Some will say that being successful in business is all about focusing on shareholder value. The interests of other stakeholders –employees and their families, customers or clients, communities, vendors and creditors, for example – are secondary at best.
Others say success in business is about balancing the interests of all the organization’s stakeholders.
Recent research regarding the factors in long-term success favors this second perspective: balance.
But Edward S. Lampert is a throwback. The head of Sears is focused only on short-term shareholder value. And that focus seems to be killing the company that was once America’s largest retailer.
Lampert, a former Goldman Sachs executive who jumped ship there to begin a much heralded run as a hedge fund manager at the tender age of 26, is presiding over what for all appearances is a quickly sinking ship.
Business Insider offers what amounts to a morality tale about the dangers of a single-minded focus on shareholder value -- quantifying Sears’ severe decline in sales, revenues, stores and employees as Lampert looks elsewhere to measure his success.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW A SUCCESSFUL COMPANY AND ITS CEO HAVE GONE WRONG AND WHY BALANCE MATTERS