In a public company, the pressure to chase quarterly profits exists anyway because of the shareholders. If company A does something of questionable morality or risk, but it nets their shareholders a lot of value, it gets hard for the executives at company B to say 'no' to the strategy, even if they know better.
My suspicion is that this is why some companies start out as good and are later perceived as evil. The game changes once you have legal fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders. It seems to me that it can get very hard to defend your strategy of not maximizing profits when others around you are raking it in.
My suspicion is that this is why some companies start out as good and are later perceived as evil. The game changes once you have legal fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders. It seems to me that it can get very hard to defend your strategy of not maximizing profits when others around you are raking it in.