[thomasjudge]

A lot of times (speaking generally, not specifically about Toyota) CEO compensation is tied to share price targets, which aligns CEO & management behavior to whatever will make the Wall Street analysts happy, which is often quarterly earnings

[chasd00]

many other things are tied to share price too. Enron would still be around if the share price hadn't dipped and started the domino fall ending in the scandal that killed the whole company.