the great effort of Jack Ma and his working team, Alibaba now grows to one

of the most famous business enterprises around the world.

Jack Ma is different from other successful entrepreneurs, who stand out from others during

the early age, entering an idolized college and eventually build up their own company. He is

someone who lived with failure. And the most undeniable fact is that he is not someone that

performs well in traditional education. He failed many of his school tests and even college

entrance exams; he applied for Harvard for ten times yet all the tries failed; he ended up at

Hangzhou Normal University. However, after his graduation, he was rejected by most of the

companies he applied. Yet, the failure did not set him a boundary. He still kept on to find out

more opportunities.

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Worked as a foreign language teacher at first, Jack Ma got to know Internet by coincidence

under the help and introduction of his friends. The first time he realized what that was in USA

in 1995, he quit his teaching position without hesitation, determined to invest on something

he hadn’t heard of before. With about 20 thousand RMB in all, one of China’s earliest

Internet company “China Yellow Page”, was established. The time this website was put on

the line, there were still three months before China can get connect with Internet. Though this

website just ran for public welfare, this new business showed its potential in making profit.

Thanks to that attempt, Jack Ma got precious experience from online business, which later

contributed to the appearance of Alibaba.

Jack Ma received government’s invitation to establish EDI in 1997. Through working with

economics and international trade departments, he gradually knew the opportunities and

essential in commerce and online business. It did not last for long before he quit from his

public employment in 1999. In the same year, Alibaba website was put on the line formally,

aiming at electronic online business, especially B2B affairs. After two rounds of equity

trading, Jack Ma successfully got 25 million dollars as initial capital. Overcoming some major

problems appeared at the beginning, Alibaba welcomed its first peak in business, which was

the founding of Taobao website---C2C mode online trade system. Taobao changed people’s

daily shopping habit in such a short period, especially in young people. One year later,

another shocking product was made. Zhifubao---independent third-party payment platform,

made it possible to pay conveniently and rapidly through online controls. Today, those two

parts both grow to the first place in market. And Alibaba itself is conducting more investment

in relevant areas to enhance its business.

Not only the profit calculates Jack Ma's success, but the reward and achievement he got also

proved his success. Ma was named as the "Top 10 Business Leaders of the Year" by the

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China Central Television in 2004, and being chosen as the "Business Person of the Year" by

BusinessWeek magazine in 2005. Ma was being selected as "World's 100 Most Influential

People" on Time Magazine in year 2009, as well as the "China's 40 Most Powerful People" by

BusinessWeek. In year 2001, the Wall Street Journal mentioned Ma as "Steve Jobs of China".

And he was named as the 30th most powerful person in the world by Forbes magazine, a

world-renowned magazine in 2014 which never chosen China’s businessman as cover

page. Recently, he awarded the Entrepreneur of the year during the Asian Awards

Ceremony.

Because of the success of Alibaba, Jack Ma becomes one of the richest businessman in China.

The net worth was estimated to around USD$27million in 2015. He proves to the world that

opportunities exist in somewhere has not been explored, which is full of uncertainty and

challenges. He did make a miracle under the condition without any knowledge of Internet

before. It is not terrible if you do not know something, but it is terrible if you do not even

have the courage to try. Jack Ma can reach his goals even though he was rejected and stopped

half way many times because of his poor English and lack of knowledge on Internet in early

years. He is just a strong willing man who fits for Big Five Personalities Models in

organizational behavior, which lead him to become a great leader.

Big Five Personality Model

There are numerous of personalities to illustrate the successful path of the businessmen. The

Big five personality model has been chosen for explaining the successful path of Jack Ma.

The Big five personality model was the five aspects discovered by some psychologists in

order to describe the personalities of human beings.

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The first dimension is extraversion. Extraversion is a comfort level with relationships and the

degree of ones’ enthusiasm and sociability. Gregarious, decisive, and sociable are likely

classified as extroverts. On the other hand, Introverts probably are reticent, apprehensive, and

silent and unsociable.

