January 2015 marked a year since you joined Panda, how has the company changed over the past 15 months?
The company has gone through three major changes during this time:
The first, and probably the most important one, is the return to growth. The results we are getting now indicate that the market is responding positively to our new approach. This is important because it restores our confidence, and sends out a positive message to the market and also to our employees regarding the work we do.
The second change and, the most visible one, is our new corporate identity, which combines the best of the “Panda culture” with a profound transformation that reinforces the company’s core values: challengers, people-centric, and ingenious.
The third one is, clearly, our portfolio of advance security solutions led by Adaptive Defense. With them, we have once again positioned ourselves as innovation leaders in the security industry.
What are Panda’s main strategic objectives for this year? And for the following ones?
We have a strategic plan for 2015-2019 based on three pillars:
- Technology: Our focus will lie on the following three aspects:
- Mobility: Our solutions must be cross-platform and ensure global coverage and protection.
- Internet of Things: The number of Internet-connected devices is increasing, and there is a bigger need for protection and security.
- Advanced Threats: Which can only be tackled through Big Data Analytics in cloud-based environments.
- International expansion: Our customers are global and mobile, and we have to be like that too. We will address this in three phases:
- Grow our presence in those geographies where we are already strong: Western Europe, Latin America and the USA. Already in 2015 we have established new country partnerships in some Latin American countries where we were not present before, like Panama.
- Open new markets in emerging countries and economies where we don’t have a strong presence, like India or China.
- Complete the acquisition of our partners in countries such as Italy and Denmark, which will play an important role in our business, and turn them into wholly owned subsidiaries.
- Growth: The best way to know that we are doing a good job. We will work on the following key areas:
- Maintain the organic growth of our current product portfolio.
- Maintain the improvement and growth rate of our online offering.
- Strengthen our commitments towards innovative solutions like Adaptive Defense to achieve the expected results.
The best way to convince a user of the value of your solutions is to let them try them, because once they do it and see the value they provide they will be ready to pay for them.
The company’s revenue comes almost equally from consumer products and corporate products, will this trend continue in the future?
Our home use and enterprise security solutions leverage the same core technology. We are going to keep both product lines alive despite it is true that margins are decreasing in the consumer sector and, in contrast with that, companies are increasing their investment in solutions designed to combat Advanced Threats.
Give us three reasons why Panda is a global company.
- Because 85 percent of our business comes from outside Spain.
- Because 50 percent of our employees are outside Spain (HQ).
- Because cyber-attacks are global and so must be our response.
What are the biggest security threats that users face today? And companies?
The most serious threat for users continues to be the theft of personal information and its use for malicious purposes.
In the corporate arena, we must not forget that a company’s most precious asset is its information and applications. Also, regulatory compliance is very important as companies are subject to a series of industry requirements that force them to secure and audit certain types of information.
How do you see the cyber-security market? Is it moving towards a freemium model?
The power has clearly shifted from organizations to the individual. The best way to convince a user of the value of your solutions is to let them try them, because once they do it and see the value they provide they will be ready to pay for them.
There have always been pilots and free trials in the corporate sector. Now, individuals too have the opportunity to try a service before purchasing it.
I like this model because it forces us to improve every day and think continuously about ways to enhance user experience.
At Panda we talk about the ‘Internet of Things’, ‘Big Data’, ‘Cloud Computing’, mobility… What role does security play here?
Panda pioneered Cloud solutions and Big Data back in 2007. It is one of our strengths but also a necessity because the number of cyber-attacks multiplies every year, and the only way to analyze the more than 225,000 malware samples that arrive at our servers every day is by leveraging these technologies. In addition, the Cloud allows us to resolve security problems almost instantly and in real time.
After visiting Panda’s subsidiaries and country partners, how do you think Panda is perceived around the world?
As a company with outstanding technology, close to the user, and which is going through a transformation period.
Is there something that you are particularly proud of?
There are two things that I am very proud of: the decision I made 15 months ago, when I decided to join this project, and the excellent team I have come across.
And finally, why Panda?
Because we are reinventing ourselves and the industry, because we develop innovative and ground-breaking technologies with a service-oriented focus, and because this is a leading company with a fantastic human capital.
Panda Security specializes in the development of endpoint security products and is part of the WatchGuard portfolio of IT security solutions. Initially focused on the development of antivirus software, the company has since expanded its line of business to advanced cyber-security services with technology for preventing cyber-crime.
