Justin Fox, who is editorial director of HBR Group, and Jay Lorsch, a professor at Harvard Business School, called their article "What good are shareholders?" The answer, several thousand closely considered words later, is "not much". The two authors paint a picture of deadlock and muddle when it comes to good corporate practice. "Executives complain, with justification, that meddling and second-guessing from shareholders are making it harder for them to do their jobs effectively," they say.

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