Cainiao CEO Wan Lin becomes Alibaba partner: the CEO with the most international vision in China's logistics industry

On July 21, Alibaba disclosed its latest list of partners in its 2023 fiscal year report. As one of Alibaba's six major business groups, Cainiao Group CEO Wan Lin became an Alibaba partner.

"Wan Lin becoming a partner is not only Alibaba's recognition of Wan Lin himself, but also an affirmation of the solid logistics capability building of Cainiao under his leadership in recent years, which has achieved significant improvements in globalization, digitalization and logistics operations." said an Alibaba insider who has close business dealings with Cainiao.

For Cainiao, with Joseph Tsai as chairman and Wan Lin as a partner, the second venture has been injected with new energy.

Leading Cainiao's three major innovative breakthroughs

Cainiao Group and International Digital Commerce Group are Alibaba's two fastest growing business groups.

Behind the growth is capacity building . Since becoming the president and CEO of Cainiao in 2017 , Wan Lin has led Cainiao through six years of hard work and determination, with the support of the Alibaba Group's board of directors and management. Within Cainiao, everyone recognizes that Wan Lin has brought three major breakthroughs:

The first is to lead Cainiao to globalization and build a logistics network with global influence. He insisted on long-term investment and construction around overseas logistics hubs, distribution centers, air transportation, customs clearance, and overseas local logistics, and launched innovative breakthroughs in core products such as "5 US dollars 10 days delivery " and "a cup of coffee delivered to the world", which fundamentally changed the supply and market structure of e-commerce international express delivery.

The second is to bring Cainiao's digitalization to a new level, and maintain its position as a leading company in smart logistics. Based on an electronic waybill, Wanlin has led Cainiao to establish technical barriers in the fields of supply chain digitalization, logistics automation, logistics unmanned driving, IoT , etc. This combination of advanced logistics technology and inclusive application is also at the leading level globally.

The third is to firmly follow the path of logistics industrialization, and take the pursuit of logistics service quality as the guide, and stride towards logistics practical operation. If you are a fish, you must go into the water, and if you are a bird, you must flap your wings. Wanlin led the investment and construction of key facilities, directly operated warehousing and distribution, and formed a series of differentiated capabilities. In recent years, in China's express logistics industry, Cainiao took the lead in proposing the promise of "delivering to your door, and compensation if not delivered", and soon became the target of the industry. Under his promotion, Cainiao successively launched the intelligent warehouse and distribution, the optimal warehouse and distribution, and upgraded the Danniao, which had been built for 6 years, to Cainiao Express to meet the merchants' demand for high-quality express delivery.

The CEO with the most international vision in the logistics industry

Public information shows that Wan Lin graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a doctorate in operations research, and then worked as the global logistics strategy director at Amazon , where he participated in leading multiple strategic projects for Amazon in the past decade . Among the CEOs of Chinese logistics companies , Wan Lin has the most international vision.

According to public media reports , Wanlin felt that China's express logistics industry would usher in explosive growth during his stay in the United States in 2014, and smart logistics would have great potential. At that time, China's daily parcel volume reached more than 38 million pieces, while Amazon's global parcel volume was only a few million pieces a day . In contrast, China's express logistics has greater room for development and more demand for innovation. At the same time, he was also very moved by Jack Ma's mission of " 24-hour nationwide delivery and 72-hour global delivery " when Cainiao was founded .

In 2014 , Wan Lin resolutely returned to China and joined Cainiao, which had just been established for a year, as vice president, responsible for domestic supply chain, international and other businesses. He then took over as president and CEO of Cainiao in 2017 and has served in this position ever since.

It is under Wan Lin's leadership that Cainiao's international business has been booming, and it has successively launched products such as the $5 ten-day delivery and global five-day delivery products suitable for cross-border e-commerce. These products are both affordable and have digital support. In the international cross-border market dominated by the world's three largest international express companies, it has found a new logistics model suitable for small and medium-sized e-commerce sellers around the world.

