It's very common in these kind of scenarios that either a) the same criticism / suggestions have been made regularly over a long time by people inside the company which have gone ignored, or b) the company has a culture in which that information never reaches the CEO, either out of fear or because of middle management layers.
In both those cases, the CEO is actually mismanaging the company and completely undermining the motivation and loyalty of his employees.
I've seen this happen time and time again. CEO's and managers don't accept internal criticism or suggestions, don't give their people the freedom to take action themselves, but some outsider swoops in with an impressive Powerpoint presentation (or dress) and suddenly they see the light.
It's the opposite of taking risks (you can blame the outsiders if it fails), it's actually cowardice.