Harvey and Deanne Gilbert were both born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. Harvey attended the University of Missouri in Kansas City, majoring in pre-med, and then completed medical school at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Deanne graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in elementary education and began her teaching career in Raytown, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. During Harveyâs junior year in college, Harvey and Deanne were married. While Harvey attended medical school, Deanne taught fifth grade in Centralia, Missouri. Following graduation from medical school, Harvey was commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and completed his internship at the Oakland Naval Hospital. He spent 1 year in Vietnam as a physician on a troop transport ship. On returning from Vietnam, he was stationed in Stockton and San Diego, California. While stationed in Stockton, Deanne taught sixth grade at Colonial Heights Elementary School.
Harvey had spent 4 years as a physician in the Navy. After leaving the Navy, he became a resident in radiation oncology at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco. After Deanne and Harvey had their first child, Jill, Deanne gave up teaching to be a full-time stay-at-home mom to Jill and her younger brother, Jason. Harvey continued his studies, doing research at Stanford, and completed his training in radiation oncology at UCLA in 1973.
Harvey began practice at the Kaiser Hospital in Los Angeles and worked for them for about 9 years. The Gilberts firmly believed in the time value of money and the power of investing. They saved a percentage of their income from the time they were married. They always paid themselves first and invested their money, primarily in stock and mutual funds, which they selected carefully. They always invested the maximum in retirement accounts and fully funded their 401(k) and self-directed IRA.
Then Harvey entered private practice in a community hospital in Los Angeles for another 10 years as director of a regional cancer center. When Jill entered college at USC, Deanne determined that student housing in the area was rundown and not very safe, so she decided to buy a piece of property that Jill could live in while attending the university. She worked with several brokers until she found a piece of property that she really liked. When her friend Diane Futterman, another physicianâs wife, found out what she was doing, she wanted to work with Deanne and they formed a Subchapter S corporation to purchase affordable rental housing for students in the USC area. They bought houses and remodeled them to meet their own high standards; furnished them; installed security systems, including bars on the windows and security doors; and rented to students. In the first year, they bought one house; the next year, they bought three more houses. Deanne and Diane invested primarily in student housing and then gradually expanded into apartments and rental real estate. The work in the corporation was divided very carefully, with both partners doing what they were most interested in and did best. Diane specialized in contracts and the legal aspects of the business, whereas Deanne specialized in the physical maintenance, decorating, and security of the units. They prided themselves in offering safe, affordable, and secure housing for students and tenants in the Southern California area.
By 1992, both of the Gilbertsâ children had settled in the San Francisco area. Deanne and Harvey moved to northern California in 1993 to take advantage of an opportunity for Harvey to practice in the Modesto area. In 1997, Harvey and Deanne decided to go out on their own and build a cancer center in Lodi, California, where Deanne became the office manager and Harvey was the primary physician and medical director. The decision was made early on to stay in the specialty of radiation oncology with their services being used by several health plans, HMOs, and other physician groups. Between 1997 and 2004, the center grew from 4 employees to 12. In 2004, the radiation facility was sold to a national radiation oncology organization with Harvey continuing as the practicing physician and Deanne as the manager. When the center was sold, all the original investors were paid off.
Harvey and Deanne were retained by the purchasing entity to continue their roles as medical director and office manager. The acquisition agreement also provided them with the opportunity to participate in profit sharing, and as such, they have continued to participate in the revenues of the practice.
Over his years in practice, Harvey was continually asked for recommendations regarding long-term care and assisted living; thus the idea of the Gilbert Guide was developed and founded by the entire family. By this time, their daughter Jill, a graduate of USC with more than 10 years of experience in the film industry, and their son Jason, a graduate of UCLA with many years of experience in the area of strategic planning, operations, finance, and product management, were looking for a new venture. Gilbert Guide, Inc. was developed to address the dire need for comprehensive and practical consumer guides for long-term care planning in every major metropolitan area in the United States. Founded by the Gilbert familyâJill, Jason, Deanne, and Harveyâthe Gilbert Guide has grown from its inception in 2003 as a groundbreaking guidebook setting new standards and criteria for assessing the quality of the many types of long-term care available to become the biggest senior care site on the Web, offering an even wider range of resources to help families and caregivers in their time of senior care need. This is truly an entrepreneurial family venture, with their daughter Jill as president and CEO, their son Jason as COO and CFO, and Harvey as medical and policies director. The Gilbert Guide can be found on the Internet at http://www.gilbertguide.com.
1. How much of the Gilbertâs success do you attribute to their persistence?
2. How important do you believe the Gilbertâs investments and understanding of time value of money contributed to their overall success?
3. Provide a brief summary of the case study
