> If a management team doesn't think they'll survive a bad couple of quarters (or that they won't hit performance cliffs that let them keep their jobs or bonuses)

Agreed, and these kinds of short-term incentives are one of the problems with American companies. On the flip side...

Japanese companies think about products in decades -- the product line has to make money 10 years from now.

Some old European brands think about their brand in centuries -- this product made today has to be made with a process and materials that will make people in 100 years think that we made our products at the highest quality that was available to us at the time.