Business | Refurbishing the boardroom

Demands on corporate boards are more intense than ever

And filling board seats has never been harder

The boardroom table in the boardroom of UniCredit SpA at the company's headquarters in Milan, Italy, on Sunday July 31, 2022. UniCredit top corporate and investment bankers are betting on surging demand for risk products in the most volatile market in a decade, and taking deal-making business from rivals to help meet ambitious revenue targets set down by Chief Executive Officer Andrea Orcel. Photographer: Francesca Volpi/Bloomberg via Getty Images — Image: Getty Images

Feb 23rd 2023

IN THE POPULAR imagination, a corporate board seat looks like the cushiest sinecure in business. Board members appear to get paid—often handsomely—to attend a few meetings a year and to nod knowingly as the chief executive pontificates on strategy. They seldom make the news unless the occasional tut-tut results in the CEO being shown the door, or an activist investor campaigns for a seat at an iconic company (as has happened in recent months at Disney, Salesforce and Tesla). Once the errant boss is out or the activist campaign is over, either because it succeeded or, as in Disney’s case, the challenger is placated with concessions, the board slinks back into comforting obscurity.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Refurbishing the boardroom”