Seres Group: Beyond the Huawei Miracle

Lucas Liang Wang, Qing Dai, Yuxue Luo, Ruiyi (Vivian) Luo

Product #:W50933_P

Supplier:Ivey

Discipline:General Management, Strategy

Setting:China, 2025

Details:Case (PDF) • 12 pages • 2026-09-01

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In December 2025, the Chinese commercial automobile manufacturer Seres Group (Seres), which had undergone a transformation from near-bankruptcy to become one of China’s most profitable new energy vehicle (NEV) enterprises, faced a strategic dilemma that was rooted in the very alliance that had driven its turnaround. Seres’s high-stakes, deep-tier alliance with the technology giant Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei) had birthed the blockbuster premium AITO brand and generated record-breaking revenues and positive profits. However, this very alliance had also created an extreme dependency on Huawei for core technologies, retail channels, and brand equity. With its net profitability being squeezed by immense procurement fees and its technological exclusivity rapidly evaporating as Huawei aggressively expanded its alliance portfolio to include competing automakers, Seres was facing a strategic paradox. To navigate this double-edged alliance, should Seres attempt to reclaim autonomy by reducing its dependence on Huawei, or should it entrench itself as the indispensable manufacturing crown jewel of Huawei’s expanding automotive ecosystem?

Learning Objectives

This case is best suited for use in undergraduate, MBA, and executive education programs. It can be effectively positioned in courses and modules focused on the following: strategic management (alliance management, platform strategy, and corporate transformation); alliance strategy or management (formation motives, power dynamics, value creation and capture within alliances); and technology and innovation strategy (navigating technological paradigms and ecosystem competition). After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:

Analyze the drivers of alliance formation.
Evaluate the mechanisms of value creation and capture within partnerships.
Map power dynamics in asymmetrical alliances.
Assess the risks of platform proliferation and ecosystem competition.
Formulate strategic responses to extreme partnership dependency.