I had an interesting comment exchange with Kit the other week about maximizing shareholders profits versus balancing stakeholders interests - one involves a strictly bottom line business approach while the other means considering the needs of all the players that affect your business (i.e. customers, employees, or suppliers BESIDES the shareholders).

Here is a very nice exemplification of the latter coming from an interview with Craig List's CEO, one of the few internet companies that surviveed the dotcom bubble. He says that "Management has a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders. That much is true. But there's nothing to say the company needs to maximize profit at the expense of other goals."