This is the thing that is often glossed over when discussing what investors want out of a company. The primary goal of an investment is to provide a large retur

This is the thing that is often glossed over when discussing what investors want out of a company. The primary goal of an investment is to provide a large return in a short timeframe, regardless of what happens after cashing out. Burning up a company's future to inflate short-term profits can be a perfectly fine strategy for an investor. You could argue that the last people who should have a say in how a company runs its affairs are the investors, because they are the most likely to make decisions that are bad for the company.