Dragan, you are absolutely right. But if I may try to summarize your point, the problem is short term vs long term thinking.

Companies maximize profit in the short term to increase share value, even if it is at the expense of long term success.


>>I couldn't agree with more. Now a days corporations are concerned with "share holder value", their obligation is to those innocent saps who have invested their savings into their stock and have to be protected. I've seen trends over the years with business and this one is not good and I don't think will stand the test of time. There's been a shift from the corporate attitude of "this is who we are, accept it" when investors buy in to "you own us, we will do anything to please you", which is not good for employees. The day will come, not this year or even the next five or ten, when either via unions or legislation the will of the people will be brought to bear on corporations.
>
>It's not just the profits, it's the promise of the speed of profit increase. Which means that much too often it's not what's good for the company, employees, or shareholders, but what'll look steep on the graph. And too often the graph jumps not because of increased sales, or rise of general confidence in the company, but because their quartely report showed profits jumping... which is often done by cutting salary costs, the hard way.
>
>Many companies actually lose their business knowledge by letting go the most expensive workers... (scratch that word - politically incorrect) associates, effectively cutting off the branch they're sitting on. But hey, our stock sells fine, we'll sell ours and abandon ship when the time comes.
>
>I much more prefer a company which has medium but stable profits, and stays in business long. I don't care if Wall Street doesn't like it because it's slow and they can't make big money on it.