I wouldn't say they are all "smart." Of the random employees from there I've had to deal with. I would not call any of them dumb is all maybe I've been lucky?
I'm not a fan of "consultants" at all. In my experinance all they ever do is either muck things up by black boxing the thing they were paid to do. Or more often simply leave a huge list of "you should do this" that will be $500k, and then leave.
What I've heard as a counter to their uselessness is that they function as a sort of legal corporate espionage. You should do this because my other customer that I cant name but I'll just call Mr.Faang is also doing that.
You missed their primary purpose: To provide cover for whatever half-assed idea an exec came up with. If the CEO of my automobile company wakes up one morning with the zany idea to cut costs by only including 3 wheels with the purchase of a car, if he just goes ahead and does it, the investors will call for his head when customers stop buying our cars and instead purchase our four-wheeled compeitors. But if our CEO hires Deloitte, they'll make a bunch of reports and excel sheets that show why 3 wheels are the best idea ever. If he wanted to add an extra wheel, there'd be a bunch of reports on the superiority of 5 tires. If he decides to switch back, hire the consultants, they'll dutifully report on how 4 tires was the right amount all along. It's all just an accountability shell game.
I do like this take. I'm a cynic at the core but I've been trying to see the slightly less cynical side of things lately.
> they'll make a bunch of reports and excel sheets
Reminds me of a dilbert comic where he says the excel sheet is full of errors and incorrect data but it doesn't matter because no one will look at it again unless it reinforces a decision mgmt has already made.
Consulting (good consulting anyways) requires the skill of teaching, so this doesn’t ring true. The adage is “those that can’t do, manage” which isn’t factual either
