Case Study:

At the Heart of Healthcare: A Personal Journey

Back in 2001, Pete Doran, a busy emergency nurse, recognised the need for more functional, durable, and professional-looking medical scrubs that enabled him to work comfortably and effectively. Pete was working as a nurse in hospitals, and he and his colleagues wanted to wear nurses uniforms like they saw on American TV shows, so he started making them, and then all of his colleagues wanted them too!

Revolutionising the Scrubs Industry

After trying (unsuccessfully) to find scrubs that fit the bill, Pete and his wife Sally secured the rights to retail Dickies Medical Scrubs in Australia and set about changing how Australians viewed scrub uniforms and started the scrubs revolution. 

Styling a Course for Success: When Scrubs Meet Strategy

Infectious Clothing was poised for growth, but lacked a strategic plan. The Where and The Why Workshop was an opportunity for the team to come together and define a Moonshot goal, Vision, Purpose and Values. “The part that we most valued was taking time out to focus on strategy and our direction,” says Pete. “Bringing the team together and talking about the big picture to formulate a shared future was the highlight of the experience.”

An Inspiring Success Story: From Moonshot to Mars-Shot

Through The Where and The Why Workshop, an ambitious 4-year Moonshot goal for Infectious Clothing was crafted: Secure a contract to provide uniforms for all staff for a major, multi-service private hospital chain. Along with this goal, the team also outlined their Vision of all aspects of the company at that future point in time. “We put our Moonshot up on the wall of our office and inducted the whole team so everyone understood our shared Moonshot and Vision,” says Sally. “The buy-in from the team was great and it helped to improve the team culture.”

During the Where and The Why Workshop, a practical and actionable Execution Plan to kick off projects to immediately start work post-workshop was formulated. This included the nomination of timeframes and team members to take the lead on projects. The team were excited, ambitious and energised and began work with haste, but strategically through their focussed plan. 

The team had a clear and measurable target, and were aligned – all pulling in the same direction. Within 6-months they had met their 4-year Moonshot target, and were ready for a new challenge. They decided to continue Moonshot momentum and get the team together, to establish a new goal. “As we had already met our Moonshot, we took the opportunity to get together again with The Where and The Why team and develop a Mars-Shot, which we are now working towards,” says Sally. Having a singular goal and focus really helps the whole team to know where we are headed.”

Empathy in Action: Making People Feel Great at Work

“We also worked on our “Why” – our Purpose and Values – in the The Where and The Why Workshop,” says Pete. “We studied our customer personas during the Workshop to help understand what we do and the impact it has on healthcare professionals. Having been a nurse, I know firsthand how uncomfortable and unflattering that old-fashioned scrubs can be. At Infectious, we make modern, stylish and comfortable scrubs that everyone wants to wear! These insights helped with the development of our purpose statement: Making people feel great at work.”