E-commerce giant recruiting employees with international backgrounds as its business expands

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, built his business behemoth to help the masses. But when it comes to hiring, the company is increasingly eyeing an elite group - those with an international background.

With the company's stated goal of serving 2 billion customers within two decades, it comes as no surprise that Alibaba needs to beef up its foreign staff numbers.

It rolled out a global academy program two years ago, incubating the best and brightest minds from some of the world's top MBA courses. From this year onward, certain domestic-facing business units, including Rural Taobao, are looking to diversify their talent pools with either international staff or those who have worked and lived abroad.

"When we say Rural Taobao, we don't specifically refer to rural regions in China," said Wang Jianxun, the business unit's general manager. "In fact, a lot of discussions are ongoing across Southeast Asia regarding the best practices in the farming sector."

Wang oversees the segment launched by Alibaba back in 2014, which aims to increase trade between the country's remote regions and urban areas. Currently, about half of China's more than 1.3 billion residents live in the countryside.

Under the initiative, farmers peddle their produce through e-commerce platforms that exploit big data, artificial intelligence and virtual reality technologies. Alibaba said sales in rural regions involved in the program reached 29.2 billion yuan ($4.23 billion) in 2016, with 33 million people lifting themselves out of poverty by becoming self-employed.

Since a year ago, Wang's team has been mulling the possibility of introducing this model to other developing nations. They conducted investigative trips to Israel and the Netherlands, where sustainable agricultural practices have yielded a greener way of life.

"That requires knowledge and specialties in supply chain management and agricultural practices. They also need to have a good understanding of cultural differences and local flavors," Wang said. "That's why we are looking to hire people with an international background and global vision."

Damisa Prompoj, a Thai trainee who was enrolled in Alibaba's inaugural global leadership academy, said she had her most memorable experiences working at Rural Taobao. She had the opportunity to travel to less affluent places, to help to find solutions for rural business owners and to talk about opportunities derived from e-commerce.

"Coming from a developing country, you normally see people confined within their villages and they don't know how to take advantage of global trade," Prompoj said. "Rural Taobao is a powerful first step."

Alibaba upholds globalization as a core strategy. After making high-profile inroads into the United States, Europe and Australia, the company has placed its chips on nurturing professionals. For example, it holds intensive training sessions for Asian and African entrepreneurs on e-commerce innovations.