I never get why people think this does exist. If it did, wouldn’t every company be obliged to get out of the business they’re in and start doing what would be most profitable right now? Obviously that would be absurd.

Switching gears is expensive, and if every company switched to "the most profitable thing" it wouldn't be profitable.

This automatically prevents them from mindlessly switching.

Yes, that’s part of why it is absurd.

Just as an interesting tidbit while we here are talking about UK companies it doesn't even exist in the US. The SCOTUS said so:

> While it is certainly true that a central objective of for-profit corporations is to make money, modern corporate law does not require for-profit corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else, and many do not do so.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/13-354