Shareholders V. Stakeholders

The economic crisis has revived the old debate about whether firms should focus most on their shareholders, their customers or their workers. Over the past twenty-five years, maximizing returns to stockholders, has been the sole aim of firms. However, given the current financial crisis many have come to believe "shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world." In many ways today Goldman Sachs epitomizes these economic complications. How will we choose to remedy these problems and what direction will we go in the future? Shareholders? Customers? Workers?