Todd Walling
Todd Walling, the new president of Permobil Americas, had a memorable summer … and fall is off to a fast start, as well.
In mid August, Walling was announced as the replacement for Chuck Witkowski, who became CEO of Permobil starting July 1. The process of searching for a new Permobil Americas president started in June, Walling said, and once he’d won the role, one of his first orders of business was filling his former position as senior vice president of sales. (The company named industry veteran Cody Verrett its new vice president of sales for Permobil Americas at the end of September.)
Even for Walling, who’s experienced a lot during nearly two decades with Permobil — he started with the company in 2007 as a sales support specialist — the last couple of months have been a wild ride.
“But things have been good,” Walling told Mobility Management as he settled into his new role.
Growing from a decade of acquisitions
Because of his lengthy tenure, Walling well remembers when Permobil was a “large, small company” in the Complex Rehab Technology (CRT) industry and was known for responding quickly to provider, clinician and consumer input.
Then Permobil made a number of acquisitions — including ultralightweight wheelchair manufacturer TiLite in 2014, cushion and support surface manufacturer ROHO in 2015, and seating specialist Comfort Company in 2017. By the time it acquired manual wheelchair manufacturer PDG Mobility in 2023, Permobil had undeniably become a large entity in CRT.
But with its new size, does Permobil still want to keep that philosophy of a small and nimble company?
“Absolutely,” Walling said, adding that he now thinks of Permobil as a small, large company. “That’s one of my goals, to make sure that we keep that company culture intact. Obviously as we’ve gotten bigger, being able to move in an agile way is extremely difficult. But at a global scale, we will be looking at implementing new ways of bringing product to market with a new, agile approach and some extreme manufacturing capabilities.”
Witkowski, he added, is dedicated to accelerating the pace of innovation, “and that’s certainly going to be something that the entire company across all functions will be working on,” Walling said. “In my role, I will also be making sure that the voice of the customer isn’t lost, and making sure that it reaches all levels throughout the organization.
“Something that I’ve been pretty good at over the years is being a vocal proponent for the market, for our customers, for end users and therapists. And now that I’m in this role, I’m really excited about that opportunity to be a part of this agile movement and making sure we come out with product that’s innovative, high quality, at a faster pace.”
Larger-scale advantages
Achieving those goals will require a combination of strategies, Walling said. “How we manage that is really looking at structuring our company differently. Some of it is that mentality. Some of it is actual physical structure, new processes and new systems. A big part of our launch this year into next year and further into the future is making sure we remain competitive in the innovative landscape. We’re on that journey as we speak.”
Permobil plans to fully use the considerable advantages created by scale.
“One great thing about having a large organization is we have more resources in product management with research and development, with supply chain and purchasing,” Walling said. “We will have more scale to be more competitive on pricing, for example, and to also be able to partner with other organizations.”
But Permobil also wants to pass the benefits of its larger size and greater resources to its seating partners — the providers and clinicians who work with Permobil products daily.
“Certainly having that scale helps, and it’s one way of coming up with products quicker because we have more people, more access to resources and capital, as well as improved systems,” Walling said. “This is something we’ve been working on for the last five or six years, to make sure we have all of our products on one system, one ERP [enterprise resource planning].”
In March at the International Seating Symposium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Permobil showed off the Permobil Store.
“We’ll be launching all of our products on this one platform to make it easier for ATPs and therapists to go and ‘configure’ products, not just within manual, but in power, PDG and ROHO,” Walling said. “We’re going to have all of this in the Store. That’s a big initiative that kicked off a couple years ago, and you’re going to see it in the very near future.”
When it’s complete, the Permobil Store will enable clinicians and providers to virtually configure ultralightweight TiLite wheelchairs and PDG manual tilt-in-space wheelchairs, in addition to Permobil’s power chair line.
And additional acquisitions are certainly possible.
“Obviously, acquisitions have been something that we’ve been doing for the last 10 years,” he said. “There’s still a possibility of finding ways to fill in the spots within our portfolio.”
