Feels great to have finished up my last case study for Eric Thun’s Business in China…it was a fantastic class!!! The final piece of work involved a fairly recent and interesting case study of Wanxiang Group. They are a leading Chinese auto parts manufacturer exploring their strategic options at an interesting point in the auto industry. 

The case starts with them considering a move from just auto parts into complete automobile manufacturing. My initial inclinations were that was just a horrible idea but as I researched the industry there seems to be some interesting implications of and drivers toward such a model. 

The industry is evolving and perhaps in the future the current crop of manufacturers (Ford, GM, Toyota, Volkswagon) become mere “distributors” as full-service ODM’s like Wanxiang manage the entire design and assembly process. It might be considered a far-out idea by some, but it has worked for some of the largest OEMs of laptops. Given the current numbers coming out of Detroit, perhaps its time to start looking at sacrificing the sacred cow! 

Wanxiang Group Strategic Analysis (v2.0)