Or, at the very least, you have to ask which shareholders:
> Serving shareholders’ “best interests” is not the same thing as either maximizing profits, or maximizing shareholder value. "Shareholder value," for one thing, is a vague objective: No single “shareholder value” can exist, because different shareholders have different values. Some are long-term investors planning to hold stock for years or decades; others are short-term speculators.
The focus on shareholders mostly took hold in the 1970s (coïncidentally when folks like Milton Friedman became more popular, and the 1980s (Reagan, Thatcher)):
I think we're all in agreement here. The comment you're replying to, and mine along the chain, are only making the point that corporate leadership is required to act in the best interest of shareholders but that this can be interpreted more broadly than just profits.
Yeah, this is exactly the point I was making. You do have a fiduciary duty to your shareholders, but you have fairly broad latitude in how that's interpreted.
Nope:
* https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/06/26/the-shareholder-v...
Per the US Supreme Court:
> […] modern corporate law does not require for-profit corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else, and many do not.
* https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-supreme-court/13-354.ht...
Or, at the very least, you have to ask which shareholders:
> Serving shareholders’ “best interests” is not the same thing as either maximizing profits, or maximizing shareholder value. "Shareholder value," for one thing, is a vague objective: No single “shareholder value” can exist, because different shareholders have different values. Some are long-term investors planning to hold stock for years or decades; others are short-term speculators.
* https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/04/16/what-are-co...
The focus on shareholders mostly took hold in the 1970s (coïncidentally when folks like Milton Friedman became more popular, and the 1980s (Reagan, Thatcher)):
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine
and so to claim it is self-evident when there is decades of history for other views, is at least not accurate:
* https://www2.law.temple.edu/10q/purpose-corporation-brief-hi...
And contrary to what many people think, the shareholders are not the owners of a company.
* https://www.ippr.org/articles/who-owns-a-company
* https://hbr.org/2012/07/what-good-are-shareholders
* https://www.ft.com/content/7bd1b20a-879b-11e5-90de-f44762bf9...
* https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergeorgescu/2021/07/21/the-s...
* https://queenslawclinics.ca/node/81