[Rashputin]

Simple, gradually sell off the seed, farm equipment, barns, and even the land, along with the current crop. That makes for nice profitable quarters which in turn leads to nice fat bonus checks for the people running the business while damning to impoverishment the people dependent on the next crop.

JMHo

[bigbob]

Well your HO is wrong in most cases. Steve Jobs didn’t sell the seed when he drove the development of new products at Apple, he created entirely new businesses through innovation.

That’s how it is done by the companies who are earning the highest profits. Investors aren’t dumb, they ask the right questions and don’t allow companies doing what you described to survive for long.