Sercomm: Operating in China Amid COVID-19 and Beyond

The COVID-19 pandemic had forced a production cut in the factory of Sercomm, one of the world’s major telecom equipment producers, in China. The case explores and highlights the challenges that Chief Executive Officer James Wang faced: How could Sercomm recover and ramp up production to meet its U.S. clients’ immediate demands? In the longer term, how could it manage the increasing shortage of migrant workers in China? As a supplier of hardware components to the U.S., the company was also caught in the cross-fire of U.S.-China trade tensions due to the tariffs imposed on telecom products. Should the company move its production out of China? Could adopting Artificial Intelligence in the production line be an option?