Everyone has an opinion. Most people have incentives. Few people have skin in the game.
The large consulting firms lobby your regulator in the morning and audit your books in the afternoon. They can’t tell you the truth. Not because they’re dishonest. Because the hand that pays them also feeds them. Their findings justify the engagement, not the next right answer.
You live with the outcomes. Your time, your money, your organization’s future.
Listen to the one whose recommendation, if wrong, costs them something real. Not the one with a polished deck and a retainer.
Skin in the game is the only credential that can’t be faked.