(MONEY Magazine) – A year ago, we valued the future. Thanks to Motorola's focus on space-age wireless Internet access--CEO Chris Galvin was appearing regularly on television talking of a brave new world and showcasing a new phone that offered neat games and global Web access--the company was a Wall Street darling. Its stock had doubled in less than six months.

Now we're obsessed with the present. When Motorola warned in late February that revenues and earnings would probably not meet quarterly expectations due to slowing demand for wireless Net access, the market gave Motorola a drubbing.

Nobody expects investors to ignore an earnings warning. And Galvin's long-term vision still has some currency, though nowhere near as much. However, this chain of events certainly prompts a question that becomes increasingly urgent in a tight economy: Do we want CEOs to be long-term, visionary thinkers only when the stock price is taking care of itself?

It's a question that Jeffrey Garten, dean of the Yale School of Management, takes on in his new book, The Mind of the CEO. The book draws on interviews with 40 business muckety-mucks--including Galvin--struggling to thrive in a rapidly changing world. A former bigwig at Lehman Bros. and the Commerce Department, Garten gets some unusually candid responses from his subjects--and comes away none too optimistic. Garten argues that because today's social and ecological challenges are also frequently great long-term business opportunities, CEOs can enrich their shareholders--and the world--by responding creatively to those challenges. Unfortunately, he finds, CEOs all too often refrain because they feel straitjacketed by short-term demands.

That's where we come in. CEOs should always serve shareholder interests; it's a question of whether they pay more attention to those who plan to stick around for five years or five minutes. Whether it's building affordable cars that are environmentally friendly or, as in Motorola's case, a system that enables communication in places without phone lines, waiting for a big, bold idea to pay off usually requires putting up with a disappointing quarter or two. If we don't have that kind of perspective--if every minor stumble is dramatically punished--we can hardly expect CEOs to sound a rallying cry for the future.

--ALEC APPELBAUM