[yamtaddle]

Another rôle they play is a kind of out-in-the-open corporate espionage. You pay them to come in and tell you what the "best practices" are in your industry (i.e. effective new things your competitors have been doing since the last time they came to visit you—and they'll learn some new ones from you to tell your competitors, next time)

[_carbyau_]

Oh, so they increase productivity across the industry, thus leading to wage rises for employees, increased margins for company profits and a higher GDP for the country.... right?

(Off to dig my tongue out of the deep hole in my cheek.)

[yamtaddle]

Didn't necessarily say it was bad. It's a bit like the Japanese R&D-pooling system post-WWII, in some ways, and AFAIK that worked great. Just unofficial, and with a profit margin.

[EDIT] Well, and also it's not kept within the host country, but exports those ideas & methods globally.