Jan 27

Maximizing shareholder value should be your first priority?

No, evidence suggests that firms that put the customer first actually do better. Putting shareholders first is a flawed premise. The harder the CEO is pushed to increase shareholder value, the more the CEO will be tempted to make moves that will actually hurt the shareholders.

Determining what your customers’ value and focusing on always pleasing them is a better optimization formula.

wow-customer-service-cartoon

Robert Wood Johnson created this statement of purpose for Johnson and Johnson in 1943. “ We believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and fathers and all others that use our products and services…. We are responsible to our employees, the men and women who work with us throughout the world…. We are responsible to the communities in which we live and work and to the world community as well…. Our final responsibility is to our stockholders…. We operate according to these principles, the stockholders should realize a fair return”.

If more companies made customers their top priority, the quality of corporate decision making would improve because thinking about the customer forces you to focus on improving your operations and the products and services you provide, rather then spinning lines to shareholders.

This does not mean that you will lose cost discipline. The profit motive will not go away. Managers like profits as much as shareholders do, because the more profits the firm makes, the more money is available to pay managers. The need for a healthy share price is a natural constraint on any other objective you set.

Making share price the prime objective, creates the temptation to trade long-term gains in operations-driven value away for temporary gains in expectations driven value.

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Posted by: Paul Robbins
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