Potentially Big News: Top CEOs Realizing That 'Maximizing Shareholder Value' Isn't A Great Idea

Sun, 25 Aug 2019 04:36:32 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190819/16582042822/potentially-big-news-top-ceos-realizing-that-maximizing-shareholder-value-isnt-great-idea.shtml>

'Conceptually, maximizing shareholder value makes some sense, but only
if you don't think about it for more than a few minutes. Because the
whole thing falls apart as soon as you ask "over what time frame?" I
first wrote about this back in 2006, in what I called the "time function
of profits," in trying to understand why so many people were claiming
that Craigslist's approach to grow slowly (but massively) by leaving
most of their site free and not doing all sorts of icky stuff, was seen
by some as "leaving money on the table" or even being anti-capitalist.
As I pointed out then, that only made sense if you thought in the very
short-term. Taking a longer term view suggests that "maximizing" profits
in the short run is likely to create significant problems in the long
run, whether it be competition or customers annoyed at you and the like.'

Via Glyn Moody.

Cheers,
        *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net                   Andrew Pam
http://www.xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
http://www.glasswings.com.au/             Partner, Glass Wings
http://www.sericyb.com.au/                Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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