Beyond Bentonville Business Booming

(To see the list of the largest employers in northwest Arkansas, click here. To view a list of the largest recruiters, click here.)

With the boom of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. suppliers moving to Bentonville long past, recruiting firm Cameron Smith Associates has been expanding its reach.

Owner Cameron Smith said his “Beyond Bentonville” team has been thriving and this year he acquired the Colorado-based Stuckey Group, adding two more employees to the BB division at CSA including owner Ken Stuckey.

CSA checked in at No. 2 on the annual list of largest executive recruiters.

The Beyond Bentonville division works with retailers such as The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walgreens, Target, Best Buy and SuperValu to fill the same roles as suppliers in Northwest Arkansas.

Wal-Mart works with more than 60,000 suppliers, of which just 1,232 have offices in Northwest Arkansas.

“The companies that have opted not to be here, we are filling those positions at their corporate headquarters,” Smith said. “We’ve spent the last five years org-charting these companies in the rest of the country.”

Smith has also begun a program to help companies place women on their boards of directors and is considering other expansion opportunities.

He has two offices in Minneapolis serving Target, Best Buy and SuperValu and is eyeing Nashville, where similar vendor clustering is happening around the headquarters of Dollar General.

Smith credited team leaders Bob Nicodemus, Gene Eggman and Scott Crossett as the keys to the Beyond Bentonville’s success.