> Admittedly I've only been in the workforce for a couple decades, but isn't this precisely what large, or at a minimum publicly traded, companies operate on?
> I've worked for multiple public companies and this is a universal theme among any I've worked with or for. Legally they're even required to do what is best for shareholders, nothing more.
Yes, in the long term. Not in the short term. The problem becomes when corporate Managers go from being long term greedy to short term greedy.
I'll share a, perhaps, controversial opinion. Google and Facebook and OpenAI share and give away enormous excess value. Their give-aways help grow these companies in the long term and the strategy has been super-successful. Google and Meta and OpenAI are examples of good long-term shareholder value creation.
- Example look at the vast array of things Google gives away freely. Colab. Open source projects. Chrome. Transformer research. All of it eventually benefits Google but plenty is excess value given away and creates much downstream value.
- Look at the vast amount of software and AI research Meta gives away. My entire startup was based on their software. If I had relied on Matlab, I would have been fleeced of all my operating cash.
- Example, look at OpenAI giving away ChatGPT 3.5 for free. Yes, it is an act of long-term greed, but in the short term they are giving away huge value. Imagine how Oracle would have done this -- you would have started the login screen with a credit card entry.
The problem happens when you get short-term finalcial-engineering focused managers running a company. They try to juice remaining value, load up with debt, press on customers, squeeze workers, and eventually kill the company.
I'd argue that eventually the short-term focused people will always take over and ruin the company. When times get tough long-term goals are hard to stick to. Investors, ownership, etc get spooked and look for a way to try to solve problems now, losing sight of why the company was moving on a path that only pays off in the long term.
In the case of tech companies, I fully expect to see them shift heavily towards the short-term whenever the tides turn. VCs did it last year, as soon as money dried up and economic concerns rose VCs shifted from investing with a goal of say 1 in 20 companies succeeding to only investing money in companies that appeared to be a sure bet.
Comments
Yes, in the long term. Not in the short term. The problem becomes when corporate Managers go from being long term greedy to short term greedy.
I'll share a, perhaps, controversial opinion. Google and Facebook and OpenAI share and give away enormous excess value. Their give-aways help grow these companies in the long term and the strategy has been super-successful. Google and Meta and OpenAI are examples of good long-term shareholder value creation.
- Example look at the vast array of things Google gives away freely. Colab. Open source projects. Chrome. Transformer research. All of it eventually benefits Google but plenty is excess value given away and creates much downstream value.
- Look at the vast amount of software and AI research Meta gives away. My entire startup was based on their software. If I had relied on Matlab, I would have been fleeced of all my operating cash.
- Example, look at OpenAI giving away ChatGPT 3.5 for free. Yes, it is an act of long-term greed, but in the short term they are giving away huge value. Imagine how Oracle would have done this -- you would have started the login screen with a credit card entry.
The problem happens when you get short-term finalcial-engineering focused managers running a company. They try to juice remaining value, load up with debt, press on customers, squeeze workers, and eventually kill the company.
I'd argue that eventually the short-term focused people will always take over and ruin the company. When times get tough long-term goals are hard to stick to. Investors, ownership, etc get spooked and look for a way to try to solve problems now, losing sight of why the company was moving on a path that only pays off in the long term.
In the case of tech companies, I fully expect to see them shift heavily towards the short-term whenever the tides turn. VCs did it last year, as soon as money dried up and economic concerns rose VCs shifted from investing with a goal of say 1 in 20 companies succeeding to only investing money in companies that appeared to be a sure bet.