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Google, Yahoo, and Apple's purpose is to maximize shareholder value. Those other things are just marketing fluff. Yahoo could do with some better marketing.

chrisro 14y ago
I really hate this sentiment. I think Ray Anderson, founder of Interface has it right: "For those who think business exists to make a profit, I suggest they think again. Business makes a profit to exist. Surely it must exist for some higher, nobler purpose than that."
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  That's a cute sentiment and there are many small businesses that adhere to it.
  - chrisro 14y ago
    Google seems to adhere to it as well. Google's founders (reluctantly) embraced text ads as a way to make the company they wanted to lead profitable so that it could continue to exist. I think modern business loses sight of this idea.
  - llamanaut 14y ago
    I have trouble thinking of a market-leading business that doesn't adhere to it. Wal-Mart, Exxon, Apple, Google, Toyota... Companies that concentrate on creating real value naturally reap economic rewards. Companies that prioritize captured economic value over the creation of customer value have a nasty habit of failing. I strongly suggest that you stop writing shallow, snarky one-liners. They detract from HN, they reflect poorly upon you, and they're against the guidelines. If you want to post like that, please go back to Reddit.
  - wpietri 14y ago
    And many large ones. I once worked for somebody who previously had built a $400m company. His notion was that companies should have a purpose, be up to something interesting. "Profit is just permission to continue," was something he said more than once. The mere pursuit of profit is always fatal in the long term because it's essentially a short-term outlook that leaves you rudderless. Look at the car industry as an example. Toyota has been consistent in its pursuit of customer value, respect for staff, and waste reduction, with profit coming way down the list of priorities. GM, on the other hand, is where the modern increase-shareholder-value school of management originated. Toyota is now the world's largest car company, and GM would have died without a government bailout.
notJim 14y ago
That's an incredibly reductionist view, and I'm so tired of people parroting it over and over again as if it's insightful. I mean, maximize shareholder value how? And how do they continue to maximize shareholder value? And over what period are they maximizing shareholder value? And how do they try find global maxima instead of local maxima? Is your answer to this simply going to be to parrot "maximize shareholder value" again? Not all companies are started with the goal being "to maximize shareholder value." Try pitching that to VCs. Try trying to get a small business loan, telling your bank "ahh yes, I noticed that there are too-few companies maximizing shareholder value, so I'm going to do that." "Maximize shareholder value" is not a company. A company needs vision, it needs to do something or build something. A company needs profit, and preferably lots of it, yes, but it also needs a guiding philosophy that informs the markets it enters and the ways it enters them. You can call it "marketing fluff", but it's what makes the company what it is. For the best companies, profit is part of the vision, but it does not subsume the vision. Google and Apple are both very successful companies, but they're both very different. You can deride the difference between them as marketing fluff, but I call it "successfully executing on vision."
- Schwolop 14y ago
  That's an incredibly reductionist view Now that is a pithy retort I must commit to memory! Ouch.
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  Of course every company has a "vision statement" on the wall. That doesn't mean it's a real thing that's worth discussing on HN. Even if a tiny percentage of companies truly believe and adhere to it. Google+ certainly isn't anything about "organizing the world's information".
  - notJim 14y ago
    In what way are the social connections between people and the things they share with one another not information? In some sense, that's the most valuable information out there, which is why not having it scared the shit out of Google.

chrisro 14y ago

I really hate this sentiment. I think Ray Anderson, founder of Interface has it right: "For those who think business exists to make a profit, I suggest they think again. Business makes a profit to exist. Surely it must exist for some higher, nobler purpose than that."

MatthewPhillips 14y ago
That's a cute sentiment and there are many small businesses that adhere to it.
- chrisro 14y ago
  Google seems to adhere to it as well. Google's founders (reluctantly) embraced text ads as a way to make the company they wanted to lead profitable so that it could continue to exist. I think modern business loses sight of this idea.
- llamanaut 14y ago
  I have trouble thinking of a market-leading business that doesn't adhere to it. Wal-Mart, Exxon, Apple, Google, Toyota... Companies that concentrate on creating real value naturally reap economic rewards. Companies that prioritize captured economic value over the creation of customer value have a nasty habit of failing. I strongly suggest that you stop writing shallow, snarky one-liners. They detract from HN, they reflect poorly upon you, and they're against the guidelines. If you want to post like that, please go back to Reddit.
- wpietri 14y ago
  And many large ones. I once worked for somebody who previously had built a $400m company. His notion was that companies should have a purpose, be up to something interesting. "Profit is just permission to continue," was something he said more than once. The mere pursuit of profit is always fatal in the long term because it's essentially a short-term outlook that leaves you rudderless. Look at the car industry as an example. Toyota has been consistent in its pursuit of customer value, respect for staff, and waste reduction, with profit coming way down the list of priorities. GM, on the other hand, is where the modern increase-shareholder-value school of management originated. Toyota is now the world's largest car company, and GM would have died without a government bailout.

notJim 14y ago

That's an incredibly reductionist view, and I'm so tired of people parroting it over and over again as if it's insightful. I mean, maximize shareholder value how? And how do they continue to maximize shareholder value? And over what period are they maximizing shareholder value? And how do they try find global maxima instead of local maxima? Is your answer to this simply going to be to parrot "maximize shareholder value" again? Not all companies are started with the goal being "to maximize shareholder value." Try pitching that to VCs. Try trying to get a small business loan, telling your bank "ahh yes, I noticed that there are too-few companies maximizing shareholder value, so I'm going to do that." "Maximize shareholder value" is not a company. A company needs vision, it needs to do something or build something. A company needs profit, and preferably lots of it, yes, but it also needs a guiding philosophy that informs the markets it enters and the ways it enters them. You can call it "marketing fluff", but it's what makes the company what it is. For the best companies, profit is part of the vision, but it does not subsume the vision. Google and Apple are both very successful companies, but they're both very different. You can deride the difference between them as marketing fluff, but I call it "successfully executing on vision."

Schwolop 14y ago
That's an incredibly reductionist view Now that is a pithy retort I must commit to memory! Ouch.
MatthewPhillips 14y ago
Of course every company has a "vision statement" on the wall. That doesn't mean it's a real thing that's worth discussing on HN. Even if a tiny percentage of companies truly believe and adhere to it. Google+ certainly isn't anything about "organizing the world's information".
- notJim 14y ago
  In what way are the social connections between people and the things they share with one another not information? In some sense, that's the most valuable information out there, which is why not having it scared the shit out of Google.