[superfist]

Because no one rewards long-term efforts. You are rewarded for short-term goals and, at best, mid-term ones. In an abstract sense, customers reward you for long-term efforts, but this is something no one will put in an Excel spreadsheet with financial voodoo calculations, except when you are the sole owner of the business.

[falcor84]

Could this perverse incentive be rectified in some way? Perhaps by offering much of the compensation in equity that they'd have to hold on to for decades?

[csomar]

> Could this perverse incentive be rectified in some way?

Yes, the companies will slowly disappear into oblivion with competitors (ie: China) gradually eating their launch.