Increasingly, they act as co-ordinators, contracting out everything from manufacturing to transport to specialist groups, according to Ricardo Rocha Garcia, an economist at Rosario University in Bogota.

ECONOMIST: Colombia

Likewise, more manufacturing is being outsourced by multinationals to specialist equipment makers.

ECONOMIST: Can it ever again be business as usual?

This glass specialist had no research, manufacturing, or marketing expertise in integrated circuits, and so, no base for competing with those who did.

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From April, Search will work with the army's own recruitment staff, offering specialist advice on the technical, manufacturing, construction and engineering sectors.

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If a carmaker stops employing its own office cleaners and instead buys cleaning services from a specialist company, then output and employment in the service sector appear to grow overnight, and those in manufacturing to shrink, even though nothing has changed.

ECONOMIST: Manufacturing employment