A recent Reuters blog series on the economic recovery showcased the role Walmart and its suppliers have played in the economic development of Northwest Arkansas. Journalist Nick Carey visited with Kathy Deck, Director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, and Cameron Smith of Cameron Smith & Associates.

Recapping the enormous growth in the area, Kathy Deck acknowledged that despite the success of Walmart, Northwest Arkansas is challenged to diversify its economy. Local leaders are considering options including attracting "green technology" companies to the area.

Quoting from the Reuters blog post:

“The problem there is that other communities around the country are looking at doing the same, so there’s no clear winner at the moment,” she said. “But whatever it is will be driven by research and a change of focus at the University of Arkansas.”

According to Cameron Smith, more suppliers are likely to relocate here, but with so many retail experts focused in one area he thinks the area has become very attractive to medium-sized retailers.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a retailer move their headquarters here within the next five years,” he said. “And if we get one, I think we’ll get five of them. After all, all of their suppliers are here anyway.”

Read Nick Carey's piece about Northwest Arkansas and find more articles on how other areas are facing the road to economic recovery: http://blogs.reuters.com/route-to-recovery/2009/11/10/what-does-future-hold-for-walmart%e2%80%99s-backyard/

With more than 15 years experience connecting Walmart suppliers with the best and brightest talent, Cameron Smith & Associates has a gained a unique perspective on the supplier community. We grew accustomed to a rapidly changing landscape as the supplier community swelled in response to Wal-Mart’s growth from roughly 50 vendor offices to the approximately 1,200 companies who today employ more than 5,000 people in Northwest Arkansas.
 

Although we have seen a tremendous amount of change since 1994, The pace of change accelerated during the past six months. With layoffs at Wal-Mart, supplier teams downsizing, and an increase in career changers and college graduates, the supplier job market has changed dramatically, requiring us all to study and adapt to this new landscape.
 

For those of you between jobs, I want to encourage you to look beyond the news headlines for opportunity. After all, you only need one job so don’t be influenced by reports regarding the national employment outlook. Above all, don’t panic. Remain positive and trust your instincts, and remember that challenging times require strengthened strategies. Your job is to find a job and it requires a well-defined strategy, good market intelligence and perseverance, and many of those seeking new opportunities find the services of a recruitment firm helpful.
 

For those currently working for supplier teams who may be unhappy but reluctant to look at new opportunities, I have two words for you - career readiness. It is important to be pragmatic and prepared. You never know when opportunity will knock, and if it does, it will require you to act quickly. Complacency is never a good strategy. Be proactive in mapping out and managing your career path.
 

It is also important to cultivate relationships. For years, relationships between associates and suppliers were taboo. Now relationships are built into some job descriptions we work from and it is not unusual for the job description of a leadership role to include relationships above the buyer and DMM level. And guess what? That strategy is working. It clearly has affected the bottom line in some cases, and companies are willing to reward candidates who have built trusting relationships. Although the overall volume of supplier jobs is down, 2009 has produced some of the largest compensation packages we have ever seen.
 

The changing landscape is also affecting hiring managers who are challenged to attract and retain the best talent and are focusing on what makes people loyal and what makes good people leave. For example, supplier team lead job satisfaction has less to do with job security, compensation and lack of challenge and more to do with lack of support from the corporate office and limited advancement without relocating away from Northwest Arkansas. Top-tier companies are addressing this gap and today there are seven team lead roles with the title of president of Wal-Mart Global.
 

When it comes to relationship managers or national account managers, job dissatisfaction has to do with the lack of additional responsibilities, the strength of the brand and compensation. Several supplier teams have added a junior national account manager, a developmental role to handle smaller categories and dollar volume.
 

For category managers the big question is, are these positions sustainable executive careers? The answer is, “yes.” Although the job descriptions for these positions continue to evolve, the crucial role of providing market trends and consumer insights will not change. The reasons category development managers cite for considering a job change involve the strength of the category and category “advisorship.” Other considerations relate to compensation and the potential for additional responsibility.
 

Analyst positions within a supplier team remain the most sought after and recruited positions. Everyone wants the best and brightest. Compensation ranges for these positions have reached all-time highs in the supplier community, and analysts who have significant interaction with buyers can transfer those skills into account management positions. The biggest attraction for these candidates is work life balance. We have seen a desire for more flexibility, as employees’ home and personal lives require more attention.
 

Looking ahead, there are several forces that will influence the job market in Northwest Arkansas. For example, we will continue to see smaller and medium suppliers putting stakes in the ground for one- and two-person offices and we expect there will be increase opportunities for third-party suppliers. As Wal-Mart International grows, it will impact the local supplier community to a greater degree than it already has and we are convinced there will eventually be a substantial international presence in Northwest Arkansas. Another noteworthy development is the interchangeability of retailer and consumer products backgrounds. This creates new employment possibilities, as positions at Wal-Mart and the supplier community have never been more interchangeable.
 

Despite all of the changes we have seen lately, the Wal-Mart growth story remains intact and the company is on track to become a $500 billion business. That level of growth ensures suppliers will face substantial challenges to keep pace with the growth, and will require talented individuals to manage and grow their businesses.

Note: This article originally appeared as a guest column in the June/July issue of Retailing Today: Connecting Northwest Arkansas.  You can read more industry news at  http://www.connectingnwa.com/.

The June issue of Celebrate Arkansas - in time for the Walmart Shareholders' meeting - showcases how Walmart and its suppliers give back to the community. Celebrate paints a vivid picture of the generosity and opportunity our community holds.

