Strategy Exercise: Ringtone and Phones-R-Us are both successful companies in the cellular phone retail sales business. On the one hand, Phones-R-Us pursues a low-cost strategy and has fairly high employee turnover rates. The firm relies on a high volume of phone sales to generate revenue. On the other hand, Ringtone pursues a competitive advantage based on customer intimacy and has very loyal employees. Ringtone sells expensive, high-quality phones and relies on its employees to provide high-quality customer service to generate sales.

The sales representatives for both companies “bring in the bacon.” As such, these people are a key factor to the firms’ success.

How should each company source recruits for the position?