[formercoder]

Hi. I’m an mba. Profits are pretty important and firms should undertake NPV positive activities. We’ve seen amazing products fail many times due to lack of market fit. However, there’s certainly no shareholder value in bankruptcy or lawsuits.

[mannykannot]

I do not know whether it was your intent, but you appear to be endorsing the view that anything goes, unless it reduces NPV.

[bartread]

No, come on, let's assume good intent here.

History is littered with failed products that were very well engineered. For any business to last there needs to be an effective partnership between commercial and product development areas of the company (or, if you prefer, MBAs and engineers, not that the distinction is so clean).

GP is merely pointing that out.

[clueless123]

Agreed and point taken.. A good MBA's would realize the short sightedness of the actions they are taking (like they should have done in Boeing's case) and good engineers should have the integrity to say "you want me to do what? hell no!" That said, the malady I speak about is very real. (maybe even endimic?)

[formercoder]

Thank you. I certainly did not intend to communicate that “anything goes.” What I meant is that even when you apply the most cold-hearted financial analysis, short sightedness is often suboptimal. It’s tougher when your public investors watch every quarter like hawks.