Is it time to re-think the shareholder value obsession?

In 1970s, the Nobel-prize laureate in Economics Milton Friedman stated that profits are the only real goal of a business and above all other goals, a company must maximise profits and shareholder value:

"There is one and only one social responsibility of the business - to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits".

But that was 50 years ago! For 50 years this theory has created severe inequality between the drive for material well-being of employers' vs the mental well-being o employees. The result: 87% of people globally, on average, are unhappy at work (Gallup, 2015). Its time to re-think the shareholder value obsession and think of profit and productivity as a means to finance the company's bigger purpose.