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Essay / Midway USA Difficulties Assessment
Midway USA is an Internet-based shooting supply company founded in 1977 by Larry Potterfield. Their headquarters is currently in Columbus, MO. Midway USA offers over 100,000 products from over 800 different suppliers and covering over 17 different product categories. Midway USA prides itself on its extremely fast shipping and top-notch customer service. This is 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 for excellent strategic execution. Midway has set itself the goal of obtaining this award every 6 years. (Baldrige, 2015)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Midway USA has adopted the Baldrige as a leadership and management framework. This has helped them in every aspect 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 sets the stage for its 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 results are used to develop strategic objectives and operational objectives that define Midway USA's success. (Baldrige, 2015) Midway USA has also been very successful and benefits from providing a high level of customer support. Midway USA can provide this level of customer support because of the staff's knowledge of the products they sell. Many Midway staff members are considered product experts. This demonstrates the theory of strategy based on the knowledge view. The Knowledge view is a body of knowledge in this application that extends the resource-based view. Knowledge is a specific and privileged resource at the heart of the company. Knowledge is very heterogeneous, difficult to imitate and difficult to understand by people outside the company. In this theory, knowledge forms the basis of competitive advantage. (Santos & Eisenhardt, 2000) Currently, Midway USA's style of competitive advantage lies in service differentiation and pricing advantages. Not only does Midway USA set high standards for customer service expectations. They have noticed recently that customers are not always looking for service. They are looking for the best price delivered. Midway USA is currently working to modify its competition action plans to address competitive pricing in more detail. They are currently trying to ensure that they continue to offer the lowest shipping price by contracting with UPS to deliver their shipments. UPS now delivers 85% of shipments to Midway USA. This is to help reduce costs for the customer. The shipping negotiation 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. The Midway USA Senior Executive ensures that it effectively deploys and communicates information regarding the company's mission, vision and values through multiple outlets. They have MS documents that are posted throughout their locations so employees are constantly reminded of the vision, values and mission ofthe company they work for. This gives them a competitive advantage because their employees are well informed about the company's mission, vision and values. This ensures that employees always have proof. Midway USA also communicates its goals and objectives to employees. Because if employees don't know the company's goals and objectives, how are they going to help the company succeed? (Fuller and Green,2017) Strategically, Midway USA appears to be keeping the future in mind. They are constantly carrying out R&D work so that they can perform better in the market and serve their customers better. A few strategic decisions Midway USA made to help them move forward were contracting with UPS for shipping and rolling out their customer satisfaction surveys even if the customer doesn't buy anything. Moving forward in their own way, these two examples will offer Midway USA certain strategic advantages. Also at Midway USA, they encourage their employees to submit innovative improvement ideas through process reviews, business status meetings, departmental Baldrige meetings, employee roundtables, and executive summaries. 'a page of improvements to the vice-president concerned. (Baldrige, 2015) This alone could help the company in several different ways. People in the field often see things that people in the office don't see. Midway USA has four main organizational goals that they strive to achieve. These goals are: customer satisfaction number one, goal number two, employee satisfaction and engagement, goal number three, supplier and partner satisfaction, and goal number two for shareholder satisfaction. As you can see, Midway USA aims to please. They want to ensure that everyone involved, from shareholders to the customer, is always satisfied. Examples of ways they plan to achieve these goals include providing competitive product pricing, competitive salary, product line support, and increasing company value through acquisition and retention of customers. (Baldrige, 2015) To be the best-run and most respected company in America, for the benefit of our customers, is Midway USA's vision statement. This is a vision statement well suited to a company like Midway USA. This fits perfectly with their objectives and strategic plans. It's also just another example of their respect for their customers. (Baldrige, 2015) Their mission statement is: We are an Internet retailer of shooting, hunting and outdoor products that leverages high-performing and engaged employees, shares our values and aligns with our culture . Again, their mission statement, like their vision statement, aligns perfectly with their strategic plan and organizational goals. (Baldrige, 2015)Midway USA believes its goal 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 objective number four. This is also part of the company's strategic plan. (Baldrige, 2015)A company's philosophy can also be considered its core values. These non-negotiable family principles are a guide to the path and philosophy of Midway USA. See the following: honesty, integrity, teamwork, respect for others, positive attitude, stewardship, responsibility and loyalty. (Baldrige, 2015)Strategies and policies differ in many ways. The strategies are