Higher level of extraversion

If the person who has a higher level of extraversion, he is likely talkative and keen to interact

with others. He can convey his thoughts or feelings effectively. He has greater interpersonal

skills and better social skills. This can lead him to have a better performance than others and

more likely to be a leader and have higher life satisfaction.

Lower level of extraversion

If the person is with a lower level of extraversion, he tends to be afraid of being in touch with

others, private, serious and agnostic. It is hard for him to express him own ideas to others. He

has less interpersonal skills.

The second aspect is agreeableness. Agreeableness is the level of ones’ friendliness and

kindness. Also, ones’ tendency to defer to others is categorized as agreeableness. People

being agreeable are cooperative, warm, trusting and good nature while disagreeable people

are indicated as cold, irritable and short-tempered.

Higher level of Agreeableness

If the person has higher level of agreeableness, he can be seen as gentle, good-natured,

understanding, sympathetic and forgiving. He is better liked and more compliant and

conforming. He is willing to agree with different opinions. It is likely striving to bring

harmony amongst a group of people. The probability of making aberrant behavior is lowered.

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Lower Degree of Agreeableness

If the person is uncooperative, unfriendly and antagonistic, he can be considered as

disagreeable. He tends to be unwilling to accept others’ suggestions and stick to his own

opinions. This may lead him to a wrong direction since he does not listen to other’s advice

and do all the things individually. Hence, he would get worse work performance.

The third aspect is conscientiousness. Conscientiousness is ones’ level of organization and

reliability. On top of that, it is a tendency to show self-discipline and aim for achievement. A

person scores high on conscientiousness is responsible, persistent, dependable, and organized

is classified as highly conscientious leader. On the contrary, the person who score low on this

aspect is easily distracted, unsystematic, and unreliable.

Higher level of conscientiousness

If a person is highly conscientious, he is well-organized, ambitious, self-disciplined, dutiful

and focused on him tasks. He will have a good plan for his future and will not be disturbed by

others easily. He will put greater effort and persistence on his work. This is likely to be a

leader.

Lower level of conscientiousness

If a person is slightly conscientious, he is careless, relaxed and unorganized. He will not plan

things in a systematic way. It is hard for him to get great performance.

The fourth perspective is emotional stability or neuroticism. Emotional stability/neuroticism

is the level of calmness and tranquility. Also, it illustrates a person’s ability to tolerant stress.

People who are calm, self-confident, unruffled and secure will have positive emotional

stability. People who are likely to be nervous, anxious, gloomy, miserable, and insecure will

have negative emotional stability.

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Positive emotional stability

If a person is poised, resilient, secure and composed, he is more emotional stable. He is

optimist to all the things even in a worst situation. You can find out the best out of the worst.

Less negative thinking and emotions have be produced. Also, he will be less hypervigilant.

This can lead him to have a lower level of stress and job and life satisfaction.

Negative emotional stability

If a person is emotional, reactive and depressed, he is less emotional stable. He is seldom

satisfied with him work and life. He cannot easily recover when he encounters any obstacles.

He easily gets fluctuation in emotion. It is hard for him to be a leader.

The fifth dimension is Openness to experience. Openness to experience is the level of

creativity and curiosity. In addition, it points out the range of interests and fascination with

novelty of the individual. It is also an appreciation on art, unusual ideas. People with

innovative, curious, open-minded and artistically sensitive are likely to be open to experience.

People with conventional and traditional are likely to be less open to experience.

Higher level in Openness to experience

If a person is willing to discover some new ideas, opportunities or items, he is counted as

creative and innovative. He strongly believes that new ideas are very important the success.

He does not want to stick to the old one and finds some new opportunities. He loves to learn

new things. He will be more flexible and autonomous. This can enhance his leadership and

help him to be more adaptable to change in a new environment.

Lower level in Openness to experience

If a person is reluctant to change and stick to the old one, he is counted to be traditional and

unadventurous. He is resistant to change and keep the present situation. This will lower his

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ability in adversity quotient. When he

comes with a new environment, he is not

capable with it.

