But their know-how stems from overseas.
"We seized the opportunity to preserve both their team and their know-how," Mr. Journe said.
Their skills, their nerve, and their know-how still have a way to go.
'You can take someone's money, but you cannot take their know-how,' Madhvani said.
Their know-how and industry come as a relief after Johnson's showy but complacent and sometimes slapdash eight years.
Large French firms have gone on exporting books, and have done little to transfer their know-how.
It is true that Chinese firms are often interested in buying European companies to use their know-how in China (or worse, to steal it).
What the World Bank describes as possibly the biggest challenge of the 21st century is also a giant business opportunity for those ready to share their know-how.
The report recommends that schools with a good record of catering for highly able pupils should pass on their know-how to less successful schools in their neighbourhoods.
However, local firms may also enjoy "spillovers" from foreign entrants by imitating their methods or recruiting employees trained by the foreigners and steeped in their know-how.
Now their know-how is in demand elsewhere and experts from other countries are muscling in on the increasingly globalised industry of campaign advice.
