What´s wrong with this picture? Only everything. When the CEO commits the fundamental value error of delegating ´shareholder value´ to career journeymen (or women) mired in the depths of the corporation, that leader signals to major shareholders and the financial community at large that here at HopeFul Insurance, ´value´ is a high-fluff PR theme, not to be taken seriously.

Maximizing shareholder value is the corporation´s first objective and thus the CEO´s own personal most important responsibility. The middle manager enthralled by the trappings of value jargon and process but underknowledgeable of top value actions becomes a source of destruction, not value creation.

The problem is self-correcting: in the dozen or so corporations where the CEO has chosen the value creation slow track by making the mistake of relegation, that CEO has been "asked to pursue personal interests" by his Board even earlier than the 3 to 3.5 year tenure of today´s chief executive.

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