Beijing Geek+ Science Technology Co., Ltd. (hereafter referred to as "Geek+"), a Chinese intelligent robotics company, was founded in 2015 by Zheng and his co-founders. Sensing the attractive market potential and opportunities in the traditional warehousing industry, which was struggling with low operations, rising land costs, massive labor costs, and emerging labor shortages, Zheng and his co-founders established Geek+ to produce robotic systems for warehousing. In seven years, Geek+ has become an internationally renowned and leading warehousing robotics company, occupying the largest global market share of AMRs in consecutive years. Following its initial expansion in Japan, Geek+ has spread to 30 countries and cooperated with more than 500 companies.
This case study traces the development journey of Geek+ and discusses how the company developed innovative robotics and how Zheng and his team successfully addressed different challenges. Geek+ has faced many challenges throughout its development; the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has also brought new ones. The following questions are examined in this case study. Immediately after Geek+'s establishment, how did Zheng decide what kind of warehouse robots the company would produce to address the pain points of traditional warehousing? After Geek+ achieved the continuous development of new products, how did it innovate its business model to overcome the slow speed at which it was penetrating the market? When Geek+'s number of products sold and number of projects increased, how did the company balance mass production with the specific needs of its customers? As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, how could Geek+ help its customers establish more agile and resilient supply chains?