I think success doesn't come because of these bad decisions and red tape, but despite them. I have the impression that in many areas, a certain "critical mass" makes a big difference, e.g. more market presence may generate a lot more sales even if the product is mediocre.

I still think that doing things the right way and getting rid of those famous inefficiencies could leverage success even further. With regards to software I think that's the difference between large companies with a known engineering culture (like Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft) as opposed to those known to be a bit more red-tapey (like IBM, Adobe).

But of course, "doing things the right way" is terribly hard to quantify, and so is "how much success would be possible". If numbers at the end of the year are already positive, good luck trying to convince C-level to introduce fundamental changes to existing processes.