One mistake many companies make is emphasizing short-term profit at the expense of long-term value.

In squeezing every dollar out of a business today, the companies often reduce much greater value they could have created tomorrow.

By focusing only "shareholder value," they also often neglect other constituencies--namely, customers, employees, and communities.

The best companies create value for all of these constituencies, not just shareholders.

They make a reasonable profit, not a "maximized" one.

And they continually sacrifice short-term profit opportunities in the service of long-term investments and other values, some of which have nothing to do with money.

I was reminded of this recently when I rewatched "Casablanca," the 1942 Warner Brothers movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.

It's mostly a love story and war story, of course. But there are plenty of business lessons in there, too.

The trend of maximizing profits at the expense of other values is part of what's wrong with the American economy these days.

So it's worth highlighting the business lessons of Rick's Cafe Americain.