Ribe Maskinfabrik A/S (RM) had, during the last 15 years, developed from a simple machine works operating out of Southern Jutland (Denmark) to the modern and globalized RM Group consisting of three distinct business units. This change had developed gradually as its outsourcing activities became increasingly important during the last years. In the beginning, outsourcing activities developed in an ad-hoc and reactive manner. However, RM gained important knowledge on how to optimize the outsourcing processes, and it developed a very extensive network of suppliers, many of which it had relationships with for many years. This network was offered to RM's customers and represented a high value to them. RM had already established these contacts and was able to assure the quality of its partners, which saved its customers valuable time and effort. In that sense, RM exploited its own experience and network of suppliers and became an outsourcing consultant.

Coloplast's future global manufacturing strategy was based on relocation of volume production of mature product lines to low cost countries like Hungary and China, whereas most creative and innovative activities (pilot production, ramp-up and range care) were held captive in Denmark. The large scale project of offshoring, first volume production and later perhaps other activities, to Tatabanya, Hungary constituted a major shift in the operational strategy for Coloplast, which resulted in a series of organizational and managerial challenges. An important feature of the case is the surprise to the management team of how challenging it was to globalize the operations despite Coloplast's international experience operating a network of subsidiaries in more than 26 countries. The management team learned a lesson of how important it is to have the structure, the organization and the mindset in place when offshoring production. Sourcing internationally is obviously very different from selling internationally as it involves the entire organization. The learning process of the management team and the challenges they faced is unfolded in this case.

ECCO A/S (ECCO) had been very successful in the footwear industry by focusing on production technology and assuring quality by maintaining full control of the entire value chain from "cow to shoe." As ECCO grew and faced increased international competition, various value chain activities, primarily production and tanning, were offshored to low-cost countries. The fully integrated value chain tied up significant capital and management attention in tanneries and production facilities, which could have been used to strengthen the branding and marketing of ECCO's shoes. Moreover, an increasingly complex and dispersed global value chain configuration posed organizational and managerial challenges regarding coordination, communication and logistics. This case examines the financial, organizational and managerial challenges of maintaining a highly integrated global value chain and asks students to determine the appropriateness of this set-up in the context of an increasingly market-oriented industry. It is suitable for use in both undergraduate and graduate courses in international corporate strategy, international management, international marketing, supply-chain management, cross-border strategic management and international business studies in general.