Interview
“Pest Management is a continuous process and partnership between the client and the service provider.” Anil S. Rao
What are your environmental goals at PCI
I think the ideal would be – we are looking forward to it, we haven’t achieved it yet but I think it’s not too far away – to do very high quality pest management services with a very high sensitivity to ecological contamination and environmental goals. We have done it in a large measure but there are some areas where we still don’t have the technology, we probably have to invent something which we haven’t come across. There are technologies in the pipeline and we are on to a lot of interesting things that will help us reach that goal. Twenty years ago, people sprayed all over the place, they don’t do that anymore. If we do have to spray, the quantum is much lesser and more specific. We are gradually eliminating the ecologically insensitive materials from the pest management programme. And I think that is the ideal! Going green and green!
Will it take a long time to achieve?
I don’t know. I am not adapting something that has been discovered elsewhere. We are currently on the path of discovery and we can’t estimate how much time it will take to achieve our ideals. Inventing technologies from scratch is quite a tough job. In fact, in our own lab trials it works wonderfully and even in field trials some of it works. But these are just one or two solutions. There are a host of problems out there and we have to find solutions for them…Take bed bugs for instance, they are reckoned to be the number one pests in the world currently and ironically there are no solutions for them that are totally environment friendly or ecologically sensitive. We continue to use pesticides to control the problem. There are methods of doing it without pesticides but they cannot be used in all possible scenarios.
So in this case what do you do?
Well, bed-bugs are not creatures that feed on bait. They feed on blood. So this is a challenge that we face. The international market is wide open for those who come up with solutions to these kinds of challenges and we believe we are quite close to some of the possible solutions.
What about herbal alternatives? Are you working on that area of research?
Herbal is a misrepresentation if you ask me. A lot of people claim to be manufacturing and using herbal products for pest control. Today even the developed countries abuse this term ‘green’. That is why we now have a term called ‘green washing’. Basically it’s not green, it’s just making it appear like everything is green. A shampoo that is supposedly a green shampoo may not have even 30% green ingredients. So, in essence it’s not a green shampoo. It’s about PR and not about substance. Businesses all over the world are susceptible to pandering to the fad. But we do not believe in claiming something that is not true.
But isn’t Herbal the real way to go for Pest control? Shouldn’t nature be explored to that extent?
‘Herbal’ is just a term. India was known to be the country that had a bounty of herbal solutions, cures and all. Neem was a herbal solution and it is herbal in that it is extracted from a plant. But we also know that some of the world’s most toxic substances have been extracts from plants. Does it make it safer? I think herbal is a term which has to be carefully used. It has to be used in a particular context. For pest management I think they should discard this term. Generally speaking, in the Indian market, herbal constituted Boric acid powder as it is considered relatively safe.
What are the real alternatives?
I think we will soon come up with alternatives that are truly ecologically sensitive, which do not contaminate the area that you are living or working in. There are exciting possibilities.
What about PCI goals as a company? Are you looking at International markets?
Yes, we are certainly looking at international markets. We export our products to some of them. We do some contract research for international companies in pest management.. We have a joint venture in Mauritius and we do technical consultancy in Malaysia, Thailand and Bangladesh. I think that it is not really necessary to be globally present to be a globally aware company or involved globally. Our problem is that we haven’t done enough in our own country. There is a huge gap between need and delivery.
Are you trying to bridge that gap?
That would be very ambitious. I think there is a lot of space for many companies to fill up the gap. There is a huge market out there just waiting to be serviced. I must admit that no single company can do it. In North America you have several multi-billion dollar pest control companies and they still have just small market shares. They all do well. I would like to focus on leading the industry in India, continuing what we do best! We are keen to make sure that the industry rises and leads. Lots of clients appreciate the awareness campaigns that we conduct in different cities so that quality improves and better service is delivered. The first thing we do is to educate the client and their employees on the critical importance of a coordinated pest management programme, so they become aware of the nature of their pest management problems and our mutual roles in solving them. Ideally, Pest Management includes the creation of such a working partnership between the client and the service provider. There is no magic wand approach that can sweep away all pests. It’s a continuous partnership process, never a one time solution. Take the example of a large hotel, where our technicians and service executives are part of the client’s daily and weekly briefings held with all the departments. So we are aware of what they are planning. We keep track of whatever is evolving in their facility and pre-empt problems that could occur by coordinating action together.
The same approach would be best for homeowners too. Basic hygiene and cleanliness will prevent a pest build up. A home which is perennially neglected will always have problems because they are willingly creating them!
Did you ever get distress calls from Industries that are affected by bottle and other packaging contamination?
Yes, we did. We did a substantial amount of work for these companies. We helped identify the pests and the source of such infestation and provided a plan of action to solve it immediately as well as prevent it from happening again. It is a science that can be used accurately and effectively. Insect pests have different stages of growth from the egg to adult. On close inspection of the production date etc we can ascertain where the infestation could have occurred. Was it the raw material or did it happen post production? If the batch is two months old you can definitely be sure that the contamination occurred post production. So, the CFA agent who is actually stocking the material will have to be investigated. Is his store not looked after well? So we use the science to prescribe such preventive treatments for all the client’s raw material suppliers as well as their post production associates
What about flies and mosquitoes?
They just don’t go away…
For example, a client hotel had sudden problems with phorid flies. Identifying the insect lead us directly to the source – a wet mop in a closet which was lying unused for three-four weeks. We did not have to go through the whole facility. We knew exactly where it was. Even mosquitoes, if you know if you are being bitten in the night or the day, you can identify which mosquito it is. And once you identify that you can also identify the breeding source.
How many companies do you service?
We do not have franchisees like most others in the business do. We have a national footprint with over 125 offices in the major and secondary cities. So we are able to give companies a national contract with a standard level of service in each location which they find very convenient and preferable. We first do an audit and then present to them the entire Pest Management Protocol for all the units across the country. It works out cheaper and the service can be consistent and continuous. We can give them a daily and monthly consolidated report which they can use to keep abreast of what is happening at each location. Some of our national clients include MacDonalds, Brittania and Nestle International. We have a couple of hundred national contracts with both multinational and wholly Indian owned companies!
Where do you see the industry five years from now?
I think there will be a dramatic improvement qualitatively in the kind of specialized services offered by the pest management industry. The way I see it, I don’t think that we are attending to even twenty percent of the market today. There is huge scope for growth and many more players will arrive in the coming years! I see much more team-ups between facility management organizations and pest control service providers. We have involved ourselves in facility management in the areas of housekeeping and feminine hygiene.
What are PCI’s goals?
We want to be the standard bearer at the vanguard of the industry. That means we will always strive to be the no.1 not only in caliber and size but also in competence and for that we are going to do a lot of things that nobody else does! We were forced to make products that were not there and in the process we realized that this was where we should take the market. We have created the market and then found a way to service its needs.
What do you expect from the Government?
Reduction in taxation is one. Our industry may be recession resistant but it is not recession proof! The Government also has pest management departments that compete with private companies. Government has no business being in business but should focus its resources on governance.
