In fact, in the first three decades following World War II, corporate managers saw their job as balancing the claims of investors, employees, consumers, and the public at large. The large corporation was in effect “owned” by everyone with a stake in how it performed. The notion that only shareholders count emerged from a period in the 1980s when corporate raiders demanded managers sell off “underperforming” assets, close factories, take on more debt, and fire employees in order to maximize shareholder returns.
