Originally Posted by
mikebg
What a load of nonsense! I make a living from stock market investments. I can tell you that virtually all genuinely successful companies regard their human resources as being one of the greatest assets of the company. Companies which treat their employees with disdain are actually worth less in the long run to their shareholders. Much research has been done on this topic, and it is crystal clear that a contented workforce earns great dividends for any company. I would not be interested in investing in a company whose management treated their employees with the levels of disrespect that we are seeing with BA vs MF.
More than personal vs institutional investors as discussed by others, in my view, the key difference here is between long term and short term investors. Long term investors will fully agree with your absolutely correct point and value other key long term profit drivers like reputation, customer service, reliability, etc. Short term investors, on the other hand, are only interested in an immediate profit before they sell shares and could not care less if the company goes down the drains two weeks later. Sadly, they may drag companies in an entirely wrong direction without batting an eyelid as a result.
