Companies make headline news all the time for decisions that make many of us scratch our heads in wonder, even companies that are smart and successful. Here, Neil Smith, with more than 20 years of experience leading large-scale performance improvements, reveals the hidden barriers that cause excellent companies to do dumb things and cause smart people within companies to act in dumb ways. Drawing on his experience working with and helping transform top global businesses, Smith has identified 8 barriers that prevent organizations from achieving and maintaining sustainable success. Rich with anecdotes and case studies, Smith outlines a fast and proven process in which 12 principles of business transformation can break down the barriers holding companies back, including: *The process must be personally led by the CEO *It is easy to get ideas for improvement into the process; hard to remove them *The ideas must be owned by the people responsible for implementing them *There must be a focus on increasing revenue, not cutting costs *Nothing less than 100% implementation is acceptable Why Excellent Companies Do Things Wrong provides insights for anyone in business as well as those who have simply wondered, "Why on earth do they do that?"