I think those in charge often don't care. A lot of them don't actually have any incentive for long term performance. They just need a short/medium term stock performance and later they can sell. Heck, they'll even get cash bonuses based solely on short term performance. Many C-secs aren't in for the long haul. They'll stay for maybe 5-10 years tops and then switch jobs, possibly when they see the writing on the wall.

Even the owners are often hoping to just survive until some bigger company buys their business.

And when the company does explode... They'll just declare bankruptcy and later make a new company. The kinds of people who created companies rarely do it just once. They do it over and over, somehow managing to convince investors every time.