New CEO Will Carry on Jack Ma's Vision Says 'Alibaba's World' Author

Titles change at Alibaba and CEOs are rotated in and out of the top position, but Jack Ma will make sure the vision stays the same, said Porter Erisman, author of 'Alibaba's World.' Erisman added that he has confidence in COO Daniel Zhang's ability to run the company after he fully takes the CEO spot from Jonathan Lu. He said Jack Ma was like a 'rock star' working on his arena moves even when the company was at its early stages. Furthermore, he said that Alibaba essentially developed the online consumer culture in China and that Jack Ma surprised everybody when he chose Yahoo to be a partner instead of eBay. Finally, Erisman said that Alibaba considers itself as its biggest competitor and its ability to stick to its values as its biggest challenge.