Jarvis Communication Corporation: Case Study

Jarvis Communication Corporation Background Jarvis Communication is a start-up firm that develops, manufactures, and markets a miniature telephone. Last year’s sales revenue was $6.5 million, resulting in its first profitable year in its first three years of business. The phone is unique because it is only two inches long, weighs two ounces, and a miniature receiver is worn in the ear. The phone speaker and microphone carry out all the normal functions of a phone (except dialing) without the use of a mouthpiece. The phone uses bone conduction technologies that detect small, minute vibrations in the skull when a person talks. The phone sells for $99. Jarvis’s markets have grown quickly and have become worldwide; analysts believe the market will grow 50 percent per year for the next five years. Most of the development of the miniature phone was done by the founder, Ms. Carly Jarvis, an electrical engineer. She is also the primary source for more than 20 new products already designed with accompanying engineering drawings. Jarvis believes innovation in modes of telecommunications is the key to future success of the company. She believes quality is number one; profits and returns to stockholders will follow. Only last month the company purchased a small circuit board company that specializes in bonding small silicon chips on printed circuit boards. Jarvis Communication stock sells over the counter. Management is thinking it will be necessary to become listed on the New York Stock Exchange if large expansion becomes desirable.

Management The company employs 120 people and is organized in a matrix form to facilitate the project environment. Every employee behaves as if quality is an obsession. Jarvis believes the management style should be collegial, the workplace environment should be one employees enjoy, and the company should provide products that make life easier and more productive. Marketing is responsible for direct and original equipment manufacturer (OEM)