[MawKKe]

Create value for shareholders vs. create value for customers

[archerx]

I wonder if the amazing idea thatcreating value for the customer creates value for the shareholders will ever catch on? I call it trickle up economics.

[godzillabrennus]

There is a line of thought that the more value you give a customer the less your company will keep for itself and the less a shareholder will make. A volunteer gives away all their value to the recipient. An entrepreneur wants to collect money in exchange for value created. Far more money than they spent creating the value for the customer.

[praxulus]

How is this creating value for shareholders? They wasted a bunch of engineer and pm salaries building useless products that never made (and now never will make) any significant money.

[jellicle]

But that's not how shareholder value is created. Shareholder value is created by press releases and hype, encouraging new people to buy the stock and drive up the price, not by building anything useful to society or long-term profitable.

So if Google Fit drove a hype cycle, it was successful.

[jfoster]

Not that simple. Apple seems to be creating value for shareholders & customers.

[elaus]

That's the great part: creating value for customers can pay out for shareholders as well in the long run. But it's probably not a viable option if you want quick returns.

[pjc50]

This is the third case: creating value for employees. Google promotes people for making new things. Thereby guaranteeing product churn.

(edit: the limit case is of course Elon Musk arguing that he should simply be given the entire company treasury as payroll at Tesla, one single employee taking all the value produced)

[whamlastxmas]

Glad we could make this about Elon, haven’t heard enough about him in the last 30 seconds