It is rare, I agree.
A big part of the problem is private equity.
I once briefly worked as an independent advisor to a big global PE firm. I remember one of the founding partners of that firm telling me that they thought of the CEOs for the companies they owned as a commodity: essentially, no more than transient hired hands brought on board to do what they were told.
That reflected the contractual reality. CEOs were hired into a PE-owned firm on fixed-term contracts with annual targets focused solely on profits and cost reduction. Their job was to enact the will of the owners. It wasn’t about vision, or passion or belief in the mission, let alone actually giving a shit about customers, employees, community or the wider world. It was about enabling the PE owners to hit their 3-5 year exit trajectory. That was all that mattered.
One of the major global trends underway in business at the moment is the exit from public markets into private equity. Companies that used to be listed on public markets (FTSE, DAX, NYSE etc) and whose shareholders included institutional investors with long-term perspectives (“long” funds) are being snapped up by the mega global PE firms (most of whom are US-based).
Those PE firms are not in anything for the long term. They follow a ‘rip, strip and flip’ model, sucking the life out of everything they touch. Even by the standards of modern capitalism, they are dead-eyed monsters with no soul. Public companies have their issues, for sure, but at least they can be held accountable, in public, by their shareholders, and their register will always include a significant proportion of institutional investors who’ve committed capital over a multi-year timeframe.
Incidentally - and to bring this closer to our little Elektronauts community - the fact that Elektron were acquired by a family-owned private capital firm and NOT a mega private equity firm was a big relief. Private capital and private equity sound like they’re the same thing, but they’re not. I’ve advised a couple of family office/private capital funds over the years and they have a whole different vibe to the PE shark tank.