One day, fickle investors are applauding business-school alumni for paying big dividends and slashing costs. The next, they’re demanding that engineers take over to make up for lost innovation. Be careful that they don’t change their minds again.

This is what happened in early December when Pat Gelsinger unexpectedly retired as chief executive and director of Intel. The Pennsylvania-born engineer, who helped pioneer USB ports and Wi-Fi, had been appointed on Jan. 13, 2021, with a mandate to regain lost technological ground from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Advanced Micro Devices. The chip maker’s shares rose almost 7% on the news.