At the same time, Cainiao has laid out logistics infrastructure in major countries around the world in the past few years, which has given Cainiao a head start in international business. Providing more cost-effective logistics services for Chinese B2C cross-border e-commerce and creating service certainty and ultimate experience for overseas buyers are the core driving forces for Cainiao's overseas business to maintain rapid growth in recent years.

Behind the rapid development of Cainiao, Wan Lin himself is relatively low-key and has focused more on the Cainiao business. "In the past, everyone thought that Wang Wei was the most low-key CEO in China's express delivery industry , but Wan Lin seems to be even more low-key than Wang Wei ," said a brand manager who has been dealing with major logistics companies for a long time.

In recent years, Cainiao has been focusing on building its logistics capabilities, and Wanlin has rarely accepted media interviews. In Wanlin's view, in logistics, no one has a "one-trick pony" secret, and everyone gets things done in a down-to-earth manner.

The Global Smart Logistics Summit hosted by Cainiao every year is where Wan Lin expounds on his annual strategic thinking and business strategies. His style is the usual rigor of a science and engineering man, he only talks about practical matters and uses numerical arguments meticulously. "For example, whether international express delivery takes several working days or natural days, he hopes to explain it clearly, hoping to provide customers and partners with the most authentic and accurate information."

Internally, he was also the first to promote organizational change. A few years ago, Cainiao implemented the "vertical to the bottom, horizontally resolute" general manager responsibility system reform, and each business general manager became the top person in charge of operations and business. Cainiao also took the lead in exploring an organizational culture that has both Alibaba characteristics and Cainiao attributes - "Ali flavor, Cainiao spirit". These were later proven to be a step ahead in exploration.

“Long-termism” becomes the standard

"Higher IQ and more hardworking than you", "Excellent logic", "Sleepless elite" are the comments posted on Wan Lin by rookie employees on the intranet.

As the CEO of Cainiao, Wan Lin has worked with three chairmen, Zhang Yong, Tong Wenhong and Cai Chongxin. Like Wan Lin, the core management team of Cainiao has basically worked at Cainiao for more than 8 years, which is extremely rare in China's Internet and even express delivery industries.

A company with a stable management team can also ensure the stability of strategic execution to a certain extent. In the past few years, Cainiao has been moving forward along the core strategy of "digitalization, globalization, and industrialization."

Wanlin himself believes that the construction of logistics requires a period of time, and it is often necessary to plan and build before business, rather than wait until business needs it, otherwise it will be too late. Therefore, within Cainiao, "long-termism" is one of the most frequently used words.

He used globalization as an example, saying that when Cainiao first invested in globalization, it was determined to pursue long-term development, and the strategy must be implemented steadily. "If it were not based on the long-term promotion and favorable development trends in business, consumption, society and other aspects, it would be difficult for Cainiao to make such long-term infrastructure investment. Especially in the case of globalization, when Cainiao started, the number of international business orders was small compared to the domestic market, but the investment was very heavy, and the links and cycles were very long. Once the investment was made, there were many uncontrollable factors and it was full of uncertainty, so we must have a long-term mentality."

Long-termism is also reflected in many aspects. He is a firm believer in putting customers first within Cainiao. Under his requirements, the most important goal of each business general manager includes indicators to continuously improve customer satisfaction, "even if it is improved a little bit every year, there will be significant improvement if you continue to persist." In the past few years, Cainiao has insisted on selecting the "Red Rotten Strawberry" project for service customers every quarter, and he personally participates in each project. For emails reflecting customer complaints, he responds to the concerns as soon as possible. This also makes many business general managers quite nervous about user experience.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Cainiao’s founding. Alibaba has also approved Cainiao’s exploration of listing, and the situation is looking good. At this time, Wanlin proposed that Cainiao should start a second venture, which is another long-term journey.

"Over the past ten years, Cainiao has combined idealism and long-termism. Standing at a new starting point, we must regard the market as the best touchstone of value, overcome difficulties in capacity building, maintain an entrepreneurial spirit, and be prepared for long-term struggle. Within ten years, we will build Cainiao into a world-leading integrated digital logistics group." Wan Lin told all employees through an internal letter.

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