Name: Jojie A.

Dador Course & Year: BSBA 3rd Year

Subject: CBMEC: Strategic Management MIDTERM Examination

World Greatest Strategists

Strategic Guides:

1. Study the biography of Ma Huateng, CEO of Tencent. Include his childhood, if there is something
significant, his interests, his educational attainment, professional and career orientation, and
other facts that might have contributed to the success he is enjoying now.

- Ma Huateng was born in Chaoyang, China, on the 29th of October 1971. When his father,
Ma Chenshu, got a job as a port manager in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, the young Ma
accompanied him. Huateng was enrolled in Shenzhen University in 1989 and then graduated
in the year 1993 with a Bachelor of Science in computer science.
- Ma Huateng’s first work was with China Motion Telecom Development. He reportedly
earned $176 per month. During the same time, he also worked for the Shenzhen Runxun
Communications CO Ltd in the research and development of the internet calling services.
- Huateng went on to co-found Tencent in 1998. The company’s first product came after Ma
participated in a presentation for the ICQ, the world’s first internet instant messaging
service, founded in the year 1996 by an Israeli company.
- In this success post, we are going to share the story of a Ma Huateng, also known as Pony
Ma, a Chinese business magnate, engineer, internet and technology, and philanthropist.
- Huateng is the chairman, founder, and CEO of Tencent, Asia’s most valuable company, and
also one of the largest internet and technology companies across the globe.

2. Study the beginnings of Tencent, the challenges it encountered through the years, and its
journey toward success.
- In 1998, Ma co-founded Tencent, Inc. along with 4 friends. The money they put into starting
the company mainly came from earnings at the stock market. As it happens with most
startups, Ma and his friends found the going quite difficult in the first few years after
establishing the firm. He took up various roles ranging from janitor to website designer, in
order to keep the company afloat. Tencent offered e-mail and internet paging services
initially.
- In 1999, Tencent launched its internet messaging service called QQ (originally named OICQ).
In order to capture a greater market share, Tencent began to offer the service as a free
download. The result was that over 5 million users joined the service in 1 year.

- Ma could now offer QQ users more benefits, such as ring tones and memberships. He
provided more services for cellular phones and customized some products. In 2004, Tencent
became the largest instant messaging service in China. It was given the title “China’s answer
to AOL.”In June 2004, Tencent floated its initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock
Exchange. Stock prices rapidly rose to almost 60 percent. Ma did not rest assured that
Name: Jojie A. Dador Course & Year: BSBA 3rd Year
Subject: CBMEC: Strategic Management MIDTERM Examination

Tencent was going to continue being successful. He continued to expand while retaining the
core instant messaging business.

- In the year 2007, 2014 and 2018 the Time magazine recognized him as one of the world's
most influential people while in 2015 Forbes named him as one of the most powerful
people in the world. In addition, 2017 Fortune acknowledged Ma Huateng among the best
business men of the year. CEOWORLD magazine ranked him as the best and most powerful
in the world. The positive profile of Ma that promoted by Fortune recognizing him as the
world's greatest leaders made his name to be more known by different business men
around the globe.

3. From the management, result-driven, practical, and inspirational strategies implemented by Ma

Huateng at Tencent, which struck you as something worth imitating? Explain your answer.

Ma's first job was to supply telecommunications products and services whereby his role was to
create software for the pagers. He was working with China Motion Telecom Development where
he was earning a monthly income of $176. Ma still operated for Shenzhen Runxun
Communications in the development and research department of the services that involved
internet calling. In the year 2016, he transferred his personal shares worth $2.3 from Tencent to
his foundation known as Ma Huateng Global Foundation.
The recognition of Ma Huateng as the most influential business man by Time magazine is a
strategy worthy to imitate. This is because through this kind of influence the young generation
and the aspiring businessmen will have steps to follow from Ma as the mentor. The action in
turn enables the expansion of the economy that finally improves the standards of the country
and the individual status.

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants, we knew our product had a
future, but at that time, we just couldn’t afford it.” Ma. Huateng Said