Because that is what they are supposed to do: maximise the value of the corporation for its owners.
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The company exists to maximise the value of the BBC's assets for the benefit of the licence fee payer and invest in public service programming in return for rights.
Australia puts every foreign investment before a review board, and it is deeply concerned about China, which may not operate as a typical commercial investor trying to maximise the value of a resource, but rather as the representative of buyers who would like to do the reverse.
Yet bosses typically had their pay linked to short-term movements in share prices, which encouraged them to take measures to push the share price up quickly, rather than to maximise shareholder value in the long run (by when they would probably have departed).
In business, profit can go up for years even when a manager is overseeing activities that neither maximise the long-term value of the company nor aid society.
The financial meltdown has certainly undermined two of the big ideas inspired by Messrs Jensen and Meckling: that senior managers' pay should be closely linked to their firm's share price, and that private equity, backed by mountains of debt, would do a better job of getting managers to maximise value than the public equity markets.
To put it simply, as long as investment yields exceed underwriting losses, the way to maximise shareholder value is to underwrite as much risk as possible with as little capital as possible.
Taxpayers want their money back, but flogging jewels such as AIA may not be the best way to maximise value.
They are designed to protect the interests of minority investors, improve the accountability of companies and maximise shareholder value.
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When a stone is identified as a borderline case between two grades, the system uses an optimisation technique, called a genetic algorithm, to explore the different ways in which the stone could be cut to maximise its value.
To maximise profits, a firm hires workers so long as the value of an additional employee's output exceeds the added costs that hiring him imposes on the firm.
On the one hand, he is meant to maximise Telkom's value to potential buyers.
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If we design a system in which firms are expected to maximise shareholder value and CEOs are stimulated to take risks, some of the investments are going to go wrong.
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That's what is pushing up the value of its landing slots, so airlines are required to maximise profit from each slot, and that is best done by long-haul routes.
The Code of Practice for Official Statistics says ministers must "ensure that no statement or comment - based on prior knowledge - is issued to the press or published ahead of the publication of the statistics" and reminds them of their duty "to promote trust and maximise public value" of official data.
CEOs who want to maximise their companies' value will be well advised to minimise their cultural promotion and focus solely on the qualities of their products.
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