{"id":10557,"date":"2026-10-30T09:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T09:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/?p=10557"},"modified":"2026-10-28T16:56:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T16:56:19","slug":"the-profit-motive-skews-leaders-priorities-from-silicon-valley-to-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-profit-motive-skews-leaders-priorities-from-silicon-valley-to-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"The Profit Motive Skews Leaders\u2019 Priorities from Silicon Valley to Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

In his debut investigative memoir, How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University<\/em>, student journalist Theo Baker exposes an elite institution that he alleges has been co-opted by Silicon Valley wealth, highlighting instances when institutional crisis management and corporate-style venture incubation eclipsed academic integrity. The book chronicles Baker\u2019s expos\u00e9 of systemic research misconduct during his freshman year, which forced Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne to resign. It also delivered an incisive indictment of an administrative culture dominated by an obsession with boosting the university\u2019s endowment, billionaire-backed slush funds, venture-capital scouts, and an aggressive public-relations apparatus designed to protect the university\u2019s brand at all costs.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Jeffrey Pfeffer<\/a> of Stanford University said that he sees a parallel between that example, which hits close to home, with US President<\/a> Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s personal profit-seeking<\/a> and coziness with wealthy donors, including financiers and tech billionaires.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to put this administration in a broader context of that widespread tendency for leaders\u2019 priorities to skew toward the profit motive at the expense of various stakeholders,\u201d Pfeffer said. \u201cWhile Trump is obviously very visible and very extreme, the problem of leaders<\/a> prioritizing profits over people and not being good stewards is common.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questioning whether layoffs are really necessary<\/strong><\/p>\n

As an example, Pfeffer cited Howard Behar, the retired president of Starbucks Coffee Company\u2019s North America division, the founding president of Starbucks International, and board member.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Howard because he\u2019s part of the conscious capitalism movement\u2014I met him when I went to a conscious capitalism conference, and he said to me, \u2018In 2008, the economy was not in good shape, but Starbucks had plenty of money, and we were still making money. We just weren’t making as much money as before, and when we did a round of layoffs, I told [former Starbucks CEO and Chairman Emeritus] Howard Schultz that I thought that this was unconscionable,\u2019 and Schultz resigned from the board,\u201d Pfeffer said. \u201cThis goes back now almost 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo profiteering, prioritizing profits and shareholders over all other stakeholders and treating employees as expendable, is not particularly new either,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a continuation of a trend that has been going on for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A sample of Pfeffer\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\n