Midway USA is an Internet-based shooting supply company founded in 1977 by Larry Potterfield. They are currently based in Columbus, MO. Midway USA offers over 100,000 products from over 800 different suppliers spanning over 17 different product categories. Midway USA prides itself on extremely fast shipping and top-notch customer service. They are a very well known retailer in the shooting and outdoor industry. In 2009 and 2015 Midway USA was one of four recipients of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program Awards for their excellent strategic execution. Midway has made it an organizational goal to obtain this award every 6 years. (Baldrige, 2015) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Midway USA has adopted Baldrige as its leadership and management structure. This has helped them in all aspects of their business. One of them is strategic planning. This is the key to their growing success. Midway USA has a fully integrated seven-step strategic development process that paves the way for their high performance, sustainability and focus on success. The process begins with a review of performance results and an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The findings are used to develop strategic goals and operational objectives that define Midway USA's success. (Baldrige, 2015) Midway USA has also found much success and benefits from providing a high level of customer support. One way Midway USA can provide such a high level of customer service is through staff knowledge of the products sold. Most Midway personnel are considered product experts. This demonstrates the theory of strategy based on the knowledge view. Knowledge visualization is a set of knowledge in this application that extends resource-based visualization. Knowledge is a specific and special resource at the heart of the company. Knowledge is at the same time highly heterogeneous, difficult to imitate and difficult to understand by those outside the company. In this theory, knowledge forms the basis for competitive advantage. (Santos & Eisenhardt, 2000) Currently Midway USA's style of competitive advantage is service differentiation and price advantages. Midway USA not only offers high standards of customer service expectations. They recently noticed that customers aren't always looking for service. They are looking for the best price delivered. Midway USA is currently working to shift its competitive action plans to address the issue of competitive pricing in more detail. One way they are currently trying to ensure they continue to offer the lowest delivery price is by contracting with UPS to deliver their shipments. UPS now delivers 85% of shipments in Midway USA. This is to help deliver cost reductions to the customer. Negotiating shipping is also a good demonstration of how Midway USA goes the extra mile for its customers. Midway USA's strategic management hierarchy has led them to have a competitive advantage due to their effective communication with the company, customers, suppliers and shareholders. Midway USA's senior leader works to ensure they effectively distribute and communicate information regarding the company's mission, vision and values ​​across many outlets. They have MS documents that are posted throughout their locations so that employees are constantly reminded of the vision, values ​​and missionof the company they work for. This gives them a competitive advantage because their employees are well informed about what the company's mission, vision and values ​​are. This ensures that employees are always proven. Midway USA also makes its goals and objectives known to its employees. Because if the employees do not know the goals and objectives of the company, how will they help the company to achieve success. (Fuller and Greener,2017) Strategically, Midway USA seems to keep the future in mind. They constantly carry out research and development activities so that they can better present themselves on the market and better serve their customers. A couple of decisions Midway USA made strategically to help it move forward were contracting with UPS for shipping and implementing customer satisfaction surveys even if the customer doesn't purchase anything. Going forward each in their own way, these two examples will provide Midway USA with some strategic advantages. At Midway USA they also encourage their employees to present innovative ideas for improvement through process reviews, status meetings, departmental Baldrige meetings, employee roundtables, and one-page summaries of improvements to the appropriate vice president. (Baldrige, 2015) This alone could help the company in many different ways. People on site often see things that people in offices don't. Midway USA has four main organizational goals that they are working to achieve. These goals are as follows: Customer Satisfaction One, Goal Two Employee Satisfaction and Engagement, Goal Three Supplier and Partner Satisfaction, and Shareholder Satisfaction Hotline. As you can see, Midway USA aims to please. They want to make sure that everyone involved, from shareholders to the customer, is always satisfied. Examples of ways they plan to achieve these goals are by providing competitive product pricing, competitive salary, product line support, and increasing company value through customer acquisition and retention. (Baldrige, 2015) To be the best and most respected company in America, for the benefit of our customers, Midway USA is a vision statement. This is a fitting vision statement for a company like Midway USA. It fits perfectly with their strategic goals and plans. It's also just another example of how much they respect their customers. (Baldrige, 2015) Their mission is: We are an Internet retailer of shooting, hunting and outdoor products that relies on engaged, high-performing employees and shares our values ​​and aligns with our culture. Again, their mission statement, just like their vision statement, aligns perfectly with their strategic plan and organizational goals. (Baldrige, 2015) Midway USA believes its purpose is to be a model organization for America and to maximize the organization's long-term value for its shareholders by meeting or exceeding its operational and long-term goals . This fits perfectly with goal number four. It is also in line with the company's strategic plan. (Baldrige, 2015) A company's philosophies can also be viewed as their core values. These non-negotiable family principles guide and form the philosophy of Midway USA. See the following: honesty, integrity, teamwork, respect for others, positive attitude, management, responsibility and loyalty. (Baldrige, 2015) The strategies and policies are different in many ways. Strategies are used to achieve operational objectives, while policies are used to regulate day-to-day decisions.