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> a company that clearly communicates to potential investors and the market as a whole that they have a different metric of shareholder value (e.g. social consc
by ergothus 8y ago
> a company that clearly communicates to potential investors and the market as a whole that they have a different metric of shareholder value (e.g. social conscience
You're talking about things like Ben & Jerry's social contract. I think those are great. But here I'm talking about values like "We want to make money by making great widgets people are happy to buy". Most companies say such things, but after they go public the value seem switch to "find every way to increase the margins and take the lowest thresholds of quality and customer satisfaction that we can have and still remain in business". Compare, say, what Comcast says about customer service and what customers say.
The ideal of capitalism is that you can have profit AND happy customers. And I know it's possible, I've seen it any number of products...but I also see tons of successful companies get "killed" by short term greed, even if that company sticks around and is profitable - compared to what it was, it is dead.