ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MING ZENG first worked as a strategy adviser for Alibaba Group from 2003 to 2006, joining the company full time in August 2006 as Zong Canmouzhang (similar to chief strategy officer) from 2008 to 2017. Working closely with Jack Ma, Dr. Zeng has played an important role in the phenomenal growth of the company. He is now chairman of the Academic Council of Alibaba Group, fostering innovative research both within and outside Alibaba.

Dr. Zeng began his career in academia in 1998 as a professor of Asian business at INSEAD in France. In 2002, he returned to China to help found the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, the first private business school in China. In 2014, he became the dean of the Hupan School of Entrepreneurship, located in Hangzhou and established by Jack Ma and a few other farsighted business leaders in China.

Dr. Zeng is one of the most respected strategy thinkers in China and has published widely on strategy, e-commerce, and Chinese business. His book Winning by Strategy (in Chinese, 2003), was voted the best business book of the year. Dragons at Your Door: How Chinese Cost Innovation Is Disrupting Global Competition (with Peter Williamson, Harvard Business Review Press, 2007) was one of the first books studying emerging global multinationals from China.

Dr. Zeng obtained his PhD in strategy and international business from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1998 and his BA in economics from Fudan University in Shanghai in 1991.