Business View Oceania | April/May 2022

71 72 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4 PHYS IOXTRA business as well.” So the two companies joined forces, named their new entity PhysioXtra, and started to build their brand. Today, their team is just shy of 100 employees, including nearly 70 physios, made up of the area’s most experienced physiotherapists, sports doctors, podiatrists, and masseuses. They operate a network of seven clinics in six locations around Adelaide and Victor Harbor. The folks at PhysioXtra are committed to helping their patients move without pain. They offer industry leading rehabilitation and Pilates equipment, as well as exercise-based rehabilitation programs, soft tissue work, and dry needling. But they pride themselves on their hands-on approach. According to Nick, “We are very much hands-on physio. Kath is a manipulative physiotherapist. We believe that you still really need to have that hands-on manipulation with patients and combine it with a very structured exercise based program.” The team has made great strides in fine-tuning their methods from joint manipulation and muscle stretches to massage. But above all, their business is people. And Nick believes that is what sets them apart. He explains, “I think the greatest strength is the people you got working for you. The challenge is to make sure we’ve got a good team. And we do a lot of work with our team.” That includes ongoing training and leadership development. Because of those efforts, there is tremendous buy-in. Nick emphasises, “Each clinic has good senior people involved. One of the physios at each of the clinics will have some equity in it and be a director of that clinic and be the driver of the clinic itself from a day-to-day standpoint. They manage their team and create a culture that we want.” Because of their increased size, they also have a head office structure in place. “We’ve got an accountant and some marketing resources and HR resources, and myself – from a business point of view– so we do all of the background work for the clinics,” Nick says. “We do all the hack work for them in those areas and let them focus on driving their business, which seems to work well. Over the years we’ve found that physios are generally really, really good at caring and treating people and getting people better but in a lot of cases aren’t interested in – or qualified in – doing the business side of it. And that’s where this model has been successful and we’ve been able to retain good staff and people as well, because they do get the opportunity to be involved from an equity level in the business.” PhysioXtra also implements a new grad program each year. Nick explains that they normally take a group of about 10 new grads a year, straight from university, and put them into a pretty intensive training and education process; teaching them how to work in a private practice and the skills required to do so. He notes, “That allows us to build people keen to be a physio