William McCormick
Nikoia Sanni, vice president and division manager with ManTech, spoke with ExecutiveBiz about recently joining the company in her new role as well as her experience in the federal sector, why she wanted to join ManTech and what she hopes to accomplish in the role.
In addition, Nikoia Sanni also discussed the core values of the company culture and what her strategic goals are to help ManTech continue to grow and better serve its customers in new markets across the federal landscape during the latest Executive Spotlight interview.
“ManTech’s culture is very strong on ethics and integrity, and we are committed to providing an inclusive environment. At ManTech, we’re always working on our company’s strategy to move forward in this aspect of our business. It all goes back to the engagement and communication that is so central to our company culture.”
You can read the full interview with Nikoia Sanni below:
ExecutiveBiz: Congrats on recently joining ManTech! What were the attributes of its mission that attracted you to the role? What do you hope to accomplish with the company?
Nikoia Sanni: “I joined ManTech for three reasons: great people, innovative technology and leadership that inspires both realms. There are a lot of companies that talk about being “people-focused,” but they may not put all their weight behind that.
ManTech is truly focused on its employees, encouraging them to think outside the box and do their utmost to support the customer, and rewarding them by providing many opportunities to advance their careers.
These incentives lead to amazing innovations that support the most important customers in the world: government agencies charged with safeguarding national and homeland security and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of federal civilian agencies that serve all Americans. I credit our leadership for creating a culture and environment where employees thrive and our company is recognized as a trusted partner of government.
My goals at ManTech are to build on this successful platform by providing our customers with advanced technology solutions that transform operations, drive mission performance to a level that sets the model for excellence for our industry – and attract, reward and retain the talent to achieve and continuously advance this objective.”
ExecutiveBiz: What are your strategic goals for the coming year? What do you hope to accomplish and any new markets that you’re keeping an eye on in the federal sector?
Nikoia Sanni: “In 2020 the company launched its five Technology Focus Areas or TFAs: Cognitive Cyber; Mission and Enterprise IT (M/EIT); Analytics, Automation and AI (A3); Intelligent Systems Engineering (ISE); and Data at the Edge (D@tE).
Our approach to applying these TFAs and their respective solutions portfolios to customer missions stands out as a significant differentiator. While many enterprises in our space remain stuck with “stovepiping” technologies, we look for every opportunity to integrate them in ways that make a difference for the customer.
One example: enhancing cybersecurity with automation to speed results in hunting for systems vulnerabilities and the anomalies and threats that can leverage such Zero Days to do serious damage. Another example: using automation to speed analytics and determine actionable intelligence in close to real-time.
One of my goals is to elevate customer awareness of the value of this integrated approach to leveraging advanced technology solutions. As to growing the business, within my portfolio we have major enterprise-wide contracts that support the government in their cybersecurity efforts.
Looking ahead, ManTech definitely has its eye on the space arena and the connection between cyber and space to space resilience – and space dominance. We’re working as a team in order to merge these capabilities across and provide our customers with the best possible solutions.”
ExecutiveBiz: What are the core values that are important to your company’s culture? How has your team developed its workflow and ability to drive success in such a competitive market?
Nikoia Sanni: “ManTech’s culture is very strong on ethics and integrity, and we are committed to providing an inclusive environment. At ManTech, we’re always working on our company’s strategy to move forward in this aspect of our business.
It all goes back to the engagement and communication that is so central to our company culture. From the outside looking into ManTech, it looks impressive. Now that I have been backstage, I see that it’s something that keeps our teams together and makes people want to spend their careers at ManTech.
As I said at the outset, great people are key to our success at ManTech, and we provide continuous training to drive growth and ongoing learning that advances both the customer mission and our employees’ careers.
ManTech University has been around for quite some time and it’s very well known. I have several team members who are getting degrees through this program and it’s something that I think ManTech can offer as the great differentiator in our sector.
As the talent in our industry debates the benefits of staying in one company versus learning from a number of different organizations, ManTech University adds to the support that our company gives to its employees. Our commitment to helping them continue to learn and grow is one of the reasons I wanted to be here and is one of our greatest missions.”
