Ali’s values ​​assessment, the test is lonely?

Image source @Visual China

Text | Mu Sheng

If there is one word to describe Alibaba’s genes, it must be “values”.

Since its establishment in 1999, Jack Ma has repeatedly emphasized values ​​in internal meetings and speeches, saying that values ​​are the foundation of Ali’s foundation and the cement of the entire building. In fact, Ali has indeed invested a lot in the construction of values. From the “Nine Swords of Dugu” to the “Six Meridians Excalibur” to the “New Six Meridians Excalibur”, it is not only repeatedly tempering its values, but also constantly trying to conduct fine assessments based on values. .

In sharp contrast, in recent years, Alibaba has experienced many incidents that have subverted public perception (such as the moon cake gate, the test gate, etc.), and the once highly respected values ​​have also begun to be questioned by the outside world. It seems that there is a “collapsed house” “sign.

It is meaningless to investigate whether Ali is sticking to the values ​​they promote on a case-by-case basis. For a big factory, you can always find a dark corner under the sun. Let’s focus on the question : Are Ali’s values ​​truly assessed?

This problem is an ingenious “leverage solution”, because without the constraints of assessment, there will be no implementation of actions.

Value iteration, very strong!

So far, Ali’s values ​​have gone through three versions. The iterative process closely revolves around changes in strategy and organization, and accurately reflects the direction of mission and vision (see Figure 1). What’s more interesting is that every time the value is introduced, there is a key person to promote it. From the content point of view, it can indeed be regarded as a corporate benchmark.

Values ​​1.0 – Dugu Nine Swords

At the beginning of its establishment in 1999, Ali positioned itself as a “Chinese supplier”, mainly in B2B business. In order to support the business strategy, Ali has formed an organizational structure dominated by the “China Iron Army”. This is a typical “single company” that emphasizes strong execution. Among them, the influence of the “China Supply Iron Army” is so far-reaching that when current Internet companies mention BD, they cannot avoid this benchmark.

At that time, Ali established the mission of “making the world easy to do business”, and the vision was “to be a company for 80 years, to become one of the top ten websites in the world, as long as you are a businessman, you must use Alibaba.” During this entrepreneurial period, Guan Mingsheng, who has 17 years of work experience in GE (General Electric), joined in, which promoted Ali’s value management practice.

In 2001, under the proposal of Guan Mingsheng, the founder team headed by Jack Ma jointly extracted the 1.0 version of the values ​​- “Dougu Nine Swords”, the content is innovation, passion, openness, teaching and learning, simplicity, teamwork ability, focus , quality, service and respect. Most of these nine values ​​are generated in real business scenarios, and they are all sorting out and refining of the problems encountered. The labels of values ​​reflect a strong “executive color”.

Values ​​2.0 – Six Meridians Excalibur

In 2003, in order to seek new growth points, Ma Yun began to deploy C2C business and online payment business. During this period, due to the diversification of business, Ali changed from a “single enterprise” to a “diversified enterprise”, and the organizational structure became more complex, with new requirements for values. At this time, the Ali team found that the value of “Dougu Nine Swords”, which was formed by the discussion of the founder team, had many difficulties that could not be avoided in the subsequent content understanding, information transmission and implementation.

In 2004, after Deng Kangming, who served as HRBP at Microsoft, joined Ali, he started the value upgrade. On the 5th anniversary of Ali’s establishment, Jack Ma also announced that he would upgrade his vision to “become a company that has continued to develop for 102 years”, and proposed the value of version 2.0 – “Six Pulse Sword”, the content of which is customer first, teamwork, Embrace change, integrity, passion, dedication. The whole value continues the “Ali flavor”, but becomes more tolerant and calm.

In addition to the changes in content, the biggest change in this version of the values ​​is the way they are produced. It is said that Deng Kangming specially organized a meeting attended by 200 middle-level managers. After two days of joint discussion and creation, the “Six Meridians Sword” that ran through Ali’s fifteen years later was formed.

Values ​​3.0 – New Six Meridians Excalibur

In 2008, Ali launched the “big Taobao” strategy. Then, in order to adapt to the rapid development of the industry more quickly, in 2011, Ali further upgraded the strategy to the “big Ali” strategy. In order to cooperate with the strategic development, in 2015, Ali also changed the organizational structure and upgraded it to the model of “small front desk + large and medium front desk”. The impact of this change in organizational structure is that Ali is no longer simply a “diversified enterprise”, but more like a “Business Eco-system”.

In 2016, Jack Ma first proposed the concept of “economy” similar to ecology at the partner meeting; in June 2018, he proposed that with the upgrading of the concept of “economy”, mission, vision and values ​​should be upgraded; August 2018 In May, at the partner discussion meeting, the mission of “making the world without difficult business” was clarified, but it enriched the vision of the “2+1” economy – “becoming a good company with a life span of 102 years. By 2036 year……”.

