Business | Schumpeter

Tesla, Intel and the fecklessness of corporate boards

Too many directors at American companies aren’t doing their job

Illustration of a group of executives sitting at a table but their heads are the balls of a newton's cradle
Illustration: Brett Ryder

SITTING ON THE board of a large American company is at once the plummest and most thankless work in business. Plum because, when everything is going right, you pocket $300,000 a year in cash and stock for showing up to a well-catered meeting every month and a half. Thankless because you seldom get credit for things going right but take the blame when they go awry. And awry they go with disturbing regularity.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The board and the feckless”

From the December 14th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

How Trump’s tariffs could crush American carmakers

They must hope the levies do not endure

A squirel in a suit sitting at a desk in front of a computer

The Economist’s office agony uncle is back

Another bulging postbag for Max Flannel


The illustration depicts a surreal figure with a head resembling the Belgian flag, balancing a cityscape on a tray in one hand and holding a car in the other. The figure's body is dressed like a performer, and two smoking exhaust pipes protrude from the ba

The smiling new face of German big business

From Allianz to Zalando, pedlars of services are outdoing industrial firms at home—and foreign rivals abroad


Airbus has not taken full advantage of Boeing’s weakness

That could leave a gap for other planemakers to fill

Zyn is giving investors a buzz—for now

Nicotine pouches are growing fast