In conclusion, we can find out that the big

five personality model can predict the

leadership. An effective leader should be

extrovert, agreeable, conscientious,

positive emotional stability and opened to

experience. Among the five perspectives,

the most essential trait for effective leaders is extraversion. This can lead to the successful

path of the business.

Application of Jack Ma with the big five personality

Extraversion

There is no doubt that Jack Ma as an extraversion person, which can be shown from his

sociable and talkative character. Since he was twelve, in order to practice his English, he

alone rode bicycle to a hotel at West Lake and talked to foreigners. 1 He approached travelers

and guided them free of charge, and he kept on doing this for five years. In this five years, he

improved his English oral significantly and the first time he found that the world was different

from what he learned from teachers and books. This shows that Ma is assertive and eager to

talk to strangers, and this quality directly related to Ma’s success. Owing to his good English,

he met lots of overseas friends, which brought him the updated information and opportunities

to broaden his horizon, and he considered himself was more globalized that most people in

China.2 For example, and the first time he knew about “internet” was from a friend who came
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from U.S.A. in 1994, while majority of Chinese never heard about internet at that time. In

year 1995, he was invited to be a translator in America due to his strength on English. During

spare time at work, he met a friend who worked in an internal service provider company, and

where he got in touch with computer. After he back home, he immediately determined to do

business related with internet. Ma’s outgoing characteristic and great language ability

practiced from foreigners gave him head-start in the online market and global vision, which

makes him success.

Agreeableness

Meanwhile, Jack Ma is also a person with high agreeableness. He believes that every one who

work in Alibaba are ordinary but not talented, but these normal people gather and do

extraordinary things together, an excellent team will be made. This is his interpretation of

team spirit. The first day Ma hired people to work in Alibaba, he told them they do not have

to work for him3. But instead, he unity the workers by urging them to cooperate and fight for

the same goal, since he believes that it is not the leader but every worker who works together

that builds a great company4, which shows he is warm and trusting. The respect of employees

toward Ma is so high that creates a passionate and cooperative organizational culture of

Alibaba. Every worker keeps a tight-lipped about their salary, since they believe that Ma will

treat them well5. The way that Ma treat his workers is related to Ma’s belief- Those successful

entrepreneurs have the most significant support from their team and friends, while those failed

businessmen care nothing but money only.6 And this belief of Ma is the reason why the logo

of Alibaba is a smiling face. “Always let your employees come to work with a smile,” said

Ma.7 This shows that people with high agreeableness, who care about people and put workers

in a higher priority, can influence others easily. This not only boost performance by rising the

working incentive, but also promote team spirit. This character helps Ma build a team-

orientated company, which won the "China Best Employer Award’ in 2005 8, and Alibaba

Group becomes one of the largest company in the world.

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Conscientiousness

And Jack Ma is surely a successful businessman with great conscientiousness. He worked as a

teacher at first, but after fighting as an entrepreneur for nearly 20 years, he now feels proud of

businessman group. As he said in an interview, he thought businessmen are not people who

regarded benefit as the most important thing. They not only solved problems to make money,

but make contributions to promote whole society. He always stated that Alibaba Group put

idealism at the first place, they can make profit because of society improvement. And more

money you own, more responsibilities you are required to take. He is willing to be regarded

as a person who take heavy responsibilities, not one owns a lot of money. 1 He did so to prove

his words. Taobao online shopping website is set to provide a stage of dependable trading by

credit.

Alibaba initiates honest electronic business service in its online business. 2 Sellers who want to

open a shop must gain enough credit marks from initial buyers during testing period. Jack Ma

never forget who makes him successful.

He acts as a positive part in supporting

burgeoning companies of medium or

small sizes. Continuous cooperation with

lack of development districts like

countryside in China are being

conducted. Alibaba also help privately

operated companies to sell product by

providing essential and timely updated

information from its database.3Alibaba

includes business members from more

than countries and districts, and makes reasonable and effective to restrict business behaviors

and tries to make the biggest profit for each of its staffs. Even a cleaner need to get enough
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respect and care from others, discriminate and business activities breaking rules are not allowed.

