It's more complicated than you're making it out to be. Maximizing shareholder value is a management philosophy that became increasingly prevalent between 1975

It's more complicated than you're making it out to be. Maximizing shareholder value is a management philosophy that became increasingly prevalent between 1975 and 2000. In both management ("What we should value and pursue") and case law ("What you will be sued and found guilty for not doing"). Why did it become popular? Because there were a huge number of inefficient companies at the time that were continuing business as usual under some guise of "We think this is best." While Japanese companies ate their lunches by working harder, faster, better, and smarter. Holding management to shareholder value -- and sueing the heck out of them when they didn't focus on it -- was a more objective measurement of effectiveness. After 2000, it became clear that the metric had become the target, and was now being pursued with a myopicness that was to the detriment of the company. There are few absolutes in "high performance"