The ‘pernicious nonsense’ of maximizing shareholder value

By Steve Denning

The Economist recently declared maximizing shareholder value to be “the biggest idea in business.” It may well be the biggest idea, but it’s also “the error at the heart of corporate leadership,” according to the current issue of Harvard Business Review in an article by two distinguished Harvard Business School professors — Joseph L. Bower and Lynn S. Paine. Maximizing shareholder value, they write, is “flawed in its assumptions, confused as a matter of law, and damaging in practice.”…

[Click HERE to read the full article]
Share