This article isn't very good. I actually agree with the idea. The quote about shareholder value being a dumb idea from Jack Welch, yeah, sure. This article is

This article isn't very good. I actually agree with the idea. The quote about shareholder value being a dumb idea from Jack Welch, yeah, sure. This article is sloppy though. The author side-by-side compares economists speaking in abstract aggregates, press releases from PR-generating-feel-good-organizations (the CEO roundtable thing), publicly stated metrics used by companies for success (IBM), and distribution/influencer strategies (Johnson and Johnson). It just seems like throwing a lot at the wall and seeing what sticks. Pulling out a 1980's feel-good-PR and contrasting that against Johnson and Johnson remaining focused on doctors, nurses, families... That's before getting into cherry-picking, survivor's bias, good and bad strategy (Rumelt would savage later-day IBM, not for being profit-focused, but because "doubling earnings per share" is not a strategy)... ...ok, too many problems to list them all. Agree with the general idea; the article isn't so well-thought though.