Photos courtesy of LREA
In Little Rock’s close-knit community, one need not look far to find individuals who have played a substantial role in the capital city’s growth over the decades. Members of the Little Rock Executives’ Association, a business leaders group that is entering its second half century of existence, need only look across the table to do so.
“The main purpose of LREA hadn’t changed since day one,” said Bob Russell, owner of Russell Chevrolet & Honda in North Little Rock, who has been a member since 1979. “The main purpose is reciprocal business as much as possible.”
Russell family 1997 Genuine Leaders Award
One of the longest-lived and most successful business groups of its kind anywhere in Arkansas, LREA has lived by a core set of principles that have sustained both the group and its members during lean times and fat. The groups’ primary ethic may best be summarized as, “Shop Local First,” a philosophy members have been buying into long before it became a millennial tagline.
“So many local businesses are hidden. You don’t even know they exist,” said Robert Hall, vice president at Hugg & Hall, who joined LREA in 1994. “There’s a lot that goes on in a small town like Little Rock that reaches much further than most people can ever imagine. The core of LREA is serving and growing those smaller, independently owned businesses. That’s really the core of what we do.
“LREA isn’t an organization that’s a wide-open, we-want-your-dues kind of group. We really want to create a membership that includes what we consider the best-quality person representing the best company in any category.”
The group stands as a reminder of the power of supporting one’s own business community and receiving that support in return, delivering the benefits of accelerated networking and a membership that supports each other as opportunities arise.
“LREA is invaluable for leads and people giving you advice and just helping you in many ways that you just can’t put a price on,” said Becky Cranford, general manager at The Bug Man, Inc. in Little Rock, who joined in 1998. “There’s so much of a business legacy in this group, where members become members after their parents or whatever. I think that speaks to the loyalty of the group.
“The way it is set up, it’s an honor because your business was chosen to be here, and you get to do business with the best of the best companies in the city.”
“Loyalty” is a term that comes up a lot when asking members to describe the organization, as well as words such as “reciprocity,” “commitment” and “excellence.” The terms could also describe the members themselves, many of whom have passed down their affiliation across generations. Brett Russell, vice president of Russell Chevrolet & Honda, is one of them.
“There is maybe a quarter of the group that are second generation,” he said. “We all recognize the benefits of this, and obviously, as a young guy getting in, not only did I get information from my dad on how to deal with business, but you also get to talk to all these other business owners.
“Now, through the course of years, I’m working with the second generation, as well. There’s a lot of information to be had from these people and how they handle business.”
ALL MY BUSINESS FRIENDS
LREA president’s retreat
The group traces its roots to Shreveport, Louisiana, where Little Rock photographer Greer Lile was attending a convention in the fall of 1973. While there, an acquaintance pulled him aside to tell him about an exciting new organization that had been formed in town, the purpose of which was to generate business for its members through direct reciprocal dealings, as well as through leads informing members about opportunities within the community.
Lile liked the idea, and upon returning home, he contacted four close friends — Dick Vinsant, John Jaco, Jack Somers and Ferreal Friday — to discuss the possibility of creating a similar organization in central Arkansas. Intrigued, the colleagues made some return visits to Shreveport to learn more and ultimately launched the Little Rock Executives’ Association in March 1974.
Bill Miller, president of R&E Supply Co. in Little Rock, pictured in the early 1970s, about the time he joined LREA.
“A very valuable part of the organization is that you get to meet some of the best of the best in business,” said Bill Miller, owner of R&E Supply Co., who joined the group shortly after its founding in 1974. “Our whole theory is we’re there to help each other. No matter what the issue, we can always depend on each other to get ideas. You have some technical issues, you can find that out generally. If you have a specific project, somebody in the group usually knows something about it. That’s how it’s valuable, and it’s how we help each other grow.”
As with many fledgling organizations, LREA started on wobbly legs, devising and refining bylaws, organizing meetings, and selling the concept and its benefits to prospective members. Then, as now, the group believed participatory membership was a strong membership, and so attendance at weekly breakfast meetings and monthly member open houses was required. That proved too much for some, but after a time, the roster filled out with businesspeople savvy enough to appreciate the value of commitment.
In addition to the attendance requirements, LREA features several other elements that make it unique among other business-oriented organizations. For one thing, membership is built around categories of goods or services and includes one business per category according to each member’s primary stock and trade.
Only one active member is listed per company, but additional employees — such as the child of a founder — can be assigned “associate” status. An associate member may take over the active status due to the active member’s retirement, at which time the original member’s status changes to “honorary member.”
Members say that exclusivity in membership not only ups the prestige of the group but makes the all-for-one business model work.
