Dave, I think you're missing Savio's point. Any CEO who fails to look beyond the next quarter is NOT maximizing shareholder value. "Investing" in innovation and employees may be a good thing and it may be a bad thing, depending on what is meant by "investing."
A CEO who can distinguish good "investments" from bad "investments" is one of the keys. If a stock buyback is a bad use of money ("investment"), then it shouldn't be done; if it's a good use of money ("investment"), then it should be done. The job of the investor, and of the equity analyst, is to figure out whether the CEO is doing well at distinguishing good uses of money from bad ones--which means maximizing the long-term value of the company (including its employees and its intellectual capital), not just quarterly earnings. If somebody is found to be sacrificing long-term value for the sake of short-term profits, that is not maximizing value to shareholders, and that CEO should be replaced.