At this time, the upgrading of values ​​has also been put on the agenda. On September 10, 2019, at Alibaba’s 20th anniversary meeting, Jack Ma announced the values ​​of version 3.0 – “The New Six-Pulse Sword”, with the content of customers first, employees second, and shareholders third; because of trust, it is simple ; The only constant is change; the best performance today is the lowest requirement tomorrow; at this moment, it is me; live seriously and work happily. The content of this version of the values ​​is based on the selection of six “local dialects” of Ali. From the content analysis, it also converges the direction to some underlying logic.

From the idea of ​​value upgrading to the final value formation, it took Alibaba nearly three years to hold 5 special partner meetings; a total of 467 members of the organization department participated in 9 communication meetings at home and abroad; various business groups around the world Employees of different ages, positions and ranks participated in the survey and gave nearly 2,000 feedback suggestions.

The assessment mode is iterative and collapsed?

In order to effectively restrain the values, Ali has an assessment system that matches the values. With the changes in the content of Ali’s values, the supporting assessment system has also undergone several changes.

After the implementation of the “Nine Swords of Dugu” in 2001, Ali began to implement value assessment. However, judging from the information disclosed in various places, there are no clear standards for the evaluation methods and evaluation levels of this version of the values, and the evaluation system is very vague.

After the implementation of the “Six Meridians Sword” in 2004, Ali began to implement the customs clearance assessment. All 6 values ​​need to be assessed. Each value is refined from 5 dimensions. Each dimension corresponds to different assessment standards. The actual minimum score is 0 points and the maximum is 5 points. If a score is abnormally low (0, 0.5) or high (4 and above), case evidence is required. According to the scoring results of values, it is divided into 4 grades: excellent (27-30 points), good (23-26 points), qualified (19-22 points) and unqualified (0-18 points).

In 2013, still in the period of “Six Meridians Excalibur”, Ali changed the assessment method to the ABC gear system. This kind of assessment cancels the dimensional division of each value, that is, first ABC rating for each value, then aggregated rating, and then ABC rating for the aggregated rating again. In other words, 6*5=30 secondary dimensions needed to be scored in the past, but now only 6 primary dimensions need to be scored, which undoubtedly greatly simplifies the assessment. Employees with overall ratings of A and C also need to provide case support and comprehensive evaluation descriptions in multiple aspects.

In terms of application, the value assessment at this time is clearly formed into two sequences with the performance assessment, which are jointly used as the performance assessment results at the end of the year. The rating of values ​​affects bonuses and equity at the end of the year, and rank promotion and remuneration are determined by performance appraisal.

After the implementation of the “New Six-Pulse Excalibur” in 2019, the assessment method has changed to a “0-1” scoring system. What’s interesting is that the assessment is simplified on the surface, but in fact there is new complexity. 5 of the 6 values ​​need to be assessed, and each value is subdivided into 4 behavior items, totaling 5*4=20 items. Each behavioral item is rated 0 or 1, with a score of 1 for doing it, and a score for not doing it. Finally, the scores of the 20 items are added up to obtain the total score of the employee’s values, which is then finalized: Grade A (16-20 points), Grade B (11-15 points) and Grade C (0-10 points).

From the content of Ali’s values ​​and the evolution of the assessment system, we can see an obvious rule – Ali hopes to use value assessment as a management system, so they will continue to optimize operability.

From the beginning of the customs clearance system, Ali has introduced the “behavior anchoring method” for value assessment, that is, the values ​​are divided into several grades according to the behavior from high to low. From the first 30 points, to the later 6 points, and then to the last 20 points; from the original 5-point system, to the later ABC gear system, and then to the later “0-1” scoring system ;From the initial “Excellent→Unqualified” 4-level collection, to the final ABC’s 3-level collection… Ali has always been balancing the assessment cost and the assessment effect.

So, what is the effect?

Mu Sheng Consulting searched on platforms such as Maimai and Zhihu with related terms such as “values” and “culture”, and screened out the posts that indicated that they were (or used to be) Ali employees, and implemented their evaluation of values. Statistical evaluation of the situation. Together with offline visits to Alibaba employees and former employees, we took a total of 36 samples.

Among these samples, we found that 75.0% of the people believed that the value assessment was a “fake knife and fake gun going through the motions”, 19.4% believed that the value assessment was a serious score, and 5.6% of the people “could not tell” whether the value assessment was serious or not ( Figure 4).

According to the statistical results, we also selected some personnel for in-depth interviews. They have the following evaluations on Ali’s value assessment:

• Employee self-assessment – go through the motions seriously. Employee self-assessment is scored according to 20 behavior items one by one, and the scores are generally 11 or 12 points, and the self-assessment level is all B. The 20 behavior items involve daily behavior, and there is no red line item for “violating laws and disciplines”, and there is no reward item such as “outstanding contribution”. Therefore, once an employee violates the rules, other reward and punishment systems will be triggered, and it does not belong to the scope of value assessment. When employees score behavior items, they basically go through the motions, and there will be no difference in each score.

• Subjective evaluation – feel score, release orientation. When the employee’s self-assessment is over, the supervisor will not score the 20 behavioral items one by one, but randomly score according to their preferences. The score is generally not much different from the score of the employee’s self-assessment, and they will fall into the B-level tacitly. However, sometimes supervisors may give higher scores in order to encourage employees. Of course, such high scores are not strictly referenced by value standards.

