A Meeting With Alibaba - Who??

It was the early 2000s. The dotcom boom was in full swing. Startups cropping up left right and center, and our industry was no different. As a member of APL’s Executive Team, I had responsibility for Information Strategy, and the CEO, Flemming Jacobs, and I had a clear execution plan – prevent intermediation of the industry and lead new e-commerce traction initiatives for not only APL, but the industry.

And our plan was in full swing – a) Prevent startups that were looking to intermediate themselves from gaining traction and b) rally other ocean carriers to join us in partnering to develop an ocean portal.

I’d like to think we were an open-minded group, looking to take advantage of a changing landscape to impact a stodgy industry that has been around since the Phoenicians!

Busy days. Fun days. We were in the midst of heady times, charting a new future and executing!

One day my secretary comes into my office and says that she received a phone call from an executive of a Chinese internet company, that they would be in town next week and would like to introduce themselves. I was getting a lot of these kinds of calls.

“What company,” I asked.

She told me it was a company called Alibaba.

“Never heard of them,” I said, as I looked at my full calendar for that next week. And with that, I dismissed the request.

Looking back. Connecting the dots... could have gone right... could have gone left.

I recently saw the documentary of Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba. (check it out on Youtube – "Crocodile in the Yangtze”). And every day, I see Alibaba, one of the largest and most successful internet companies in the world, in the news, I think back on that day.

Remembering this, reminds me that even when we have a charted path and are executing with success, we need to leave space, leave the door open for opportunities from left field.

Also, it keeps me humble.