Lessons Learned from Helping the World Run, not Running the World
Buying stuff is like Eating. The body needs food and the world, as presently organized, needs us to buy stuff.
Buying stuff isn’t just buying stuff. It’s also knowing what there is to buy, making choices, paying for it, and then actually getting it. The way each of those steps happens now is like fantastic science fiction compared to downtown department stores and then the malls where I bought stuff most of my adult life.
Knowing, choosing and paying can happen in seconds and getting it is faster than ever, all without going anywhere. Doing all that better is helping world run better.
The recent Singles Day sales event in China was widely covered as an example of efficiency in buying stuff at a massive scale, $71 billion through Alibaba alone. It’s impressive and dwarfs Amazon’s $10 billion Prime Day sales.
What impressed me wasn’t just the size but what it teaches us about rapid learning in chaotic times. Normally, we make inferences from past data to make strategic plans for the near future. But this year, the disruptions caused by the Coronavirus made last year’s Singles Day data not all hat relevant.
We are all basically in this situation now. Our models have broken down and it is hard to know where to look for decision making guidance.
Most of do not have to move $71 billion worth of stuff very quickly, but the logistics arm of Alibaba does. So instead of wishing things would ‘get back to normal,’ they immediately began developing new models. They put much more weight on last week than last year. They focused on the growth of livestreaming Influencers during lock-down and built predictive models for each one to allocate distribution of specific products. They turned to new data such as Covid infection rates.
They pilot tested everything and expanded what worked. They built new models on the fly that allowed them to help the world run so well that they set new records for both volume and efficiency.
Just a week earlier, Alibaba’s founder and Director for Life Jack Ma was seriously busted by Xi Jinping for questioning the CCP’s models.
When Jack Ma addressed the Bund Finance Summit in October, 2020, he might have thought he was all about helping the world run better when he criticized China’s financial system for its ‘pawnbroker mentality’ that focuses on collateral over credit.
What Xi Jinping heard was a super powerful individual trying to run the world. Xi sees that as his job and he feels no need whatsoever to update any of his models. For him, running the world is ideological. He will stick with what brought him to the dance and double down on ideology when he is threatened.
Jack Ma’s Logistics people knew they had to throw out their models and build new ones fast to help the world run.
Jack Ma’s Political people don’t throw out models and won’t be told to run the world.