The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 2 plus 3 plus 5 letter word GO BY THE BOARD
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
G
O
B
Y
T
H
E
B
O
A
R
D
More clues leading to the result GO BY THE BOARD
- Follow the directors or come to grief
- Pass article with company executives and meet disaster?
- Trap set by unknown corporate group to be ignored
- Listen to top management or meet disaster
- Obey top management, or be overlooked
- Heartless loud-mouthed directors to be ignored
- Act in accordance with directors and be ignored
- Travel times? Directors get lost
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "come to grief" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case come to grief = go by the board.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.