Jordan Franklin

As it turned out, Jordan Franklin had absolutely nothing to be nervous about.

Franklin, 34, is the CEO of Stratice in Bentonville, a talent management firm she co-founded with her husband, Scott, in 2015. After a big growth year in 2021, Jordan Franklin knew 2022 would be challenging.

In 2022, Stratice continued to do robust business and even picked up Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale as a client to help with its OneTyson relocation initiative. Franklin said all the success made her take a minute to figure out if she was the one who needed to be in charge.

“I got nervous because I knew we were going to have a growth year, and I wanted to be sure we grew in the right way and I was the right person,” Franklin said. “I’ve seen companies grow with the wrong leadership, and I wanted to be willing enough to step back if that wasn’t me but strong enough to say, ‘No, it’s me, and I know how to do it’ if it was me.”

Franklin gained confidence that she was indeed the right woman for the job. As the company grew — it now has 77 employees nationally, 11 in India and new offices in Little Rock and Birmingham, Alabama — Franklin made sure the company didn’t change.

“Growing from a small business to something that looks more like a medium business has been an undertaking for us, and it comes with its own growing pains,” Franklin said. “I made sure everyone understands that just because we are growing, we are not going to lose our core. We work hand in hand with our clients to build out a game plan that is functional and all-encompassing of their strategic goals. We want to make sure it is the right solution for every single project that comes our way.”

Franklin said having Tyson Foods as a client was a big score, and she is confident 2023 will be another banner year for her company.

“I feel like 2022 was a building year for us,” Franklin said. “We have a lot of new faces internally. It is going to put us on the launching pad for 2023 to grow exponentially in revenue now that we have all the right butts in the right seats.”