I think the story sounds fake because they listened to him.
Having the ideas is easy. Persuading and organization to change is not.
Perhaps it’s a cultural difference between the middle of the 20th century and now.
Why would a small company CEO hire a famous consultant only to ignore his suggestions? Absolutely not evidence of it being fake.
Often the highly paid consultants are there entirely to get the organisation to listen to the right ideas that already exist within the company.