Larry Potterfield’s love of hunting led him to open a gun shop in Columbia, Missouri. Through hard work and some popular product ideas, he built a base of loyal customers, which now includes online shoppers. Then he set his sights even higher, deciding that his company, MidwayUSA, would apply creative thinking to improve its business processes until it became the “best-run business in America.”

Potterfield first began to enjoy guns and shooting on hunting trips with his father while growing up in rural Missouri. He continued learning about guns and ammunition during college (where he studied accounting) and through his service in the U.S. Air Force. After his service ended, he opened his gun shop. Working with a locksmith and being aided by advice from his engineer brother, he was soon devising creative ways to produce various kinds of ammunition and ammunition cases that otherwise didn’t exist. Over time, the store’s inventory shifted away from guns themselves to items for reloading, repairing, and customizing them.

This emphasis on product innovation increased the company’s growth, but Potterfield was inspired to pursue a new kind of innovation when he attended a meeting of a group called the Excellence in Missouri Foundation. Presenters explained how companies could dramatically improve their performance by systematically pursuing excellence in seven different categories of management. Companies were invited to apply to win a state contest called the Missouri Quality Award, an offshoot of the federal government program called the Baldrige Award.

Potterfield was impressed by the systematic approach, but he was also busy. He thus handed the stack of requirements to his company’s brand-new quality manager and told him to apply for the award. Examiners visited the company and offered their feedback, which Potterfield ignored. Not surprisingly, MidwayUSA did not win an award that year, nor the next year, when the company repeated the same process.

What led the way to organizational transformation was a change in Potterfield’s attitude. While on vacation, he realized that if MidwayUSA was going to change, he would have to lead the effort. When he returned to work, he seriously studied the award criteria and then taught his management staff what he had learned. He announced to all the employees that they would help the company win a Missouri Quality Award in two years and a national Baldrige Award the year after that.

The company then established and distributed a written mission statement, goals, and a code of conduct. Because these quality awards stress high-quality communication, Potterfield posted definitions, processes, and progress reports around the facility. After a rigorous auditing process, MidwayUSA did in fact improve its processes so much that it won both quality awards as planned.

However, these successes hardly spell the end of the company’s innovation. The goal of every process is to achieve best practices, which MidwayUSA defines as “the highest sustainable level of performance which we judge ourselves against.” Achieving the highest standards and becoming the best requires constant improvement and ongoing study of how other high-performance companies function. Supervisor Eric Ellingson has high praise for the arrangement: “Management empowers employees to solve problems, encourages us to continuously improve the processes, and provides us with the latest technology,” all of which is aimed at serving customers. Ellingson concludes, “It makes me proud to be a part of the team.”1