Sarah and her three friends started a small business to sell silver jewelry that they designed and made themselves. The business grew very quickly, and within a few years had turned into a national retail chain. At one point they had employees, but the management team worked well together as they had developed a strong bond. Within this flexible work culture, a key to their effective management and business success was their ability to have open and effective communication systems in place. The management team met twice a month and rotated their meetings at each shop. However, as the business and related demands grew much bigger, this became too difficult and they shifted to virtual communications. The case describes a couple of examples in which, due to miscommunication, task division was not clear, things did not get done and the business suffered.

1. What made communication at Silver Lines effective initially?

2. How did the use of Skype impact this effectiveness?

3. What could the management team do to improve technology-based communication?