In the year of 1995, a working group of French chief executive officers was set up by the French Association of Private Companies (AFEP) and Confederation of French Industry (CNPF) to study the French corporate governance structure. The group reported the provided, among other things "The board of directors have to not simply aim at maximizing share values as in the U.K. and the U.S. rather then, its goal has to be to serve the company, whose interests have to be clearly specified from those of its shareholders, employees, creditors, suppliers and clients although till equated with their general common interest, i.e. to safeguard the prosperity & continuity of the company". Appraise the above suggestion of the working group.
The suggestion of the French working group obviously illustrates that shareholder wealth maximization is not universally accepted goal of corporate management, especially outside the United States and perhaps a few other Anglo-Saxon countries by including the United Kingdom and Canada. To some of the extent, it may reflect the fact that share ownership is not wide spread in most of other countries. In France, approximate 15% of households own shares.