JD.com (B): Culture Consolidation and Talent Review

Siew Kim Jean Lee, Jian Han, Ziqian Zhao, Yu Long, Ruofeng Tan

Research output: Other contributionCase Studies

Abstract

In 2012, JD.com (hereafter “the company”) had emerged to be the biggest B2C (Business to Consumer) e-commerce retailer in China. From 2009 to 2012, the company’s headcount quickly grew from several thousand to nearly thirty thousand. Still, it was short of talents; and the human resources (HR) department’s role and business impact were perceived as insignificant. Its founder and CEO, Richard Liu (hereafter Richard), realized that he had to strengthen the company’s internal management in order to sustain rapid growth. In 2011 and 2012, he recruited several chief officers (CxOs), including Rain Long (hereafter Rain)—chief human resources officer (CHO) and general counsel. Case A describes the challenges she faced when joining the company in August 2012, and invites students to think about what her priorities should be when tackling these challenges. Case B describes what Rain decided to do and how she executed her priorities in the first year—primarily, two improvement projects—culture consolidation and talent review. It asks students to set priorities on tackling the remaining HR problems in the coming few years.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages17
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jun 2019

Case number

HRM-19-598

Case normative number

HRM-19-598-CE

Case type

Field Case

Update date

15/09/2023

Supplement

For more details, please visit www.chinacases.org

Published by

China Europe International Business School

Keywords

  • Corperate Culture
  • corporate culture
  • talent development
  • Human Resource Management
  • Transformation

Case studies discipline

  • Organizational Behavior
  • Human Resource Management

Case studies industry

  • Retail Trade
  • Transportation and Warehousing

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