• Ratings – Fixed ratings, everyone is happy. The final rating results are basically B, and there is no mandatory distribution requirement for the proportion of personnel between ABC grades in the department.

• Results applied – not rigidly applied. Interestingly, although Ali systematically advertises that “the rating of values ​​affects the bonus and equity at the end of the year”, our survey shows that some respondents still think: “The high score given by the supervisor is not useful, and it is still It is the results of the performance appraisal that dominate.” In addition, although the appraisal results of values ​​will have a certain impact on the retention of employees, it will not directly dismiss employees because of low value ratings or inconsistency with a certain value. Mistakes made by employees at work, or behaviors involving violations of law and discipline in their daily work, are the main reasons for employees to be dismissed.

Of course, 19.4% of the sample still approve of value assessment, and they generally have higher ranks. One interviewee thought: “The value assessment can be scored the same every time, but it must be done. This is a grayscale jurisdictional space. We can smell who has the smell of Ali.”

How should we view values?

So, should values ​​be assessed? If so, how should the assessment be conducted? Mu Sheng, founder of Mu Sheng Consulting and a postdoctoral fellow in business administration at Peking University Guanghua School of Management, published an article titled “Mu Sheng Comments on the Incident of Ali Female Employees – Values, YYDS!” ? “, in which some comments on values ​​are still thought-provoking to read:

• Values ​​are only a result, and it is management that causes the collapse of values. If there is a problem and it is due to the wrong values, then you can also attribute the failures of Motorola, Nokia, Kodak, LeEco, and ofo to the values, which is meaningless nonsense. The values ​​of an excellent enterprise are not only the “vernacular” hanging on the wall, but also the bricks and tiles that are implemented in the management system (text) and management system. Netflix has a good saying, and the paraphrase is: “Don’t fix those useless things, who you drive away, who you keep, who you give money to, and who you deduct money from are the company’s values.”

• Technically speaking, it is unreliable to use values ​​to regulate employee behavior (shh, don’t refute first, you will understand if you understand). Ali’s value assessment is to translate several values ​​into behavior levels from low to high, and directly connect to the assessment. This is a typical “behavioral anchoring method”, and anyone who has actually used this tool will know that this kind of assessment is highly subjective and expensive, and it is usually impossible to form a distinction. The assessment is more likely to be “go through the motions”, resulting in an “olive distribution”, that is, there are a few excellent and a few extremely poor, and the remaining 99% of employees have average scores. In a word, in the entire talent evaluation system, the evaluation of values ​​is basically abolished.

• There are two functions of values: one is to confirm the underlying logic (coordinates) of the company’s “what to advocate and what not to advocate”. If there is no clear consensus on the values, no matter how the system is written, a group of people will be dissatisfied; the second is management. “Assist” to create an atmosphere, strengthen identity, and make up for loopholes.

• If you are too “retreat” and really think that values ​​are a panacea, it will lead to relaxation in the design of the management system, which will create a management utopia, and things will happen sooner or later. Within Alibaba, issues such as the granularity and objectivity of performance appraisal and the fairness of promotion have been questioned in various ways, but there have been few breakthroughs and innovations. When it comes to managing bugs, I like to use values ​​to patch. If I can’t explain it, I just say “because I believe, so I see”, which is not desirable. More “retreat”, less “pragmatic”.

• If it is too “retreat”, the role of deified values ​​will also cause the “demonization” of corporate culture, which is even less desirable. Inside Ali, its “ice-breaking activities” have been criticized for a long time, and some unique “rules of the rivers and lakes” are even more prohibitive… In fact, relying on “metaphysical” things such as values ​​to create compliance will inevitably create this embarrassment. Because each leader can interpret the values ​​with his own understanding and form the “local rules” in his own territory. You can’t say it’s a matter of values, but if people are allowed to “play freely” on the basis of values, this will result.

• Values ​​are not only a tool for dissemination, but also a reminder for backlash. In the past, the public liked to deify Ali’s values ​​and value assessment, and Ali seems to be guiding this concern intentionally or unintentionally. In fact, this has indeed made Ali gain a wave of goodwill and even traffic. There are too many articles on the Internet such as “I am really convinced after watching Ali’s Six Meridians Excalibur”. However, from the incident of writing code to grab the moon cake, to the incident of Big P looking for someone to take the test… Every time similar incidents break out, Ali employees and netizens will also act in unison to torture Ali’s values. And once there is a conflict between Ali’s handling and the “incomparably correct” in the Six Meridians Excalibur, the public’s backlash will inevitably become stronger.

• Many bosses admire Ali’s management model and should be sober. In a company I tutored, the boss always called him “Mr. Ma”, and even got angry because CHO couldn’t recite Ali’s Six Meridians Excalibur. This kind of mentality of a girl in the fan circle should be calm and calm. If people do well, they should learn, and if they go the wrong way, don’t follow blindly.

• So far, there are only three people who can make a group of people obey by virtue of their values, they are Buddha, Jesus, Allah…

The text and pictures in this article are from Titanium Media