Jack Ma is one of the most brilliant individuals that are out there. To isolate his sentence in a vacuum is somewhat limiting when you are trying to study someone. Ali Baba is not only a success story financially, but also in terms of how they reshaped the concept of customer service.
He started Alibaba in an apartment with friends and still holds the record for the world's largest IPO: $25Billion. I highly suggest reading Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built.
This video just a bit more justice to his business views: