A view from the team: Alison Bosher

Alison Bosher, CCO, Small Robot Company.

First, a bit of history. How did you get here?

My background is in crop protection, with various roles in sales and marketing. I started with Novartis, that became Syngenta, and worked with them for 18 years across a range of crops and sectors in various markets across Northern Europe.

In 2014, I joined Adama UK as Marketing Manager, progressed on to Marketing and Technical Director, and for ten months I was interim Managing Director. Before moving to Small Robot Company, I was Go To Market Director, very much part of the leadership team.

Why the move to Small Robot Company?

Having been in crop protection for around 25 years, it’s not a move I’ve made lightly. But you cannot ignore the profound changes happening in agriculture at the moment. I don’t see chemistry being replaced, but I do see it integrating increasingly with other technologies to maintain or improve output.

I’m extremely excited to come to SRC and to help this happen. I’ve followed the company with interest, and with the roll out of its first commercial service this autumn, now is the time to develop plans and bring the multiple benefits of the technology to farmers everywhere.

Previously, Alison joined Adama as Marketing Manager, then progressed to become interim Managing Director.

How did you first hear about SRC?

Adama was involved in an agri-tech “speed-dating” event, organised by the UK International Department of Trade in 2018. The event in London was an opportunity for a range of agri-tech start-ups to make their pitch to leading UK companies working in similar industries, and we invited some of our global colleagues to the event, too.

We whittled it down to about three companies we were keen to collaborate with, including SRC. It was Ben Scott-Robinson who presented, and what struck us about SRC was the vision, the enthusiasm and the refreshing, innovative approach to crop protection.

Since then, I’ve kept abreast of developments at SRC while Tom has been at concept stage.

"I'm extremely excited to come to SRC...now is the perfect time to develop plans and bring the multiple benefits of the technology to farmers".

Can you tell us a little bit about what you will be doing at SRC?

I’ll be joining as Chief Commercial Officer. My primary focus will be bringing the offer to the market place, ensuring first and foremost a service that’s of value to farmers. But there are also opportunities with the technology for other areas within the agriculture industry.

The company has done very well to date, growing fast and building the technology and the skills within the team towards a commercial service. There is a very active growth plan and it will be essential to manage this correctly to remain on the same trajectory, both in terms of customer value and the worth and strength of the company as a whole.

How do you see the technology developing as a commercial service?

The monitoring service with Tom is of course the prime focus at present, and presents many opportunities to develop the service. It’s a question of prioritising these, timing their roll-out correctly, and bringing in other products and services that will complement and build to an ever-increasing offer.

We’ll be guided very much around delivering value. In the first instance, what can we do that will allow farmers to achieve higher yields and reduce costs? What’s interesting about what SRC is doing, though, is the way the company’s exploring the value that comes from true precision thinking.

Per plant farming is a very strong concept and SRC has a realistic plan on how to achieve it. That’s where we’ll see massive opportunities to vastly reduce chemical use and costs and tailor crop management to optimise performance.

So there’s the financial benefit, but all of us in the industry are under the spotlight. Anything we can do to reduce reliance on synthetic inputs while increasing food production has huge benefits for society, too, and I see SRC as an important part in delivering that.

What do you think will be the highlight of working at SRC?

What really excites me is the prospect of working with a fast-paced, agile organisation within a team bringing to market the future of crop agronomy. I can’t wait to get started.