Thanks to Alibaba’s well-organized and stable running system, the group can reach a series of

business miracles. And Jack Ma himself, will never stop his step on keeping persistent. More

and more companies now set him as model of dependable leader.

Emotional stability

It can be seen that Jack Ma is a person with emotional stability. Though it’s hard to get control

of such a big unit like Alibaba, he tries to find problems and deal with them in effective ways.

Instead of frustrated, he is self-confident about his enterprise and staffs, and always keep a

positive attitude. The electronic business website he builds, the partner system mode he sets,

and the values he insists on…all combine together to form a unique culture environment of the

company. Jack Ma is sure he’s doing the right things. He is never defeated by failure and his

courage never loses. Though rejected by 30 VC for their investment at first, he finally makes

Alibaba a listed company in USA. In 2014 the company’s value of assessment is estimated

more than 160 billion dollars. 4 Crisis can appear at any time, the only thing Jack Ma makes

clear is to stay calm, try not to make hyper vigilant decisions. Faced with bad public opinion

on fake goods on Taobao, Jack Ma just waited until main stream went down, then just explained

in a few words: “Those who said Taobao is full of fake goods should not be an online buyer.

It’s impossible to buy a Rolex watch at 25 RMB or a LV handbag at 100 RMB. You are just

too jealous to believe that kind of advertisement. Sure we have fake goods in online market,

but the ability to resist fake goods are what we focus on.” 5 He only appear once at the press

conference, but his reply is really convincing. Act as one of the richest Chinese businessman,

Jack Ma suffers a lot of stress, but he always knows how to come over new challenges, and

keep an optimistic look to the future. He has a high life satisfaction, and lower stress levels help

him perform much better.

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Openness

Openness to experience which reveals not only the range of interests but also fascination with

novelty can make a contribution to the possibility of success. It is reported that extremely open

people who are more creative and curious are sensitive artistically at the same time while those

at the opposite side of the openness category are conventional and they always find comfort in

things with which they are familiar.

Jack Ma is such a successful businessman that his experiences have ability to give us more

enlightenment. As we known, Ma is the first entrepreneur who exploits applications of e-

commerce at the earliest and sticks to Internet area. He and his team have created a lot of the

first in Chinese Internet area. These achievements mostly result from his openness to experience.

In 1995, Ma went to the USA at the first time as a translator when he learned about the Internet

initially. The new thing aroused his great interests, which makes him extraordinarily curious

about the technology. As a result, Ma founded a company making homepage, Haibo Network,

after he came back to China. In 1999, Ma established the famous Alibaba.com, which leaded

to accomplishment of connections among middle and small-sized enterprises by e-commerce.

It is the excitement Ma has about the Internet

during the visit and his ambition to find a way

to bring the online world to China that

support him to gain the enormous success. In

addition, what equally assisted a lot is the

variety of creative ideas in his mind. He was

artistically sensitive about where the biggest

demand existed, then he created, and finally

he succeeded.

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However, a successful entrepreneur with openness quality will never stop steps to try new

experience. After the Taobao has been popular among whole China, Jack Ma was not satisfied

with the conventional business operation he had set up. Due to the sustainable passion to

experience more, he founded Tmall, AliPay, and so on. Every portion was accepted by the mass

in a short time and used broadly. Not being limited by the existing and familiar things, Jack Ma

is experiencing and creating all the time. How fantastic the personality, openness, is.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the big five personality has been proved by Jack Ma extraordinarily

completely. In addition, the big five personality model is well used in a huge amount of

corporations all over the world. Jack Ma’s experience makes people believe that only when

we apply it reasonably and positively will we gain significant success.

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Reference

http://zh.scribd.com/doc/30801320/The-Big-Five-Model#scribd

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http://psychology.about.com/od/personalitydevelopment/a/bigfive.htm

http://zh.scribd.com/doc/30801320/The-Big-Five-Model#scribd

Goldberg, L. R. (1993). The structure of phenotypic personality traits. American

Psychologist, 48, 26-34.

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