You're going to get across the board replies here. To each constituent, they do different things. There are consultants across the board in speciality, quality, etc.
On HN, they get a bad rap from the "i'm smart, I know everything, worker bee crowd" who think business is just slinging JS code and product updates. Consultants are often brought into those people orgs to deal with / or around, valuable know-it-alls, fiefdoms, poor vision / strategy, or politics that are holding the company back. They're often cited as "just doing reports", when in fact consultants sometimes stay out of implementation to make sure the owning team owns & implements the solution.
Consultants often provide the hiring manager a shield on dicey projects or risky outcomes. Where if it goes wrong, the manager can say "it was those consultants".
Teams are brought in as trained, skilled, up to date staff the company cannot hire fire, or shouldn't due to duration of need, or skillset
Sometimes they're brought in because the politics of the internal company lead to stalemates, poor strategy, etc.
Often at the higher levels, they're brought in due to focusing on a speciality, market, or vertical to have large experience that isn't possible to get in house.
One's experience with consultants frames their opinion. I've only worked with very high quality teams in the past that provide a healthy balance of vision, strategy, implementation, etc
On HN, they get a bad rap from the "i'm smart, I know everything, worker bee crowd" who think business is just slinging JS code and product updates. Consultants are often brought into those people orgs to deal with / or around, valuable know-it-alls, fiefdoms, poor vision / strategy, or politics that are holding the company back. They're often cited as "just doing reports", when in fact consultants sometimes stay out of implementation to make sure the owning team owns & implements the solution.
Consultants often provide the hiring manager a shield on dicey projects or risky outcomes. Where if it goes wrong, the manager can say "it was those consultants".
Teams are brought in as trained, skilled, up to date staff the company cannot hire fire, or shouldn't due to duration of need, or skillset
Sometimes they're brought in because the politics of the internal company lead to stalemates, poor strategy, etc.
Often at the higher levels, they're brought in due to focusing on a speciality, market, or vertical to have large experience that isn't possible to get in house.
One's experience with consultants frames their opinion. I've only worked with very high quality teams in the past that provide a healthy balance of vision, strategy, implementation, etc