Viewpoints

February 2008

Right business, right time

by Marla Levy

Some might call it mere coincidence, others might say it was fate, but all would likely agree that the planets aligned for the birth of a business when in 2001 Ken Sim (BCom 93) and John DeHart both happened to pack in their fast-paced lives and sweet jobs in Toronto, move to Vancouver, and consult with the same business mentor about a parallel hope to start a business in the burgeoning healthcare sector.

Milton Wong (Chairman of HSBC Asset Management Canada) introduced the two sharp minds with the idea that they could become potential partners – and they did. What they also did was parlay their own personal experiences into a business idea.

Sim, a former investment and merchant banker, and DeHart, a high tech whiz, were exploring opportunities at their then “office” (the Starbucks in Kerrisdale) when Sim received a call from his pregnant wife, informing him that she’d been put on emergency bed rest. The couple now needed to find someone to assist them in their home.

“It was actually a pretty scary experience,” notes Sim, recalling their meeting with a potential caregiver. “She had faxed her resume to the company the day before. She hadn’t had a screening interview, a criminal record check, a medical test, or an assessment of skills.”

DeHart, too, had experienced the frustration of trying to find an appropriate caregiver when his grandmother was ill with Alzheimer’s. He was struck by the fact that the in-home health industry lacked standards and was unregulated.

Sim and DeHart knew they could do better. They also knew that Canada’s graying population was set to double within 20 years. That led the duo to form Nurse Next Door Home Healthcare Services. The company provides a full range of in-home services, from companionship and meal preparation to medication monitoring and complex medical care.

….Nurse Next Door is the fastest growing senior-care company in BC. It has more than 1000 field staff in BC’s lower Mainland, ranging from health care aides to registered nurses, who service 1000 clients, the average age of which is 85. In an effort to recruit even more caregivers, the company recently introduced the “Mommy Shift,” which runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and allows mothers to work with close-by clients while their children are at school.

Sim and DeHart have aggressive franchise plans. Last September they signed hyper-growth expert Cameron Herold, the former Chief Operating Officer of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development. Herold led Got Junk from 14 franchises and $2 million in sales to 310 franchises and over $100 million in sales.

“We went to be like them,” enthuses Sim. “They run an incredible company. They have a great culture and great core values.” And while Nurse Next Door has its sights set high – 500 locations and $1 billion in sales by 2021 – the company is not about growth at any cost. “We want to get everything right,” says Sim. “It’s not a race.”

Key to getting things right is having the right people. “We don’t sell franchises, we award franchises,” says Sim. “We have an extensive training program for our franchise partners. We provide them with the systems to make sure that clients get the same experience whether they’re in Vancouver or Kamloops.” What Nurse Next Door also provides is a 24/7 centralized call centre that coordinates al scheduling for the franchisees, freeing them to focus on the sale and delivery of in-home health services in their respective communities.

The company closely tracks clients’ experiences and measures customer satisfaction by clients’ willingness to recommend Nurse Next Door. That said, they’ve stumbled along the way. But they’ve also fessed up, most notably by sending an apology in the form of a fresh-baked “humble pie” (from Vancouver’s Acme Humble Pie Company). So far those mistakes have cost Nurse Next Door about $1300, but have likely kept $90,000 worth of annual sales.

Nurse Next Door has captured the attention of many in the business community. Sim and DeHart are members of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s “Birthing of Giants” program, were winners of Business in Vancouver’s “Forty Under 40” in 2005, and were awarded the “Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award” in 2006.

“We’re a learning organization,” notes Sim. “We spend a disproportionate amount of time and effort making sure that we get really smart people, who have the right core values, onto our ‘bus’. Then it’s my responsibility to make sure that they stay really smart and that we stay really smart.” That’s done by visiting and studying the likes of Got Junk, Honda, Dell, and Toyota. “We’re looking at the world’s best companies.” In the not-too-distant future, Nurse Next Door could well be counted among them. 

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