JDCC News March/April 1997
by David Rosenbaum

Psychologist Sells TTYs?!
Robert Harris is the president of Harris Communications, a national mail-order company located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. You may have also seen their exhibit booths at major events of deaf or hard of hearing. His company is considered the largest Deaf-owned business in the country to sell such a large variety of assistive devices, deaf cultural novelty and giftware items. Their range and variety of equipment, books and videotapes is amazing.

Psychologist Bob!
People generally know him as 'Bob' and he is generally well-known. But would you ever know that he was born hearing and is a licensed psychologist?!

Bob was born at the University of Chicago Hospital but immediately after birth, the family moved to Milwaukee. He lost his hearing when he was 8 months old due to spinal meningitis. He considers himself profoundly deaf.

Fascination For Business
His father and his uncle were in the lumber yard business. Never did Bob dream he would go into business especially a business that dealt with telecommunications. "I already had a doctorate degree in clinical psychology and thought that I would spend the rest of my life as a clinical psychologist working with deaf people," Bob explains, "Somehow I lost my interest in clinical psychology. I knew something was missing in my heart. I realized later that running a business has always been my dream because I had some role models who ran their own business: my grandfather and my father.

TTYs Pave The Path
"It just happened that portable TTYs came out on the market in the late 1970's. I happened to sell TTYs on the side. Somehow my TTY business grew a little more every year until 1991 when I realized I could not do both running a business and practicing psychology. So, I resigned in psychology and went full time running the business."

Harris Communications was founded in 1982. The business was originally called 'TTY/TDD Distributor' and to keep costs down, Harris operated the business out of his townhome. After three years, the business moved to its first offices and was changed to the current business name. Last year, it moved again to a larger and brand new building in Eden Prairie, a suburb of Minneapolis where they have offices, a showroom and warehouse. They now employ nineteen people who operate departments in marketing, accounting, customer service, purchasing and inventory management as well as a General Manager which enables Harris to participate at various conferences, conventions and tournaments with exhibit booths.

Business Philosophy
Being a very active fan, Harris applies his knowledge of sports and the role of coaches to operating his business. "Many of those coaches used to be a Jack-of-All-Trades when they started their coaching career as they only coach for a high school or small team," he explains, "As they moved up the career ladder, they had to learn to delegate some responsibilities by hiring assistant coaches."

Harris says he applies coaching tasks he learned about and used such as giving positive feedback to employees, creating a positive and healthy environment for employees; rewarding employees with competitive salaries and fringe benefits; providing a vision about obtaining company goals and monitoring sales growth on a monthly basis; maximizing employee strengths; and trusting the ability of key management team leaders to run their departments."

Grew Up Jewish
Bob Harris says he is "proud to consider myself as a Jewish man. I grew up with many good memories of Jewish holiday gatherings, attending Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs. I also grew up with lots of love from my family, relatives, and friends. Although I attended Sunday school, there were no interpreting services. So, I did not receive a good education in Judaism and this would explain why I did not have my own bar mitzvah."