“When you recommend somebody, you want to feel confident that these people’s services are good, that they’re the best,” said Howard Hurst, president of Tipton & Hurst, a member since 1987. “We only wanted the best in the membership for that reason, so people can assume they’re dealing with good people, people you can recommend to others and trust them to reciprocate. That’s a very strong thing, that trust.”
“The loyalty that we developed, that’s a hard thing to come by,” Miller added. “One of the difficult things in business anymore is to be able to depend on other people. All of these people [in LREA] have learned to service their accounts and treat people properly. I’d say that over the years, I’ve met 500 or so of the top businesspeople in the state and in central Arkansas through LREA, and even as people come and go, I still have that connection with them. It stays with you your whole life.”
A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS
LREA members Brent Schmiegelow, from left, Austin Watters, Sunday Adebayo and Scott Moritz
The group also maintains the high standards of the organization through careful vetting of new members, either due to new business categories being formed and filled or in the event an existing member drops out. Unlike other organizations, which follow a come-one-come-all membership model, prospective members must be referred or sponsored by an existing member of the group and approved according to the bylaws.
As a result, membership has stayed constant at 80 to 100 members through the years, manageable enough to form solid business relationships yet diverse enough to cover most if not all categories of goods and services.
“I found we got more business out of LREA than you do other service clubs,” Bob Russell said. “I guess the reason being is because we put so much emphasis on doing business with other members. That doesn’t seem to be the case with your other types of service organizations. I think that really has something to do with it.”
Another unique feature that has promulgated from the very beginning is the issuance of a coin denoting membership. According to the official history of LREA, the coins were originally very similar in appearance to a silver dollar and imprinted with the LREA motto “Business Through Reciprocity” and a number representing the numerical sequence in which the bearer was admitted.
As with attendance, members were expected to keep their coins on their person or face the consequences.
“There were, in history, attempts to ensure that members always carried this coin with them to remember their commitment to the principles of LREA,” the archive reads. “Fines were levied at meetings for lack of coins, lack of leads. … The younger days were financially tedious at best.”
Discretion was also expected. For a good portion of the group’s existence, members talking about LREA and its operations was officially frowned upon, even to the company owners who were being considered for membership. In more recent times, that attitude has been relaxed.
“Prior to just recently changing our bylaws, you could not let a member know you were talking about them coming in the group until they were approved,” Cranford said. “Naturally, a lot of them wouldn’t know what you were talking about once you told them they were approved.
“We changed that recently, and now you can let somebody know. You can talk to them, see if they can handle the attendance requirements before you go to all the trouble of sponsoring them for membership. I think that’s much better than how we used to do it.”
Despite the exclusive nature of the organization, businesspeople of all backgrounds have been welcomed within their respective categories. Cranford said while women have always been in the minority, she never felt any different treatment by other members based on her gender.
“The members were very welcoming,” she said. “I was never the only woman, but there were only about four or five others, yet I was never ostracized or called out or anything. I was just one of the group, and I was never treated nor felt anything different than that.”
Spouses have always been essential in the workings of LREA, as well, since the group recognizes the crucial role they played in the success of so many small businesses.
As the LREA handbook states, “A wise member will realize that the ‘spouse force’ is doubling the network value of their dues dollar. Many spouses have additional occupational and social contacts apart from those of the LREA representative.”
Spouses are welcome at weekly breakfast meetings, and family members may attend the monthly open houses showcasing different members’ operations. In fact, some of today’s legacy members got their first exposure to the organization through the open house events, which members take turns hosting to explain their services and show off their facilities.
“I remember as a kid going to the Tuesday-night open houses many times,” said Jeff Smith, owner of Smith Family Funeral Homes and current LREA president. “I remember going to the news studio, I remember going to The Bug Man, and I remember going to various other businesses in LREA.
“That was great exposure as a young kid and as a teenager. I just grew up comfortable in networking situations or being in a room full of professionals. I look back on it now, and that was a really valuable early exposure to professionalism and networking.”
Jeff Smith, left, of Smith Family Funeral Homes and his father, the late John Smith
GENERATION TO GENERATION
Of everything for which LREA is known, singularity of purpose is arguably the most resolute. Members look to each other for goods and services first and, when the opportunity presents itself, recommend fellow LREA members for prospective sales and potential clients, actions to which members are held accountable.
“Sometimes there’s a conflict, like one of my best friends was my accountant,” Hurst said. “Well, obviously, I didn’t use the accounting firm [in LREA] because he’s my best friend, and I had a preexisting business relationship.
“Another thing I would tell you is when people refer you, you better take care of business. You’ve got to do the right thing. Otherwise, you’ll make somebody look bad who recommended you.”
Some of the hardest things for any organization to accommodate are the changing needs and attitudes of the membership through time. One way LREA has maintained its amazing continuity is through the commingling of generations of business leaders and the wisdom and experience that is for the asking.
