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Expanding Beyond the Confines
A big part of the appeal of The Glasgold Group has always been its down-home personableness. Maintaining that character, however, may prove daunting as the practice continues to grow, Mark Glasgold indicates. “We are adding more surgeons and, as a result, we will soon need to expand our office and bring in more support staff,” he says. “In the process, we want to avoid acquiring an institutional feel by making sure our associates and staff have a full appreciation and acceptance of the family nature of this practice.”
The practice may also grow beyond its present confines- Lange has announced that she plans to open a second skin care clinic, this one in Manhattan. Glasgold thinks it is possible that he or one other member of his group will spend a few hours each week in Lange’s new facility to consult with patrons who express an interest in cosmetic facial plastic surgery. However, this is about as close to satelliting as The Glasgold Group is likely to get, cautions Mark Glasgold.
“I am not convinced that satelliting would be workable for our group,” he says. “ When you have satellites, you have to spend time on the road traveling between sites. That is time taken out of your day for seeing patients or performing procedures. If you try to compensate for the lost time out of your clinical day by extending your working hours, then your are taking time away from family. In my case, I have a wife and two young sons who need me to be around at the end of the day.”
It is clear that the Glasgolds possess plenty of business savvy. However, Glasgold confesses that mercantile matters never preoccupied his thinking while he was a solo practitioner. “For the longest time, I did not run my practice as a business,” he says. “I simply came in, performed my craft, and did not worry about things like growth strategies, achieving cost-efficiencies, or even what kind of return-on-investment I could expect if I bought this piece of equipment and not that other one over there. I performed good work and the community responded accordingly. I was fortunate to have my wife overseeing the business end of the practice, which allowed my to be focused on my patients.
“Admittedly, today, out of a fiduciary obligations to my children and the other associates, I have to be conscious of how the practice is performing as a business. I have to be aware of the economic considerations.”
It so happens that those economic considerations are prodding Mark Glasgold to explore ways of evolving the concept of super-subspecialization. “I believe super-subspecialization can help bring our practice to a higher level of prominence, perhaps in terms of market reach and certainly in terms of prestige,” he says. “I also believe that super-subspecialization is the ideal response to the growing sophistication of consumers. People want a superior product, and they are becoming increasingly savvy about sourcing the providers of that superior product. More and more, that provider is someone who is super-subspecialized in that product.”
Youngest son Robert Glasgold begins fellowship training in the practice this month, and when he completes the 1-year program, he will very likely sign on as an official member of The Glasgold Group. “I am hoping to groom Robert to specialize in rhinoplasties so he will be able to step into my shoes when I eventually get around to retiring,” says Alvin Glasgold. “Next it will be the grandchildren; we have a fine group coming up. And, who knows? I may still be here to train any of the grandkids who want to follow in our footsteps.”
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Aesthetics and Aging A New Paradigm
