Economists might focus on that, but the point is that in actuality companies do not focus on 'providing the greatest possible benefit to the greatest number of

Economists might focus on that, but the point is that in actuality companies do not focus on 'providing the greatest possible benefit to the greatest number of people'. Partially it's because that goal is far more difficult and complex than the simple aspirations of Greater Taylorism: to increase shareholder value. It's much easier to increase a stock price than it is to actually provide value for a large number of people, which leads to cases like IBM who spends billions buying back their stock while the actual value of their products declines to near zero.