I've done well investing on the presumption that companies are long term focused. I.e. I'm a buy and hold and hold and hold investor. The longest I've held a stock (Boeing) is 37 years. You can check how well it's done for yourself over that time period, and Boeing was constantly charged with destroying the long term in favor of short term results.
It's inconceivable that Boeing was not long term focused with those results.
Not at all. I don't know anything about Boeing in specific here, but:
Say that Boeing was short term focused over that time period but managed to do well, quarter after quarter, continuing to rise. It's possible that if instead Boeing had been long term focused over that time period, each many individual quarters would have been worse, but it could have a higher valuation now.
Of course, that's certainly not proof that they were long term focused, just that they weren't definitely short term focused.
Boeing invests in new airplane programs that can take 10 to 15 years to turn profitable. The charge that Boeing is short term focused makes no sense at all, but that doesn't even blunt the regular charges that Boeing management sacrifices long term for short term results.
