MP, the consultants do the bidding of whoever is paying them. They are not necessarily there for the shareholders benefit. This is fact.
Some years ago I had the great fortune to have a discussion with a consultant at Qantas. In confidence of course!
I have been through a few stages in my understanding of Qantas management. Uncaring - they knew what they were doing. Interested - I might learn something from these guys, using unusual solutions to simple problems. Questioning - Are they really that smart? Incredulous - These guys are as thick as bricks and no-one else seems to understand! And finally, festering hatred at the incompetence, fraud and theft.
This consultant coincided with my 'Interested' period, so I was genuinely discussing and not 'dissing'. Nowadays I think my reaction would be along the lines of a Charles Saatchi/Nigella Lawson approach, but I digress
I outlined a few points and why I felt they were valid and thought nothing more about it.
Until I got a call to attend an involuntary 'Tea and Bickies' with the Fleet Manager about unspecified transgressions. Go through log book, call crew, try to remember if I had forgotten hat/jacket recently, usual stuff - all turned up nothing.
As it turned out it was my aggressive and hostile attitude to an external consultant on Company Business that was the cause of the problem. FWIW I was neither aggressive nor did I have a hostile attitude. What I did not do was tell the guy what he wanted to hear, and he made it very plain what he DID want to hear, and it was exactly what he would have been paid to report. Even more interesting was discussing with others who had spoken to him it was clear I had merely said exactly what everyone else had said. Despite his denials that nothing but 100% support for Qf's brilliant management existed in the workforce, he obviously got very frustrated hearing things he couldn't put in his report.
In my career I have had two 'Tea and Bickies' meetings (WK1 patterns). This one merely reinforced that the company in its current form (back then) was doomed. I said as much, laughed and simply walked out saying I just had the proof I needed an exit strategy, urgently! Now it is actually way worse than I thought it could ever get!