Introduction and Background

Antonio Marsico:
Thanks for watching this episode of Zacco´s Fireside Chat. Today we’re going to discuss the role of intellectual property in supporting a digitalisation journey. I’m joined by Peter Hohnen, Head of Partnerships, Research and intellectual Property at Anticimex, a global leader in pest control. Anticimex, with its proactive and preventing approach to pest control, with its smart monitoring solutions for preventing pests, is creating new, humane, more sustainable solutions reducing their environmental impact.

The company was established in Sweden in 1934. Anticimex started expanding in the 1970s globally and it’s now present in 22 countries, across the globe. In 2010, there was the start of their digitalisation journey. They started developing their smart and connected devices. In 2017, they opened their innovation centre, where we’re sitting now and from where Peter works, to create a new concepts, to support product development, to test products definitively, to create new ideas and new technology available to Anticimex.

Welcome Peter, Thank you very much for having us here. Let’s start finding out a little bit more about you and your background.

Peter Hohnen:
Thank you, Antonio. First of all, it’s great pleasure to have you here at our Innovation Centre, I’m really happy to see you here. Most of my time I have spent digitising products and helping teams move forward with this.

I joined Anticimex in 2013, so 12 or 13 years ago, originally as Head of Research and Development, which was at that time a very small, small group. The last couple of years, I have, as you just said, just only headed up research and IP looking for new jaw dropping ideas. The basic function of us is to support our product development, to support our branches, and to support our product managers with new inspirational ideas that can drive the business forward, scale it, and of course, at the same time protect our IP.

The decisions behind digitalisation

Antonio:
Peter, let’s go straight into your digitalisation journey. So, in the last decades, starting from 2010, you have started, developing smart products, connected products. Now they are all part of your solutions, your services, and at that time, that was a kind of unexplored territory, so relatively new. Can you tell us a little bit more how you ended up there?

Peter:
The digitisation was unexplored territory, but I think you can safely say that Anticimex has been developing new concepts, new products, new ideas, right back since 1934. That’s the reason they have been able to work for so long. But of course, they weren’t digital in the 50s, very few people were. We got onto the digitisation at a very early stage, as you said in the 2010s,

we started early on with sub ground tox free products, which were digitally connected. The original vision there was we wanted to be able to see on any screen anywhere in the world, what are we doing, how are we getting on, how well are we performing? And more importantly, we wanted to drive this in a tox free and sustainable way,

ensuring that we would be using less tox than you would have traditionally been using. Traditional pest control is very tox based, we wanted to move in a new direction, and that’s what we could do by digitising, because that would give us completely new tools for combating pests, which of course we want to do. The first products we made for that were sub ground, where we have been virtually alone right back since the early 2010s, where we were combating rodents in the sewer without using tox.

And that has been highly effective, and that is an area where we are still virtually alone, thanks also, of course, to our IP and our strong protection on it that we have had ever since there. But for me, that is one of our core products and one of our core functionalities where we have really been moving far, far ahead in the digital world from our competitors.

I can come in afterwards on other things that we have done, but it has always been important for us to be right at the forefront of the digital journey.

Moving into monitoring, and more humane solutions

Antonio:
So you were saying that the the role of digitalisation helped you and Anticimex to get into solutions which were less toxic or even non-toxic. And I have heard from my colleagues that were working with you on some Applications, where there should have been no reference to any poison at all.

You were kind of the first movers in in this field, you were ever in unexplored territory as first movers. Can you tell me more about the nontoxic, sustainable, solutions that you are developing, and the role of IP?

Peter:
We want to be first movers there, for many reasons. There’s definitely a good business case in being first movers here, but most importantly, for a much more sustainable world that has been used. Traditional pest control,

I would say it like that, is very much seen as a toxic dispensing system. Go spray, go do something, Kill it! We would much rather educate our clients to say we’re not here to kill all the pests in the world, we just want to keep them out of their premises, because that’s when they become a pest. They do a lot of good out there in the world.

So we would like to have, for rodents for example, mechanical systems where if a rodent comes in we would like to just kill the one rodent that gets into your premises. So we would much prefer to train and educate our clients to keep the rodents out, and then we can monitor and ensure that if one comes in, then we can kill that single one without using loads of toxic material.

In the old days, many people would probably see pest control was that somebody who went around spraying up and down the walls, Three foot up of the wall, three foot out on the ground, up, round. And that just turns into a tremendous amount of toxic material that is spread in nature, which is really not needed if you have a digital solution for it.