The same issue contains a profile of Cameron Smith, written by Kristal Kuykendall. Kristal writes about how Cameron has built a remarkable reputation and a successful firm by creating win / win deals for clients and candidates over the past 15 years. Here are some quotes from the article:

• Re: discovering the supplier community: "I told them I was slanting my business toward the Walmart supplier market. Today there are approximately 1,200 suppliers with offices here. So I was a little bit lucky with my timing."
• "Our biggest growth area right now is our retail division; we have been retained by Walgreens to fill a big recruiting assignment due to the changes they are making in their organization."
• Re: using recruiters during lean times: "There are so many people out of work that when our client companies post a job, they are inundated with resumes - who's got time to sift through 1,000 resumes? We help narrow the search to a short list of qualified candidates and save our cilents a great deal of time."

To read the complete article, look for the June 2009 Walmart Shareholders' Meeting edition of Celebrate Arkansas.

By Tom Mitchell in Beijing and Jonathan Birchall
Financial Times
October 23 2008

Walmart, the world's biggest retailer, yesterday told its Chinese suppliers to meet strict environmental and social standards or risk losing its business.

"Meeting social and environmental standards is not optional," Lee Scott, Walmart's chief executive, told a gathering of more than 1,000 suppliers in Beijing.

"A company that cheats on overtime and on the age of its labour, that dumps its scraps and its chemicals in our rivers, that does not pay its taxes or honour its contracts - will ultimately cheat on the quality of its products."

Walmart has been pursuing a drive to improve its reputation on environmental and social issues over the past three years, in response to growing criticism in the U.S. over issues including labour conditions in its supplier factories.

The directive, which will be codified in a Walmart suppliers' agreement, comes at a difficult time for China-based manufacturers, caught between rising production costs and the effect of the global financial crisis on consumer demand in their largest overseas markets.

The requirements include a clear demonstration of compliance with Chinese environmental laws, a 20 per cent improvement in energy efficiency at the company's 200 largest China suppliers, and disclosure of the names and addresses of every factory involved in the production process. The company will require a 25 percent rise in the efficiency of energy-intensive products, such as flat-screen TVs, by 2012.

Mr. Scott said the retailer also wanted to move away from the short-term focus that has characterised its relationships with Asian suppliers.

"We have traditionally purchased in a very transactional manner," said Mr Scott. "We need deeper, longer-term relationships with suppliers so it is not based on the last penny."

Some suppliers grumbled about the conditions spelled out by Walmart, which has a reputation for driving hard bargains. It is estimated that each year the company sells about $30 billion worth of China-made goods, giving it enormous negotiating power over suppliers.

"It's going to make things a lot worse," said one manufacturer at the meeting, who asked not to be identified. Others were more relaxed. "If they don't like it, they are not going to be doing business with Walmart," said one U.S.-based Walmart supplier who sources components from China.

By Kimberly Morrison
THE MORNING NEWS

More than 2,800 job seekers flooded the Northwest Arkansas Job Fair on Monday, vying for positions with some 70 regional employers.

It was the largest turnout yet for the three-year-old regional job fair, said Gretchen Laffoon, director of workforce and small business for the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce, which hosted the event at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers. There were 2,500 available positions at the job fair, but a remarkable level of interest in jobs not offered at the fair.

Cameron Smith Associates boasts the largest executive search firm for Wal-Mart supplier teams, and advised a packed room of more than 100 hopefuls on how to break into the high-paying world of Wal-Mart supplier teams.

There are more than 1,200 suppliers with offices in Northwest Arkansas, employing some 5,700 people, said Cameron Smith. There are another 400 "third tier" suppliers, or companies that support direct suppliers to Wal-Mart, that make up "Vendorville."
Those jobs are tough to land without experience, but there are ways to get a foot in the door, Smith said.

"Everything is branding these days," said Smith. "When you're on the job market, you have to sell your brand. Your brand is what you stand for."

Building on that brand means networking at Chamber of Commerce events and learning about how supplier teams work at Doing Business in Bentonville, a speaker series for suppliers, or 8th and Walton, a Bentonville company that teaches courses on various aspects of working with Wal-Mart.

It also may mean working for less or working for free through an internship with a supplier, but could also mean a big payoff with a secure job.

"These careers are plentiful and about as recession-proof as it gets," Smith said. "People are not going to stop eating and buying consumables."

The influx of Wal-Mart suppliers over the last five years drove Northwest Arkansas to the largest increase in population in the state at more than 12 percent. In turn, the labor force increased 14.6 percent, according to the Department of Workforce Services.

The region continues to have a lower unemployment rate than the state. August unemployment for Northwest Arkansas was 3.6 percent, compared with the state level of 4.8 percent.

Mark May of Rogers, who attended the seminar, entertained the idea of breaking into a Wal-Mart supplier job, but said he would continue to look for other positions. May served more than two decades in the U.S. Air Force and worked a handful of odd jobs in the area, most recently a temporary job with Mercy Health. He hoped it would grow into something permanent before the company began two rounds of layoffs that dashed his prospects there.

"I'm looking most anywhere," he said. "I like new challenges and variety. I prefer to work with smaller organizations and places where I can make a difference. Wal-Mart is probably too big for me."

Michelle Singhoth of Springdale said she applied to Wal-Mart and a handful of other companies hoping to get a clerical or administrative position. With two children in tow -- a 10-month-old and a 2-year-old -- Singhoth and boyfriend John Robertson took turns with the kids to grab applications.

"He pushed me to come to the fair," Singhoth said.Robertson attends school and works full time, but she had been working on and off while raising their children. She worked most recently at a hotel, and applied to the Embassy Suites. The experience may prove valuable for the burgeoning hospitality industry, which is among the top 10 fastest growing occupations in Arkansas.

"I'm hopeful," she said. "We'll see."