IBM is the oldest, biggest company you can think of. At least for most of the industrial era, IBM has not had any trouble focusing on the long term.

Doesn't that assume the investors are by and large fools?

Not necessarily - it assumes they're more interested in short term profits than long term growth.

Investors don't bid up a stock for short term profits. It doesn't make any fiscal sense to. When investors find out a company is sacrificing the long term, they dump the stock.

The P/E pretty much says it all.

How is growth like that over 9 years "short term"?

When it's followed by a decade of decline?

I know what you mean but rising nearly 6 fold over a decade feels like the very definition of making yourself long-term relevant.