Is shareholder wealth maximization a good norm to follow?

“Maximising shareholder value unfortunately continues to remain the 'Holy Grail' of running businesses.The self styled financial pundits of yore in all their wisdom thought this was the best way to minimise agency risks and costs.To me while it made financial sense,it made little socio-economic sense.Enron,Worldcom,Northern Rock,the subprime messes were all creation of indulgent managements who purportedly acted in financially appropriate manner but ended up being socially irresponsible(Who cares.They were not expected to be altruistic!),for sake of pleasing thier shareholders.

That's the downside of a laissez faire market economy but with each of such fiascos,the innocent small time investor or the mortgage owner down the street lost his lifetime earnings. We need a complete rejig of the concept itself followed by norms for social governance in running businesses.”