“I think the older generation naturally looks to help the younger generation when they need it because they know how they used to be,” Hall said. “I was 39 when I joined, and the whole group, frankly, embraced me from day one. The benefit of having a network of friends and quality businesses at my fingertips was extremely valuable.”
Such expertise does not just flow one direction, either, since members rally to help any member that is undergoing some sort of challenge or, in the case of 2020’s COVID-19 shutdowns, when every member was under duress. Brett Russell said for as unpleasant as business conditions can sometimes be, it is extremely helpful to have a group that understands the pressures of making payroll and navigating challenges.
“As the kid of a member, I saw and met the people involved in LREA,” he said. “I saw the value of the organization, but I didn’t truly understand it until I became a part of the family business myself. The way my dad talked about the organization for years, that it was such a benefit for our business as a whole, helping us grow and sell vehicles and maintain those great relationships, that continues to this day.”
For everything that can trace a direct line back to 1974, there has been steady tweaking of the bylaws through LREA’s history. Time and again, the group’s astute leadership recognized the need to adapt to the times and market realities in ways that have enhanced — but not altered — the central focus of the group.
Fifty strong years, and the continuing relevance of the group has borne out the wisdom of those actions, paying many of the same financial and relational dividends envisioned by the founders.
“It would be extremely remiss not to briefly discuss the ancillary benefits associated with membership in LREA,” reads the official history. “The business and social contacts and friendships developed cannot be duplicated in any other organization. The annual conference has long been a favorite, especially among the ‘old guard’ members who have benefited from the camaraderie developed at these functions.”
That visionary mentality continues today as Smith and his fellow officers seek to chart a path for LREA’s next five decades and oncoming generations of Little Rock businesspeople. He said he would like to see the history of the group be more widely told and tout the organization’s success story, one few people outside LREA even know about.
“I think it’s really special that Little Rock has had, for over 50 years, a business organization that is strictly focused on promoting its members and doing business with other Arkansas-based businesses that are the best of the best,” he said. “I think that’s been kind of clandestine for too long, and I think it benefits central Arkansas to know there’s a lot of exciting things going on, and one of them has been going on for a long time and, hopefully, will continue to go on for a long time.
“The idea of local businesses promoting each other and doing business with each other — and beyond that, the relationships that are forged in this group — are playing a big role in the health of our business community. Most cities don’t have something like this, and I think it should be celebrated.”
That said, Smith noted he is not out to fix what is not broken. As a legacy member, he has had the benefit of a lifetime watching the organization grow his family’s business, and even though he desires the group to raise its profile a bit, there are some things that cannot be improved upon. He said the core value of LREA is as valuable and worth preserving today as it was in the very beginning.
“My dad, John Smith, joined LREA in 1978 and was president in 1982-1983,” he said. “In 2006, Dad said, ‘Hey, I’m going to retire in about five years. If you think you want to come into the business, now’s a good time to do it. I really only have one requirement: You have to join LREA.’ It was nonnegotiable.
“That really cemented for me how important LREA was to my dad and our family business, and I’m so grateful that he just flat out required me to be a part of it. Dad always said LREA was the best business networking group he’d ever been involved in because when it comes down to it, business is all about relationships, and that’s what LREA is really about.”
ACTIVE & ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Sunday & Michelle Adebayo
Adebayo Cleaning Service
Dennis & Marshia Adkins
Adkins & Associates
Erica Akel Moore & Witt Moore
Akel’s Carpet One Floor & Home
Clint & Marla Albright
Albright Ideas
Larry & Jan Alman
Alman Recycling Co.
Chris & Katie Apple
Arkansas Pro Wash
Megan & Samuel Bonney
CHI St. Vincent North
Heather Baker & Ryan Parker
AY Media Group
Kenny Bell
Bellco Plumbing
Bobby & Lydia Bemberg
Bemberg Iron Works
Mark & Patti Bennett
Brown, Rogers & Co.
Jason Bermingham
Maple Leaf Lawns & Sprinklers
Mike & Starr Boschetti
Strategic M&A Advisors
Nicole & Josh Burrow
Burrow’s & Mr. Frank’s Optical
Michael Cataldo
Pro Link Sports
Chris & Debbie Cerrato
EVO Business Environments
Matt & Mindy Coleman
Network Services Group
Becky Cranford
The Bug Man, Inc.
John & Bliss Dean
Dean Dental Solutions
Evans & Bryan Dietz
D & D Sun Control
Sandy Downs, from left, Karen Young and Dean Downs
Sandy & Lisa Downs
Don’s Supply
Roderick Edwards
Triple-S Alarm Co.