And that’s what we offer. We offer digital solutions where we can, mechanically for example, kill rodents instead of using poison, and we have monitoring systems, which I can also explain more about, to ensure that we know that they are not there. So that we can prevent and protect at the same time without spreading a lot of tox.

From eradication to prevention: the future of pest control

Antonio:
Impressive. Amazing.

Interesting to hear from you about your digitalisation, about the fact that you were trying to use no poison. Rather you are using mechanical systems. You have respect for environment. You are not killing all the rodents or insects. So you ended up creating smart devices, connected traps. I understood that now, this tool is based around the world with more or less half million of those connected traps.

Is that fair to say that these are the majority of your solutions and services?

Peter:

No no. We have enormous potential there, I would estimate that connected devices is still less than 20% of our business. We have an enormous upside waiting for us there. But I’d also like to elaborate a bit because we always end up discussing connected traps.

“Oh, you’re the guys with the traps.”

Antonio:
This is what I was using.

Peter:
Exactly. Yes, but I would rather perceive us as being the ones that ‘were’ the guys with the traps. We have stopped counting catches. We don’t see catching rodents as the most important thing that we could do. I was alluding to it earlier. We would like to keep the rodents out of your premises.

We have no interest in catching and killing them. We are moving much more heavily into monitoring so that we could connect all this, gather insights and get the information from it. So what we do now is we help our clients protect their premises, and then we set up monitoring systems to monitor. “Do you have any intruders?” Because no matter how well you protect your home or your industrial building, you will have pests coming in by one way or the other.

It could be through food suppliers, through guests, whatever it can be, they will come there. So we have to monitor if they actually come in, and then we can react with spot checks there. When we do this, by monitoring, we can much earlier detect when there is a small problem at the best of causes that we can monitor and detect.

When you as a client have a small infestation we can call you and say, we’re going to come tomorrow because you have a problem and you will most likely say, Antonio, “No, no, we don’t have a problem, we’re fine!” No, I know you have a problem, but it’s so small that we’ll come here and fix it before it turns into a major headache for you.

And that’s what we can do with monitoring, where we can see it. We can then connect that with weather data, with other data, we will be able to predict. So we can call you Antonio and say “we’re coming next week, You don’t have a problem, we don’t think you have a problem, but we can predict you’re going to have a problem based on the data that we have been able to pick up at your premises, at other premises, and collecting that together with other data, for example, weather data.

And that way we can drive sustainability even further and ensure that you have a safe home or safe premises.

global expansion brings new threats and new opportunities

Antonio:
Peter, good that I mentioned, maybe wrongly, connected traps. Triggering your reaction, your clear explanation, about the whole process from monitoring to solving the possible problem, to even prevent the problem, from raising again or to grow. And that’s all about interconnectivity.

It’s all about data collection. It’s all about the data analysis. What’s the role of intellectual property in this specific field, which is literally changing the approach to innovation of Anticimex, and this industry in general?

Peter:
Intellectual property has always been important to us, right back in the old days also. But we had a more narrow focus back in the 1930s, the 1940s Anticimex, as you may or may not know, Cimex is Latin for bedbugs.

So we were originally anti, against bedbugs, that was where the business was founded, and we were  very strongly focused on bedbugs and rodents. Growing from a Swedish, to then a Nordic, and then a global company has given us a completely different exposure to the world, but also a different amount of pests that we had to control. I’m sure you understand,

we don’t see many termites in Scandinavia, and so we didn’t in the 1930s, 40s , 50s and 60s have any interest in termites as a business. So that is one way that it has grown dramatically. But also, of  course, with the introduction of digitisation and the globalisation of the world, it has been much more important for us to protect our IP.

We have a very strong brand in many local countries, but that also gives us a greater exposure, there are more people that are interested in us. It is more important for us that we thus protect our brands, protect our inventions, because we do put a lot of effort and a lot of resources into developing these digital products. They don’t come for free.

Back when we started the digital journey, I think we were probably three, Four, or five people, in the R&D department. Now we are more than 100 people. We of course, want to protect this significant investment that we have put into this. And that is quite definitely thanks to you, we’re doing that. What we also want, what I see us with strong exposure is, we have to ensure in the globalised world that we have freedom to operate.

