After we published the post on Lazada’s senior management reshuffle, we have received quite a bit of interesting feedback.

A person, who worked in Alibaba for three years, told us that the reference of changing boss every year at Lazada was really nothing. “Over three years, I had six bosses.”

Another person, who only had five bosses, but over the timespan of just a year, told us that within a year he became the longest-serving staff member of the whole department.

But the best is from someone anonymous, who sent us a recent post he saw on social media. It goes:

After Alibaba acquires a company: 

No matter where the company is, and which industry it is in. 

  1. Hold a meeting in Hangzhou (Alibaba HQ) to define the KPIs; 
  2. Realise that the acquired company could not achieve the KPIs; 
  3. Parachute a senior manager from Hangzhou into the company to stress the KPIs, and ensure that the KPIs can be achieved; 
  4. Realise that the senior managers sent in can’t achieve the KPIs either; 
  5. Restructure the company, and fire those old employees who do not share the “Alibaba value”; 
  6. Declare that the KPIs have been achieved – the senior manager returns to Hangzhou for a promotion; someone else is sent from Hangzhou to sort out the mess; 
  7. Declare that the company’s strategy is in conflict with the Group, and shut down the company.

Sounds familiar?

Below is the screenshot of the original post that was sent to us:

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Thanks for reading The Low Down (TLD), the blog by the team at Momentum Works. Got a different perspective or have a burning opinion to share? Let us know at [email protected].