Under those circumstances, the directors argue, they have no duty to abandon a deliberately conceived corporate plan in favor of a short-term shareholder profit.

Once in the limelight, Mr. Khumalo became a darling of white business executives because he criticized affirmative action and put shareholder profits above all else.

One reason was that any such payments would have come from shareholder profits.

So far, outsourcing manufacturing and services has led to higher chief executive compensation, at the expense of shareholder profit.

As caring as ever they chose to continue putting shareholder profits before customer comfort.

There is often a conflict between what maximizes shareholder profit and what is good for individuals and the country as a whole.

It also examines the financial benefits for companies that focus primarily on customer satisfaction rather than shareholder profits.

"The for-profit has to be subordinate to the mission of the nonprofit," he said, which conflicts with its "fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder profits."

And fund companies have argued that the high costs of monitoring compliance with the rule have eaten into shareholder profits.

After all, the priority should be the safety of passengers and staff, and not shareholder profit.