A provocative speech delivered to 25 European executives at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London, organized by EFQM and the British Deming Association. The title is pure Deming — confrontational, paradoxical, and designed to shatter assumptions. Deming argues that nobody in management actually optimizes for profit, despite their rhetoric. Short-term profit focus — quarterly earnings pressure, cost cutting, layoffs — actually destroys long-term value. True profit comes from understanding the system, reducing variation, investing in people, and taking a long view. This late-career speech distills decades of Deming's thinking into a direct challenge to conventional business wisdom. Full transcript freely available. Also at Curious Cat: https://management.curiouscat.net/articles/147-Does-anybody-give-a-hoot-about-profit