What distinguishes a successful company from all the others in the sector? Is it the way of thinking within a company that promotes the pursuit of continuous improvement or the value a company places on satisfying its customers with the company's product or service? There are many qualities that make a company successful. Two examples of how successful companies demonstrate what it means to be successful through who they are and how they have achieved a world-class level of performance in their respective industries. One successful company is Midway USA. They were the winners of the 2009 Malcolm Baldrige Award for small businesses, a second successful company is the US Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), which was the 2007 winner for small business organizations for profit. We will examine how each company used the Baldrige National Quality Program to evaluate the effect of the company's strategic planning process and how it evaluated its strategic directions. Additionally, how each company has developed its own critical strategies and action plans to support these directions. I will also provide recommendations to each company to help them in their pursuit of continuous improvement. MidwayUSA is a family-owned Internet catalog and retailer offering products for shooters, reloaders, gunsmiths and hunters. They are world leaders in their market sector with an annual turnover of 185 million dollars. 90% of the company's total business is aimed at US retail customers, while the remaining 10% consists of international retailers and customers. MidwayUSA's vision is both simple and inspiring: "To be the best-managed company in America for the benefit of our customers (MidwayUSA, 2009)." To prove that they are… halfway there… Both of these companies are deserving of the Malcolm Baldrige Award. They are both leaders and innovators in their respective industries, and their quality management systems and pursuit of continuous improvement set them apart from the competition. With this in mind, companies would benefit greatly from following their own systems as a model and implementing these models to improve their company.Works CitedARDEC. (2007). Malcom Baldrige Award 2007. Retrieved from www.baldrige.nist.gov/PDF_files/2007_ARDEC¬_ Application_Summary.pdfMidwayUSA. (2009). Application for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Retrieved from www.baldrige.nist.gov/PDF_files/MidwayUSA_Award_Application_Summary.pdfWestcott, R. T. (2006). The excellence manual of the certified quality/organization manager. Third edition. Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press.