They're also an acceptable form of corporate espionage. Mid- and higher-level consultants (there's usually one with relevant experience at least advising a team

They're also an acceptable form of corporate espionage. Mid- and higher-level consultants (there's usually one with relevant experience at least advising a team remotely, at least providing some background documents for them) will provide sets of "best practices" for you to adopt... that they learned from your competition. Anything you're doing well, they'll note, and those will be "best practices" when your competition engages them again.