In a rare and public intervention, Alibaba’s Partnership Committee has issued a scathing critique of the management practices within DingTalk, the company’s enterprise communication arm. The internal memo, signed off by the group's highest decision-making body, directly asserts that the current high-pressure environment is 'not what Alibaba culture should look like.' This move signals a significant effort by the company’s original founders to reclaim the narrative regarding the group’s values amid a difficult transition into the artificial intelligence era.
The controversy was ignited by a 75,000-word internal post titled 'Inside DingTalk' written by Teng Yaxin, a former core product manager for DingTalk’s 'ONE' AI project. In her exhaustive retrospective, Teng detailed the project’s trajectory from a successful launch that reached three million daily active users to a catastrophic collapse in retention rates, ultimately leading to the team's dissolution. Her account painted a picture of a management style defined by mechanical execution and a lack of empathy, sparking a firestorm on Alibaba’s internal networks.
Responding to the outcry, the Partnership Committee—which includes permanent partners Jack Ma and Joe Tsai—stated that no matter how urgent the task, the management style described in the post was unacceptable. The committee emphasized that Alibaba’s foundational values of 'mutual respect' and 'treating people as human beings' must remain unchanged, regardless of technological shifts. This intervention serves as a reminder that the Partnership remains the ultimate arbiter of corporate identity, holding the power to nominate the majority of the board.
The critique specifically highlights the changing nature of innovation in the age of generative AI. The leadership argued that unlike the labor-intensive growth of the previous decade, AI-driven breakthroughs depend on employee passion and creativity rather than 'high pressure and mechanical execution.' By framing individual value as the prerequisite for customer value, the leadership is attempting to pivot the company away from the '996' work culture that has defined the Chinese tech sector for years.
This cultural reset comes at a pivotal time for Alibaba as it undergoes a massive organizational restructuring under CEO Eddie Wu. As the company faces stiff competition from younger rivals like Pinduoduo and ByteDance, the Partnership is betting that a return to its 'human-centric' roots will foster the agility needed to lead in AI. The memo concludes that managers are the 'first responsible party' for team atmosphere, demanding that leaders prioritize the growth and inspiration of their subordinates over mere output metrics.