Around 2000 I was in Stanford’s executive education program and the discussion at hand was a case study about a company that faced a disruption with a large cash reserve on hand. The question was what the leadership team should do, and the answers were all variations of “spend the money”. Except one - a lone voice allowing that the company could return the funds to investors and call it a day.

Pure heresy. Return the funds, allow investors to decide how/when/if to reinvest? Soundly rejected by the presenter and audience.

I wonder if that’d go differently today? I hope so.