The catalyst was the tragic death of a family friend who was unable to secure the help she needed.

Today Jean Griswold continues to serve as CEO of the company and director of the original office in Erdenheim, PA.

Her husband, Lincoln Griswold, a Presbyterian minister with a doctorate in Thanatology (the study of death and dying), joined her full time in 1985 and serves as Chairman of the Board with oversight of all corporate, legal, insurance, and tax matters.

Kent, who has an undergraduate degree from Harvard as well as an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, never went back. He now serves as President, overseeing the on-going operations and expansion of the company.

Lori L. Rosenquist, Ph.D., M.S.G., a policy analyst and gerontologist whose PhD is in Gerontology, joined the company in 1993 as Acting President when Kent took a sabbatical to write a novel.

Upon his return, she remained as Vice President. Today Lori Griswold is Kent's wife and Executive Vice President as well as Executive Director of the Special Care Foundation, a non-profit entity that underwrites emergency care for financially challenged clients.

The first major challenge facing the company is the onset of potentially costly and inefficient government regulations precipitated by numerous forces including nursing associations, unions, home health organizations, the disabled community, the long term care industry, as well as politicians themselves all trying to influence legislation to their own benefit.

GRISWOLD SPECIAL CARE's primary mission from its outset has been to offer the highest quality non-medical home care services at the lowest possible cost to the clients.

They have fought hard against initiatives that interfere with that goal and to support those that have a clear consumer benefit such as the requirement to conduct criminal record checks on Caregivers, a practice pioneered by GRISWOLD SPECIAL CARE.

Lori Griswold, Executive Vice President, has served on numerous state specific committees, meets regularly with representatives, and has drafted regulations to assure quality home care that were adopted.

The second major challenge is continuing to grow their company to meet the widespread and ever increasing need for home care without compromising the quality of our service.

Being a family business enables GRISWOLD SPECIAL CARE to concentrate on the long view without needing to answer to shareholders demanding a quarter-to-quarter growth in the bottom line. It also permits the family values of integrity, experience, education, and cooperation to permeate the entire organization.

Three key decisions were made early in the company's history which have kept the company on the road to success with integrity:

They adopted the basic, underlying philosophy that people are more important than money and that service to their clients is more important than any profit that may result from their endeavor.

They believe that personal care ñ the nature of their business ñ is best provided by local personnel, and rather than seek to maintain a central control of their expanding service company, they began to license other quality driven individuals to set up what has become a network of offices, each with easily manageable exclusive territories, and a pool of local Caregivers.

They opted to control growth so as not to compromise quality. This decision served them well after exposure through the nationally broadcast TODAY Show and feature articles published in Forbes and Entrepreneur magazines.

The company was flooded with prospects and could have expanded throughout the fifty states. Steadfast to today, every new office is operated by a carefully trained individual who shares their philosophy and commitment to quality, with every office receiving dedicated support from the corporate staff.

Balancing tradition with strategically placed branding efforts is a challenge. At its outset the company's name reflected its limited service, Overnight Sitting Service.

However very soon it was evident that there was a need for hourly, day, and even live-in care and the name was changed to Special Care. When expansion uncovered that the name was already taken in some states, the family name was added.

Throughout almost twenty years the company was very united in mission, values, scope of service, and leadership, but fragmented by name.

To unify and begin a formal branding process, the company chose the 20th anniversary, 2002. Offices still under the Special Care moniker were invited to take on the family name and become GRISWOLD SPECIAL CARE.

The branding was furthered by centrally choosing and imprinting items such as banners, stationery, and business cards as well as promotional items as magnets, and pens, and bags and offering them as thank you items to the offices that adopted the name.

Further branding efforts have included press exposure as well as constant reinforcement of even minute details as the use of "all caps & italics" when using the GRISWOLD SPECIAL CARE name.

Jean Griswold's remarkable accomplishments have garnered her recognition locally, regionally, and nationally. Honors for her and all of the family company members have added to the name recognition.

The leadership challenges faced in running a family business are many. For Kent, working with both parents for 16 years and with his wife for 10 years has led to some interesting family dynamics.

For Kent and Lori it has meant establishing a time and place boundary on work related conversations. GRISWOLD SPECIAL CARE matters must cease at 10 p.m. and, after their 6-year-old daughter reflected they talk shop on family trips, possibly be outlawed there as well.

The entire foursome agrees that jointly they are challenged to curtail talk about the family venture at holiday and family gatherings.

The company has evolved during the past twenty-one years and is well situated both internally (in the corporate office) and externally to face the challenging demands of the marketplace.

Internally, to meet the customer service needs of the directors, staff has been added to the corporate team. Preemptive hiring also ensures no interruption in service and permits the company to continue to grow as it maintains its focus on quality. Surveying needs determines the most logical hire to assist corporate staff to maintain quality within.

In the marketplace, it is the tried and true philosophy established at the very beginning that sustains the company to this day: secure the highest possible wages for those delivering the service (the Caregivers) thus attracting and retaining the highest quality workers, and charging the lowest possible amount to the Client.

This has meant a low profit margin with increase in profitability depending solely on enlarging the client base. Because the company has not only promised but has also delivered, the profits have been realized. The company has also donated up to 100% of its annual profits to a non-profit fund to help care for those unable to afford needed home care.

To start up any service-oriented business, control of expenses is a crucial factor for being successful ñ second only to finding a need that you can fill.

Various technologies can save time and even prove cost-effective as you grow, but initially it is a matter of providing a service of sufficient quality and perceived value that will grow through word of mouth. Person-to-person marketing is cost effective, and out performs expensive advertising. Maintaining an updated web site that is user friendly, searching for an appropriate web address, and capturing a desirable "800" number are all worthwhile investments.

Among GRISWOLD SPECIAL CARE¥s earliest and best customers were hospitals. Through the years some decided they could cash in on the home care market by establishing their own home care departments, only to discover to their dismay that they had to assume the administrative headaches as well. We were most impressed when many cut their losses and returned to using GRISWOLD SPECIAL CARE.

The only way to keep ahead of the rest in the home care industry is to strive ever to improve the quality of service while controlling the cost of services. GRISWOLD SPECIAL CARE employs an ongoing quality improvement program throughout the company to encourage and to reward success in this all-important area. To further reward the directors, a new car is being offered as an incentive to promote improvement this year.

GRISWOLD SPECIAL CARE has promised our customers that the major share of their cost will go directly to those who provide the service. They have maintained that policy from the very beginning.

Even when an increase is required, normally 80% to 85% is passed on to the Caregivers, with the company limiting itself to the remainder. Their clients know this and GRISWOLD believes this is one of the reasons their customer loyalty is so strong.

Three factors are important to understand why GRISWOLD SPECIAL CARE has been and will remain successful:

• Careful screening of Caregivers before ever referring even one to a case.
• Careful selection of those to whom are granted an office, thorough training, and consistent ongoing support.
• Quality, quality, quality. GRISWOLD SPECIAL CARE has structured itself to focus on the critical factors of quality first and then to reduce overhead whenever feasible to optimize the service and pricing for their clients. Their lower rates are an added value bonus, not the sole differentiator. They succeed due to volume, not gouging individual clients.

And a last thought, the Griswolds told us this: "We are always willing to cut our losses, close losing divisions, and most of all to learn from our mistakes."

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