Worrying news in from the boardroom at the European Aeronautic Defence and Space () company, manufacturer of Airbus. Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal has been invited to join the board as a non-executive director.
Is the company planning on using more steel in the construction of its aircraft? If so, the A380 superjumbo really will struggle to get off the ground.
If you think that was a bad joke, take a look around the boardrooms of some other major companies. What are independent directors bringing to the table in terms of "domain knowledge" and commercial expertise?
Has the chairman spotted a gap in the board's experience that could be filled by the right non-executive, or is he just looking for a big hitter to dazzle his friends?
When things go wrong in business, it is usually the cue for a vigorous game of Find The Guilty Men. Not unreasonably, the search tends to start at the top of the company. And invariably this search uncovers a list of illustrious names, highly respected and distinguished people who Should Have Known Better.
As a teenage scribbler I marvelled at the array of great and good people who sat on the board of Tony Ryan's aircraft-leasing company GPA and watched as its planned 1992 flotation got well and truly trashed.
Former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald, former ICI chairman Sir John Harvey-Jones and former chancellor of the exchequer Nigel Lawson - who popularised the phrase "teenage scribbler" - were all on the GPA board at the time.
More recently, the Conrad Black trial reminded us of the characters the noble Lord Black of Crossharbour had persuaded to join him round the Hollinger board table. Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, was there. Richard Perle, an influential neo-con adviser to US president George W Bush, joined the team, as did the wives of Henry Kravis and, er, Conrad Black.
Now Northern Rock has joined the list of apparently pukka institutions whose impressive board members were unable to anticipate or stave off disaster.
In the coming weeks it will be asked: how well did the risk committee understand the bank's vulnerability to a drying-up of short-term funding from the money markets?
Anticipating and managing risk is emerging as perhaps the most crucial - and difficult - task facing the directors of public companies. But another element of uncertainty has to be added to the mix: the varying appetites for risk among your shareholder base.
Some hedge funds might be looking for rapid (and spectacular) returns, and be prepared to stomach greater risk.
Long-term investors would sacrifice some yield in return for greater certainty.
The risks that businesses are exposed to now are so varied and unpredictable that you wonder how boards are supposed to cope.
Figures released by Deloitte last week reveal a 20 per cent fall in the number of UK directors over the last five years. This may indicate that ever-more senior people are looking at the risks involved in being a director and deciding they are too great.
But someone has got to do it. In the case of non-executives, the need is urgent. Tiny Rowland, the Lonrho boss, may have dismissed independent directors as "baubles on a Christmas tree". But the work done (or not) by non-executives has consequences that last for life, not just for Christmas.
The job description was set out very clearly by Derek Higgs more than four years ago.
"Non-executive directors," he wrote, "should question intelligently, debate constructively, challenge rigorously and decide dispassionately."
Is that too much to ask? -
