Take a page out of Alibaba’s marketing book

Red Credit Cards and Dollar Note in the Jeans Pocket - LargeWe just received a coupon we can use to take 15 RMB (about $2.50) off of a purchase on Alibaba’s Tmall or Taobao, but it’s only good on 11/11 — Singles’ Day. Last year Alibaba made headlines when shoppers spent an incredible $5.75 billion on Ali’s sites in a single day.

With Alibaba now listed on the New York Stock Exchange the value of another massive day of spending will be seen not only in profits, but also in a stock boost. Indeed, the stock boost has already started with investors expecting sales to reach $8.2 billion on Singles’ Day this year.

Alibaba does a great job of using this day to generate sales and headlines, and there’s an excellent growth hacking lesson to be learned here.

What can you do to set a fire under your users to get them spending money on your site? Or maybe for you it’s all about signups, or something else — how can you use the calendar to give them a nudge? Can you follow Ali’s lead and use that to generate press coverage?

4 rules for motivating your team members

When managing teams in China, it’s easy to think about managing the team as a whole while forgetting that you’re also managing individuals. This is of course true anywhere, but it’s especially easy for foreigner managers working abroad to think they only need to manage the group.

It can be helpful to compare managing teams in your home country to managing a team in China. Understanding the general differences in motivations and expectations help guide how you talk to the group when explaining initiatives, defining expectations, and generally building the team’s culture.

But when I first moved back to China three years ago I fell into the trap of only managing the group, forgetting that I was actually working with individuals, each with unique motivations. I’ve also seen other foreigners managing Chinese teams fall into the trap of thinking only of the group as a whole, rather than also thinking of the group as a collection of individuals.

It’s time to start managing both the group and the individuals.

[Continue reading]

Mix it, pour it, just don’t drink it

It’s important for entrepreneurs to believe in what they are selling — in essence, to create a field of distortion around themselves that makes it seem like anything is possible with their solution. They just need to make sure they don’t believe what … [Continue reading]

Building your team of rivals

Do you get along with your co-founders really well? Do you feel like you always see eye-to-eye on everything? Then you would probably benefit from adding some “rivals” to your team. I’ve started reading Team of Rivals a number of times and … [Continue reading]

The humble entrepreneur

Man in a row boat in a field - Thinkstock

I’m lucky to frequently meet with entrepreneurs as part of my job. Like many who work in the entrepreneurial space, I spend as much time getting a feel for the team as I do considering their idea. I recently met with an entrepreneur who impressed … [Continue reading]