That's the theory of shareholder capitalism, but in practice there are modern cultural pressures that dislocate profit motive from behavior.
Primarily agency conflict of interest between employees who believe strongly in social justice (as one example) and the employer's profit motive. Said employees create significant social peer pressures inside the org's culture, for example organizing walkouts based on their principles, which forces the hand of the execs. Execs are scared of the employees and prefer to cede to the new culture rather than challenge it and face their two minutes of hate. These are all just people following their private incentives and beliefs at the expense of the employer's profit motive.
A concrete example of this is when tech company employees protest their employer's contracts with the army. That works against the exec's judgment of what is profitable.
Now, this only happens when there is true ideological conviction. Otherwise the profit motive rules the day.
Primarily agency conflict of interest between employees who believe strongly in social justice (as one example) and the employer's profit motive. Said employees create significant social peer pressures inside the org's culture, for example organizing walkouts based on their principles, which forces the hand of the execs. Execs are scared of the employees and prefer to cede to the new culture rather than challenge it and face their two minutes of hate. These are all just people following their private incentives and beliefs at the expense of the employer's profit motive.
A concrete example of this is when tech company employees protest their employer's contracts with the army. That works against the exec's judgment of what is profitable.
Now, this only happens when there is true ideological conviction. Otherwise the profit motive rules the day.