Jason & Laura Evans
CHI St. Vincent
J.T. & Amanda Ferstl
Ferstl Valuation Services
Mike & Rhonda Flagg
Hiland Dairy
Ryan & Misti Flynn
Network Services Group
Beverly Foster & T. Martin Davis
Chiropractic Health & Rehabilitation
Jason & Julianna Garner
Antique Brick & Block
Tom Gibbens
Tom & Leslye Gibbens
Lamar Outdoor Advertising
Aaron & Kala Grimes
Capitol Glass Co.
John Hugg, left, and Robert Hall (Photo by Jamie Lee)
Robert Hall
Hugg & Hall
Lance & Stacey Hines
Priority1
Melissa Holland & Natalie Gay
Advanced Physical Therapy
Howard Hurst
Howard & Stacy Hurst
Tipton & Hurst
William & Dawn Jones
Sissy’s Log Cabin
Harold & Jeanne Joyner
Fence World
Bram & Michelle Keahey
TAGGART Architects
Andrew & Sarah King
Complete Payroll Services
Kyle & Ginger King
KARK/KLRT
Tony Lawhon
Salon Artistry
Frank & Jill Lawrence
The Athletic Clubs
René & Sonya LaVergne
Pinnacle Valley Westrock Animal Hospital
Chuck Magill, from left, Desiree Lovell, Jonathan G. Looney, Bob Harrison and Jeff Franzetti
Jonathan & Hillary Looney
O’Looney’s Wine & Liquor
Veronica & Rickey Love
Home Health Care Agency of AR
Stuart & Mandi McLendon
Flexion Point
Jurek & Lesly Makowski
InstallAV
Robert & Tara Maltby
Market Place Pharmacy
Evan & Brittney Mathews
National Custom Hollow Metal
Shea & Sarah Mathews
Maple Leaf Canvas
Travis & Meredith Medcalf
Grant Garrett Excavating
Bill & Shirley Miller
R&E Supply
Cory & Becca Miller
R&E Supply
Cindy Minor
Small World Big Fun
Scott Moritz
Scott & Rachael Moritz
Trivia Marketing
Ryan Myers
Myers Supply
Kevin & Leigh Ann Newton
CBM Construction Co.
Joey & Melissa Nichols
Friday, Eldredge & Clark
Matthew Nicolo
Arkansas Industrial Roofing
Vernon Scott and Kathryn Pannell
Kathryn & Jake Pannell
Citizens Bank
Bill & Jessica Parkinson
Parkinson Building Group
Gary Parrish
Parrish Delivery Services
Jim & Leslie Pender
First National Title Co.
Hoyt Plunkett Jr.
Hoyt & Heather Plunkett
Jackpot Interactive
Thomas & Ambre Pownall
Thomas Engineering
Todd & Kathy Rice
Colliers International
Brett & Ashley Russell
Russell Chevrolet & Honda
Joel & Jennifer Schmidt
Joel’s Photography
Brent Schmiegelow
American Concrete Concepts
Vernon Scott and Kathryn Pannell
Vernon & Susan Scott
Citizens Bank
The team at Smith Family Funeral Home.
Jeff & Leslie Smith
Smith Family Funeral Homes
Jacob & Debra Stone
Elite Moves
Blaine & Virginia Tanner
The Oyster Bar
Joel Warwick
Fence World
Austin Watters
Capitol Glass Co.
Brian & Rachel Wayne
Little Rock Dermatology Clinic
Keith & Mandy Weeks
Gary Houston Electric Co.
Allen & Laura Westlake
The Westlake Group
Tim & Wanda White
Brown & Brown Insurance
Kevin & Jennifer Wilcox
Arkansas Graphics
Keith & Karyn Wortsmith
DASH Heating & Cooling
Adam, left, and Tim Zimmerman
Tim & Teresa Zimmerman
First Choice Drug Testing & Occupational Health Services
HONORARY MEMBERS
Chris & Margaret Albright
Ted & Becky Bishop
Bill & Donna Bosley
Sid & BJ Bray
Renie & Diane Bressinck
Lunsford & Carol Bridges
Jim & Diana Camp
Lee Carter & Nancy Sherman
George & M’Liss Collins
Jeff & Brenda Kay Duncan
Rick & Mary Edwards
Charles & Patty Enderlin
George “Red” & Mary Freeman
Howard Hardin
Terry & Jan Hill
Don & Linda Houff
Gary & Beth Houston
Steve & Kathleen Jonsson
Leif & Sallie Lorenz
Chuck & Gigi Magill
Judy Myers
Dan & Diana Richards
Ronnie & Mary Lynn Roberson
Becky Rogers
Frazier Rogers
Bob & Beverly Russell
Cindy Scott
Kay Smith
Kaye Stanley
Larry & Tracye Townley
Janice Turnage
Lewis & Jan VanNess
Dale & Gail Wilcox
Harrigan Wortsmith
