Profile TheSouthAsianTimes.info
15
May 7-13, 2011
Dr Nitin Doshi, Ellis Island Medal winner for 2011, is the Chairman of Diagnostic Imaging Group, which provides services through Doshi Diagnostic, started by his wife Dr Leena Doshi. They have now diversified into real estate and hedge funds, creating a multimillion dollar family business. The Long Island based Doshis also quietly support social causes and charities
‘The Power of Goodwill’ is Doshis’ success mantra By Parveen Chopra r Nitin Doshi will be a proud Indian American when on May 7 he receives the Ellis Island Medal of Honor at a special ceremony in New York. The prestigious medals are given every year to immigrants for their distinguished contributions to the nation and the community. Dr Doshi gives full credit for all their success to his wife of 40 years, Dr Leena Doshi, because “we do everything together”. He would have preferred a joint award, but it was not in the medal’s rule book. Actually, in public mind, the couple is more associated with Doshi Diagnostic chain, which was founded 25 years ago by Dr Leena Doshi, a radiologist. Around 1992, Dr Nitin Doshi left his successful dental practices to manage and grow her radiology business, which under Diagnostic Imaging Group (DIG) now employs 1,400 people and has 30 locations in New York, New Jersey and Florida. Diversifying, he ventured into real estate with NDC Capital, and a hedge fund in India, Heritage Capital. The corporate office of DIG is in Hicksville, NY, and of financial businesses in Manhattan. To fulfill their corporate social responsibility, they have set up a foundation that has partnered with NGOs like Pratham, AIF Share & Care and Veerayatan.
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Dr Nitin Doshi will be conferred Ellis Island Medal of honor this Saturday The Doshis live in Great Neck, NY and have one daughter and one son, both married. To leave a lasting record of their life journey and outlook on life for the coming generations in their family, Leena is writing an autobiography and Nitin is using the medium of a documentary film, both for private consumption. In a rare and exclusive interview to the South Asian Times, Dr Nitin Doshi spoke at length about his journey from a boy in Sudan to a boarding school in India to finding stupendous success in America. He also delineated the Doshi business philosophy, people philosophy, and shared his tips for immigrants to succeed in America. Excerpts:
Dr Nitin Doshi with wife Dr Leena Doshi, when she received the Asian Women in Business Award in 2005
SATimes: What is your business philosophy? Dr Nitin Doshi: If I ever were to write a book about my life, it will be titled something like ‘The Power of Goodwill’. People don’t really grasp how powerful that tool is. To me everything that I have, if I have to go back and think about all the different times that I was successful, is mainly because I created lot of goodwill with the people that I was dealing with. The more goodwill you create, whether it is your family, your friends, your employees, your business associates, bankers, whoever you are dealing with--you can get a lot more from people if they trust you and like you. My philosophy has always been for our peo-
ple to fall in love with me, for who I am, and I’ll try to do things for them. I go out of my way to help people to win their trust and their love. And this is who I am. I try to do this with every single person I come in contact with—whether they are employees or Kamlesh Mehta. I want to make sure they know that I am very helpful, open, well-grounded, a real person. And I want them to like me for who I am and trust me for what I am saying. That creates a lot of goodwill. SAT: Employees at Doshi Diagnostic are said to work for a lifetime. How do you win their loyalty? Dr Doshi: We care about them. Leena focuses on their strengths, and gives them space to grow in that strength. Even if they are not paid too high, when they come to work on their strengths, they enjoy what they are doing and growing in. A happy employee is a loyal employee. Caring can take a different form. When in 2005 we sold our business, we kept apart and distributed $12.5 million among our employees. SAT: You are a success story. What advice will you give to new Indian immigrants to be successful here? Dr Doshi: Assimilate. And understand the way of life here. We are in their country, and need to understand their ways. That is one of the things we adopted early on—Leena and I decided that we are going to raise our kids in a way that the sooner they assimilate, the
Doshis’ son Nishat, son-in-law Todd Cather and daughter Neely
Exclusive Interview better off they will be. It does not matter that they may look different, sound different. The biggest challenge an immigrant faces is he must learn the American way of life while retaining Indian culture and heritage. To me culture has never meant that you have to wear a sari, eat Indian food and watch Indian folk dance, or see Hindi movies. To me, culture has always been a lot more deeper, spiritual, the value system that we have learnt in India, respecting the elderly, helping the unfortunate, be there to help people in need before they ask for help. SAT: When and why did you diversify beyond medicine? Dr Doshi: It happened in 2005. But first a bit of the monetary history of Doshi Diagnostic. In 1997 we sold 70 per cent of the management company to a firm in California for $48 million. In 2000 we bought it back for $60 million because we had grown the business meanwhile. The same business we grew from 2000 to 2005 and we sold 65% of the company when its enterprise value was $265 million. So we as a family continue to own as private equity group 27% of the company and the rest is with other private equity groups. Thus, in 2005 we had monetized a substantial amount and I wanted to diversify out of healthcare. That is when I started real estate private investment firm, NDC Capital. Today we have about $800 million worth of real estate and we continue to grow that business. SAT: Did the economic collapse affect NDC Capital? Dr Doshi: In 2005 I brought in and seeded a professional team from Citibank who were in real estate for 30 years. This team of eight bankers was managing $4 billion for Citibank, which decided to close that division. I had dealt with them for nine years and convinced them to start their own company--I was to pay for their salaries, working capital and $50 million to buy real estate. That is how NDC Capital got founded. In 2006 we started buying Continued on page 16....