Fighting for future innovation
Permobil Explorer Mini
Among Permobil’s most celebrated recent innovations is the Explorer Mini, an “on-time” power mobility device to introduce independent mobility to older infants and toddlers who would otherwise have their mobility delayed. Another is power seating featuring anterior tilt to move power chair riders forward and facilitate activities of daily living such as reaching, brushing teeth, eating meals and performing transfers.
“That goes back to our original mission statement by Dr. [Per] Uddén regarding making sure that the technologies that exist today are available for those with disabilities,” Walling said, referencing the Swedish physiatrist who became Permobil’s founder. “That’s certainly in our core, and that’s never going to go away. That’s engrained in us.”
Investing in developing the Explore Mini didn’t make traditional sense “from a financial perspective, but it was the right thing to do,” Walling added. “It isn’t a big money maker, but we believe in making sure those children get right-time access to power, something we’ve been talking about for years.”
Walling again pointed out the importance of innovations that support not just end users and their families, but also seating teams. “You’ve seen it with software, what we’ve done with the QuickConfig [app]. You’ve seen it with fleet management, as a tool that our providers would have. These are things that are not funded, but we believe they are needed. And we came out with Connected Chair, where we’re able to get real-time diagnostics. We’re expanding that technology to where we’re providing insights to our customers and our end users of how the chair is working and to be able to give it more valuable information.”
Among Permobil’s current advocacy projects: “We are fighting for the materials upgrade in Washington,” Walling said of Permobil’s partnering with industry organizations to make ultralightweight carbon fiber and titanium frame upgrades available to Medicare beneficiaries. “[Power] standing still isn’t covered by Medicare, but we know it’s what people need, and it provides amazing outcomes for clients. We believe we’re going to win [coverage] eventually, just like we did with seat elevation.”
Years in the trenches
Because he began with Permobil in the field — after leaving The MED Group, he joined Permobil in 2007, then became a regional sales manager in 2012 — Walling spent years working with colleagues in the trenches.
“I got to see the other vendors,” Walling said. “I got to see different providers across the country and understand their problems and how they deal with things. That was early on in my career, but I didn’t really get to understand the clients and their needs, and the clinicians and their needs, until I became a regional sales manager.”
That, Walling said, was when “I was really able to understand what the customer and what the therapists are looking for in a solution and service. I think that gave me an advantage because I got to see the real world. I got to be in the clinic. I got to hear it from the clinicians. That led me to better understand why somebody needs a part so fast.”
Those early experiences are now a source of strength as Walling leads the Americas team.
“Now in this role, I’ll be able to explain the needs of the market to the greater organization,” he said. “I’ve also spent time in Canada and South America and understand the different funding environments that they’re going through.”
As for what’s coming next, Walling said securing Medicare funding for power standing and the right for Medicare beneficiaries to upgrade ultralightweight wheelchair frames will continue to be policy priorities. Product wise, Permobil is in the process of “replacing our Agility and Active backs from Comfort [Company],” Walling said. “That’ll be coming out next year, first quarter.”
And in addition to evolving changes to Connected Chair and the MyPermobil app, “We have some things up our sleeve on both the manual and the power side,” Walling said. “We believe that’s an area of innovation, as well as power assist. You will see over the next 18 to 24 months a series of new products being rolled out. And with this new, agile way of working, we believe we will accelerate some of those plans and hopefully get them sooner to market.”
But even as Permobil Americas continues to grow, Walling also wants to hold onto the client-centric, nimble mentality that earned the company its reputation for responsiveness.
Remembering the development of anterior tilt, Walling recalled, “We created a new seating system and realized — wait, this new feature could actually be useful; let’s look at that. I think that’s something we have to remind ourselves as we get bigger.
“I encourage the entire industry not to be thinking about just trying to make product for codes, because we’ve helped propel this industry forward by actually challenging the system. Saying, ‘Yes, it’s always been done that way, but let’s go ahead and fight it.’ Let’s make sure the clients get what they need. And I’m inspired when I see other companies and adjacent spaces doing the same thing.”
