Many business leaders focus on the short term because they are under constant pressure from shareholders, capital markets, and investors to generate immediate profits. So are quarterly reports, bonuses tied to annual performance, and fierce competition. This incentivizes decision-making that prioritizes results today over the full weight of potential consequences tomorrow. It fosters a mindset where many companies ignore or underinvest in critical areas—talent development, employee well-being, social responsibility, or sustainable infrastructure, among others—because more often than not, they are negative in ROI and if they generate results, they do so over a sustained period of time, or are so insignificant as to be invisible.
Consequently, at the societal level, surplus, or—to put it more bluntly—purpose and well-being, neglect employee loyalty, shifting the focus toward diminished motivation, reputational losses among more responsible consumers, and the negative social effects brought about by policies of discrimination, inequality gaps, underemployment, or deteriorating environmental geopolitics, among others. Such losses are also, in the long term, likely to become counterproductive to financial results; this is paradoxically because purpose-driven and long-term-oriented companies enjoy better community relations, improved talent, and greater innovative and systemic resilience to sustained crises.
Consequently, at the societal level, surplus, or—to put it more bluntly—purpose and well-being, neglect employee loyalty, shifting the focus toward diminished motivation, reputational losses among more responsible consumers, and the negative social effects brought about by policies of discrimination, inequality gaps, underemployment, or deteriorating environmental geopolitics, among others. Such losses are also, in the long term, likely to become counterproductive to financial results; this is paradoxically because purpose-driven and long-term-oriented companies enjoy better community relations, improved talent, and greater innovative and systemic resilience to sustained crises.