“A Relentlessly Independent Innovator”

SWARM’s CEO, Anthony Howcroft, grew up in a largely agricultural community in the center of England, where his first job was as a mainframe computer operator at Kraft Foods. Over his career, Anthony worked initially as a software engineer and then in various sales and marketing roles and is equally comfortable with art and science. This means he can work with different functional teams, empathize and understand their challenges. Anthony studied Creative Writing at the University of Oxford and is a prize-winning author of fiction and non-fiction, which means he is more actively engaged than many traditional C-level executives in defining the narrative and messages that describe SWARM’s mission to improve the agri-food supply chain.

“There are many people I admire, for different reasons,” says Anthony on the topic of who has inspired him to become the leader he is today. “In business, I think Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were both inspirational, but I’ve been most impressed by Tim Cook. I had my doubts when he took over at Apple, as Steve Jobs was an insanely hard leader to follow, but Tim has not only taken Apple from strength to strength in terms of performance and product leadership, but been a potent advocate on so many critical initiatives from LGBTQ rights, through to privacy and protecting the environment.” Anthony has been leading the company towards success.

SWARM has developed a unique way to let business users model and solve their key challenges – whether that is accurately forecasting yield, predicting the optimal balance of supply and demand, or planning the most efficient way to combine sales orders into truckloads. They let users describe the process in business language, selecting options and adjusting values in fully flexible use cases, automatically translating into AI-based solutions. A person who understands the business can model a process in just a couple of hours, with no knowledge of math, AI, or data science. SWARM’s goal is to democratize AI, which can save companies millions of dollars in cost while making a huge positive impact on the environment, reducing waste, and increasing sustainability.

"SWARM has developed a unique way to let business users model and solve their key challenges – whether that is accurately forecasting yield, predicting the optimal balance of supply and demand, or planning the most efficient way to combine sales orders into truckloads.”

Many of the challenges faced by organizations in the agri-food supply chain are complex. SWARM often works with teams of people who spend their day balancing data from S&OP systems with spreadsheets and post-it notes, trying to develop efficient plans. That might be to balance supply and demand so that fruits don’t go to waste languishing in the wrong place, or it could be trying to combine sales orders into loads that meet customer delivery windows. A good decision can get fresh produce to the customer faster, fresher, with fewer miles traveled – which is good for the planet and the companies P&L.

SWARM worked with one international grain manager to optimize grain movement between different sites and locations to manage customer requirements for varying quality characteristics based on grade, protein and moisture content, fumigation profiles, in fact, more than twenty variables. The trick was to meet fluctuating demand while minimizing logistic costs, and they were able to show annual savings in the tens of millions of dollars.

One area where SWARM would be keen to start more projects is in the transport of shipping containers. “A year or so back we ran a joint discovery programme with a major US East Coast port, to look at the flow of empty containers. We found the potential savings for a shipping line in this single process is several hundred million dollars per year,” explains Anthony. “Given the environmental impact is gigantic (shipping accounts for 3% of the world’s carbon emissions), the reduction of even a few ship journeys has a massive positive impact on the planet. The shipping lines are looking at the issues, and forming initiatives and committees, but it takes time. Our approach is faster and reduces costs and carbon emissions at the same time, for a win-win.” “This is one of several markets adjacent to agr-food where SWARM believes they can add value, and we expect to see Anthony leading the charge to establish SWARM as the primary way for business to solve challenges with AI.”IE