Therefore we run all our ideas, okay, maybe that’s pushing it a bit too far, we run most of our ideas through you guys at Zacco to say, “Do we have freedom to operate here? Is this a good idea?” To at least have it documented, so that we know that we have done this, and we have had a first assessment from you saying, “Watch out!” or “This is a blue ocean,

go ahead for it.” And I think that is probably, apart from the sort of traditional patents, we have to have patents, that I think is one of the most important functions that you are supporting us with, ensuring that we have freedom to operate so that we do not make huge investments in something that we could potentially burn our fingers on at a later stage.

The role of the Innovation Centre and a prominent acquisition strategy

Antonio:
We appreciate to be your partner in business, so I understand that prosecution is, of course, vital for patents. Capturing early ideas gives you competitive advantage. And you also mentioned freedom to operate, as a risk management tool to not burn your fingers for possibly expand your business in new markets. But we also have helped you in IP due diligence for new acquisitions.

Can you tell me more about this strategy?

Peter:
With the formation of the Innovation Centre back in 2017, we had a lot more attention and focus on innovation and that, of course, we wanted to protect, with your help. Thank you. But also equally important is we have had a very strong M&A strategy where we have been acquiring just around a company per week since, 2017, 2015, where we have had to do a lot of due diligence, also,

some of it also, with your help. But there, it has been very important for us to understand what is the IP that’s out there in the companies. What can we use, what can we not use? And do we have freedom to operate in this part as well? We are in 22 countries today across the world.

We are in a lot of the US states. We actually in June this year went into Texas, with the acquisition of  three companies. Here it’s important that we also have due diligence to ensure that it’s the right  companies we’re using or that we are acquiring. It is important that we have due diligence when we are looking at technical companies or technical products we want to use, that we want to dive further into or collaborate with.

But another way to look at it, which I find is equally important, that is our protected innovation is also a selling point when we’re doing acquisitions. We see a lot of, traditionally, family owned pest control businesses actually wanting to sell to us because we bring new technology to the market that they can serve their customers with going forward.

And in that way, it ties up together. We protect it, and we also use it, utilise it for our acquisition strategy.

Antonio:
So peter, it’s not only innovation and patents, but there are other forms of IP to protect like brand and online presence.

Peter:
Sure, a strong, trusted brand is part of our customer promise. We operate in several brands across the globe.

In Europe it’s primarily Anticimex, but we have a lot of other brands that need protection in the US, in Australia, where we have a strong presence within the consumer market. We have to ensure that these brands aren’t abused or misused, and we have processes for that to monitor this constantly to ensure that these brands are not diluted or infringed.

As we grow, we become a bigger target. So ramped up IP means that we can monitor threats actively and take action when needed.

Round up and close

Antonio:
Thank you Peter. Thank you very much for your valuable insights. It has been a lovely conversation. Congratulation for your achievements in this innovation centre. I can say that your visionary leadership, your dedication, possibly your team’s dedication as well have propelled Anticimex to a new era of technological excellence, but also integrity in the industry.

This is what I feel from your words and from experiencing working together with you on a daily basis. As we reflect on the Anticimex digitalisation journey, it’s clear that your connected solutions are giving the clients, Anticimex, and the world great benefits. You are integrating now advanced digital platforms into your services, into your solutions.

This is giving, more transparency, more efficiency, possibly empowering your clients and your customers with real time insight and yourself and your teams with real time insights. As we reflect on sustainability with your smart technology, automated monitoring and nontoxic treatments, you are reducing definitively the environmental impact footprint. And, you know, sustainability is really embedded in your product design, your service delivery.

And this for sure reflects on a modern vision of pest management. Finally, we’re talking about intellectual property as a whole. The broad topic, given the visibility and the sophistication of your  solution that make protecting your intellectual property, your brand, your platform, your technologies more important than ever. So, we at Zacco really look ahead on our ongoing collaboration and I think on our respective commitment to excellence.

Peter:
For what I can say, I also feel we are on a really exciting journey to a more sustainable world that I’m proud of being part of.

But first of all, I also want to thank you for coming here and more importantly, thank your team for   decades of qualified support that has also helped us get to where we are.

Antonio:
Thanks for watching this episode of Zacco’s Fireside Chat. This episode was on the role of IP supporting a digitalisation journey with Peter Hohnen, Head of Partnerships, Research and Intellectual Property at Anticimex.