SITTING ON THE BOARD OF A COMPANY THAT HAS lost $6.5 billion in just two years can be an exasperating experience. Last Monday the beleaguered directors of General Motors decided that enough was enough. In the most sweeping top- management reorganization since 1920, they demoted two top executives and sharply circumscribed the powers -- and possibly the future -- of chairman Robert C. Stempel.
Lloyd Reuss, 55, was demoted from president to executive vice president (his successor: John F. Smith Jr., 54, head of GM's profitable foreign operations); Robert T. O'Connell, 53, was bumped from executive V.P. and chief financial officer...