Fired CEOs are seldom the idiots in retrospect they appeared to be at the time. Take GM's late Bob Stempel, a supremely accomplished executive who received a lot more respect in his obits last week than he did in the early 1990s.

Back then, the economy was emerging from recession, and Stempel was the first of a series of big-name CEOs overthrown by activist boards at companies that seemed unable to get in gear. These revolts weren't seen as disconnected episodes at the time. They were hailed as evidence that boards of directors...