Chloe Goncalves poses in front of a building of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (Photo : LinkedIn)
French digital marketer Chloe Goncalves never expected that her post on her trip to China to work for Alibaba would make her an online celebrity. She is one of the 32 associates coming from 14 countries that are chosen by the Alibaba Global Leadership Academy to train for one year to become the company's global ambassadors.
Chloe's post on LinkedIn half a year ago and has received over 31,000 likes and 2,900 comments. She also found herself 1,600 new followers worldwide, which inspired her to do a monthly blog on her adventures.
For the past four months, Chloe already experienced a lot of adventures in working in China. She has joined the Nov. 11 Global Shopping festival, attended Alibaba's annual cloud computing conference, visited Taobao villages, talked with Alibaba CEO Jack Ma, taken Tai-Chi classes, and has been busy learning the Chinese language.
A lot of Chinese firms are expanding its operations overseas Alibaba is hoping that half of its profits will come from international business soon.
A new round of recruitment for AGLA is underway. Alibaba is expecting to train about 100 ambassadors every year for the next ten years.
Brian Wong, the vice president of Alibaba Group Holding that is in charge of global initiatives, pointed out that foreign staff with expertise will not only help identify and navigate new markets but also help bridge China and international markets and enable local companies big and small to use internet technology to trade globally.
Wong said: "China is a significant opportunity for the rest of the world, not a threat, because it offers such a large market for their products and services."
"Global talent with wide connections and strong cross-cultural skills will translate into core competitiveness during globalization," said the vice president of LinkedIn China David Yu.
Wang Huiyao, the head of the Center for China and Globalization, said: "Talent and innovation are crucial for economic globalization and China should look for talented people not only among its own 1.3 billion people but in the global pool of 7 billion."
Alibaba is also planning to send local employees for over a year abroad.
