I had only been working for my new employer as manager of employee communications for a day or two when I was summoned to the president’s office. “We have adopted a new business philosophy and we need it communicated to employees,” he said. The new philosophy, adopted by the executive committee a week or so earlier, was a commitment to SVE—Shareholder Value Enhancement.

As I listened to the principles of SVE, I grew increasingly alarmed and concerned. Every decision made, the focus of every activity, had to be undertaken with shareholder value enhancement in mind. Employees would need to understand that and understand the drivers of shareholder value. I expressed my concern: “Can you really see employees jumping out of bed in the morning, fired up to get to work so they can enhance shareholder value?”

They should, I was told, seeing as how they were all owners themselves. True: Through the employee stock ownership program and the 401(k) plan, most employees held stock. The average employee probably owned 0.0000001% of the company. In any case, I was told, this decision was a done deal. (It had been pushed, it turned out, by the chief financial officer.)

The share price of the company’s stock the day that president retired was virtually unchanged from its value the day he took the job. In fact, the SVE movement has proved to be a dud. If you need an example of what happens when companies focus on shareholder value, look no further than Enron, another company that embraced the philosophy.

Of course, the notion of focusing on shareholder returns was not introduced with the SVE movement. Corporate mission statements are replete with shareholder statements, like this one from Power Corporation of Canada:

Power Corporation is committed to enhancing shareholder value through the active management of long-term investments and responsible corporate citizenship. It is of the view that these objectives are best achieved and risks minimized through sectoral and geographic diversification.

The immediate question that would arise in the mind of anybody in any audience reading this mission statement is, “Yeah, but what do you do?”

I certainly am not suggesting that a company should not strive to provide solid returns to their owners; it would be a rare company that would survive if it failed to make a profit. The point is that shareholder value is created as an outcome of what the company does. The better an organization fulfills its mission, the more money it should make. But if making money is the mission itself, companies are likely to fail miserably at it.

The problem is in the decision-making process. Decisions made with shareholders top-of-mind are often very, very bad decisions. If Johnson & Johnson had made shareholders their top priority when bottles of Tylenol were being poisoned, they would have left the product on store shelves. Instead, the company’s credo put patients at the top of their priority list and opted to pull all product, a costly decision to be sure, but one that bolstered their reputation and pushed Tylenol sales to new levels when the product was reintroduced with new safety caps the company had innovated.

Of course, holders of Johnson & Johnson stock benefitted mightily from the company’s customer focus…as do owners of any company that puts its attention squarely on the people upon whom the company depends to buy its products or services. A good mission statement is not about making money or providing a return, which any company must do. A good mission statement is about what the company does that will make customers want to do business with them. Southwest Airlines’ mission statement reads…

We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.

And Southwest is the most profitable airline in the U.S. Which is not to suggest there are no profitable companies with lousy mission statements. In many companies, mission statements are little more than words on the wall. A customer-centric focus is produced from other corners of the organization.

But the issue does not end with mission statements. Companies need to get their employees focused on customers by any means. Employees who design product, those who manufacture it, and those who provide service to customers who have already bought product are equally critical. Equally important is investing in these activities, notably customer support and tech support, which has taken a hit in recent years as part of cost-reduction efforts.

Some may dismiss the need to invest in customer support, but anybody who has taken a single business class knows how desperately companies rely on repeat business and referrals to grow the bottom line. Unhappy customers—even those who have already plunked down their money—will produce unhappy owners every day of the week. What’s more, unhappy customers can affect a company’s reputation, and Charles Fombrun has proven a correlation between diminished reputation and diminished profitability.

There are other ways to focus employee attention and company investment. A statement of strategic intent is a short-term mission that provides employees with a laser-like focus. Caterpillar once had a statement of strategic intent: “Beat Komatsu.” The idea was simple: If you’re working on something that isn’t helping us beat our number one competitor, why are you doing it? But of course, creating and retaining satisfied customers would be critical to beating the competition, the likely place customers would go if they’re not buying from you.

Hence, anybody who suggests that companies shouldn’t desire strong relationships with their customers is, frankly, an idiot. Solid customer relationships may be costly, but having no customers is far more expensive. The return on solid customer relationships is exactly what shareholders crave: repeat business, referrals, growth and profitability.

As the leaders at Johnson & Johnson will be the first to tell you, take care of your customers first and shareholder value will take care of itself.