Two Takeaways From Montier’s Attack On Shareholder Value Maximization

The near constant refrain from activist investors is that they’re just working to maximize shareholder value, an objective that many of us take for granted even if we don’t automatically assume that hedge funds are being sincere about their goals. But the title of James Montier’s latest white paper “Shareholder Value Maximization: The World’s Dumbest Idea,” leaves no doubt where he stands on the matter. Based on his October talk at the European Investment Conference earlier this year with the same title (taken from a Jack Welch quote), there are two big takeaways from Montier’s paper on shareholder value maximization…