Corporate Boards Suffer 'Experience Gap' as Coronavirus Upends Business by John D. Stoll, March 20, 2020, Wall Street Journal

Summary: As the new coronavirus wreaks havoc, it is fair to ask how prepared today's boardrooms are. The author argues that a movement that was designed to make boards better -- by removing "overboarded" directors, i.e. directors who held a half-dozen or so public board seats at the same time -- may instead leave some companies flat-footed. Precisely these "overboarded" affiliations have proven invaluable in past times of crisis. When GM was skidding toward bankruptcy in 2008-9, Ford Motor relied on a longtime board member with deep connections and multiple board seats, namely ex-Goldman Sachs President John Thornton, to help it survive its own liquidity crisis.

1 There used to be something of an insider network on US company boards. What were the disadvantages of this insider system?

2 What were perhaps some of the advantages of this insider system?

3 Why was the old insider system dismantled?

4 Who led the charge to dismantle the system?

5 The author seems to pine for the old system. What were the advantages of having board directors who served at many different companies?