Recently, the Sixth "Developer Excellence" Case Competition, which is guided by the National Steering Committee of Graduate Education for Business Administration Degrees and sponsored by School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, has announced the results of the competition. One of the cases of ECUST the School of Business won the second prize of the competition, and the authors of the case are Associate Prof. WANG Jinai, Prof. HUANG Lujin and two graduate students TANG Siqi and SU Zhaoguang. The case is about to be compiled into the China Business Administration Case Database of Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management.

Outcast to star:The Rebirth of Aptiv Baicheng Factory

This case provides an introduction to the history and business development of Baicheng factory in Jilin Province, a subsidiary of the globally renowned auto parts company Aptiv, which was one of the first foreign-funded enterprises after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, and a key supporting project for the FAW Audi 100 project, the first high-end sedan to be introduced in China. However, when Mr. Anu, then President of Aptiv Asia-Pacific, took office in 2016, the Baicheng factory was faced with the daunting challenge of whether to shut down the factory or develop new business after years of rising costs that made it difficult to continue its competitive advantage. Under Anu's guidance, factory manager Peng Liang and the team at the Baicheng factory ultimately chose the path of strategic transformation by abandoning the traditional wiring harness business and developing a new high-speed communication data cable HSD business, while optimising the automotive wire business. Within three years, the company obtained licence certification for all brands of the German Volkswagen Group, catching up with the industry leader and ranking first in market share among Volkswagen's sub-brands.

As a representative of foreign enterprises in Northeast China, the development and upgrading of Aptiv's Baicheng factory is of great social significance for the revitalisation of Northeast China and the localisation and transformation of multinational enterprises. At the same time, the case study of the strategic reform of the Baicheng plant can be better used in the teaching of strategic management, international business management and other business courses to help students better understand the actual problems faced by enterprises.

Since its launch in July 2023, the competition has received numerous submissions from case authors across the country. Two first prizes and eight second prizes for the National Thematic Case Prizes were awarded by the expert jury.

Since 2018, the "Developer of Excellence" case competition has been successfully held for five sessions. It has inspired many business school faculty members with strong interest in cases to take the initiative to negotiate with enterprises nationwide, and attracted a large number of entrepreneurs who are willing to contribute real management problems to bring lively and up-to-date topics into classroom discussions, achieving the goal of win-win for teachers and students of higher educational institutions as well as enterprises.