[MochaDen]

From the article it looks like there were 5 different executives overseeing the project during an approximately 4-year time frame. This sounds like a management failure to me rather than some failure of the American workforce or ingenuity.

Interestingly, the main executive involved got in some trouble with the SEC: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-111

"Ansell received undisclosed compensation that consisted, in part, of $280,000 in personal expenses he charged to the company."

So there may be more going on than just poor oversight...

[nine_zeros]

Most large corporations in America have a weird incentive structure problem. Nobody cares if the real work is done as long as their own jobs are protected.

This obviously means that if a savvy exec is putting the heat on the VP, the heat will transparently propagate to the lowest level leaf nodes worker. None of the middle layers take no responsibility ever. The managers will even go to the extent of firing the leaf nodes than admitting failure.

If the incentive structure were changed so that management gets fired first, everything will get produced automatically.

[swagasaurus-rex]

You can delegate authority, but you cannot delegate responsibility.

Companies regularly ignore this with enormous consequences to actual productivity