The year 1991 was a turning point in the history of the Indian economy. Liberalization saw a tremendous increase in competition from multinationals in almost all industrial sectors. This book examines how a few ‘Good’ Indian companies became ‘Excellent’ by withstanding the onslaught of competitive pressures and flourishing despite a fast-changing and unpredictable economic environment. Distilling vast amounts of data on 23 Indian companies belonging to a range of industries, the book draws out the factors that made them achieve business excellence. The author uses a three-tier filtering process with increasingly strict criteria for narrowing down from the initial 144 companies to the 23 researched cases, and then to the final seven exceptional organizations. In the quest to find the answer to what made these companies perform exceptionally, the author proposes a business model based on strategy, execution excellence and leadership, which provides a compelling explanation for the superlative performance of these outstanding companies.