Financial Insight Into Hiring Dialed the Right Number for The Cellular Connection

Carmel, Indiana - As the largest Verizon Premium Wireless Retailer in the U.S., The Cellular Connection (TCC) has been making headlines lately with its focus on creating a hands-on shopping experience and helping consumers integrate their phone purchases into their various lifestyles.

This much lauded retailing strategy clearly garners results. From 2009 to 2012, TCC’s revenue grew from $191.2 million to $606.5 million (217 percent growth), and the firm created nearly 600 jobs. However, beneath TCC’s high-gloss retailing are some finely tuned financial and operational gears that have helped to energize the firm’s fast-growing operations.

For Chad Jensen, TCC’s CFO, these gears were first put in motion by attracting the right talent and understanding the critical roles that health insurance and other benefits play when it comes to talent management in the retail sector.

“I’ve been able to gain clear insight into the true costs of training and retaining the employees,” he says, when asked about his close collaboration and oversight of the firm’s human resources function.

“This allowed us to make certain that we were offering leading-edge benefit plans to our employees, which we see as a key differentiator in (retail)” explains Jensen, who over the past 12 months has added six additional finance hires — all now housed with TCC’s CFO inside the firm’s recently opened Carmel, Indiana, office.

Back at the store level, Jensen says, finance has a significant role to play as well.

“The fact is that we sell a very limited number of SKUs. This is about making certain from an inventory perspective that we have the right phones at any given time,” says Jensen, who doesn’t attempt to sugarcoat the something-less-than-exclusive nature of TCC’s inventory. “We understand that the product we sell is available 2 miles down the street, so we need to have the phone ready when the customer walks in the door.”

To achieve this level of “real-time” inventory management, Jensen says, the firm has adopted “granular models” by phone type that help to ensure that its phones stay in stock. At the same time, TCC’s finance team is marching in step with the firm’s greater management philosophy — one that encourages managers to “take ownership” of decision-making along the front lines.

“What’s key here is that we are driving down the concept of ownership and really empowering our people to make decisions. If you’re a store manager, you own your store. If you’re a regional manager, you own your region,” says Jensen, who clearly subscribes to the notion that finance must no longer rest in the back office if it is to develop the tools and metrics to support frontline decision-making.

“I think that a lot of retailers might reward their staff for growth, but we really empower them to make decisions and be part of the process from every angle, and this is what really makes us unique,” he explains.

Asked where the firm will expand next, Jensen remains a tad tightlipped but nonetheless bold:

“We continue to grow in 28 states and are now looking for the right opportunities to grow a nationwide footprint,” he says, noting that a location’s visibility, customer traffic patterns, and surrounding retailers are part of what makes a particular storefront attractive.