Newly appointed Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) CEO Barlow Manilal is hoping to bring “some consistency” to the government-funded agency, which has seen five CEOs come and go over the last five years.

Speaking to Engineering News, Manilal said that he joined the TIA on the back of an “intense” redesign process and aimed to reshape the agency into a success story through the implementation of a five-year plan.

“For the first six months, I will be dealing with the hearts and minds [of the TIA staff]. After a restructuring process, a lot of people are feeling vulnerable, displaced [and] uncertain and have some insecurities. We need to deal with those insecurities and get their hearts and minds in the right place,” he noted.

The restructuring, which was announced last year, would have seen the beleaguered agency cull a third of its staff after its budget was slashed. However, Manilal noted that, to date, no retrenchments have been made.

“We had about 60 people who took the voluntary separation packages (VSPs). Our current status is we have 27 vacancies and 22 candidates and the idea is to firstly look if we can match them and if we can place them. But, if we can’t, we open a final window of VSPs and, if people then choose not to take the VSPs, we [move] into the forced retrenchment process,” he explained.

The agency, which receives about R400-million a year from government, provides financial and nonfinancial support to entrepreneurs, science councils and institutions of higher learning in the innovation space. “What is important is how we do this,” he noted.

Thus, Manilal’s focus for the next 6 to 18 months will be on reviewing the agency’s processes and systems to ensure that optimal and effective processes exist. “From 18 months to 36 months, it will take a lot of fixing, but, concurrently with that is instituting a special, different mindset, getting people recalibrated in their thinking.

“Once we have the systems, the people and processes sorted out and working well, the perceptions of TIA and the market will start changing. Then it is a lot about brand building, positioning the company nationally, on the continent and internationally,” he said.

Manilal added that some of the processes would run concurrently. “I aim to create an environment where we can be bold – as bold as the entrepreneurs that we serve . . . and look at our risk tolerances.”

He highlighted that innovation played a critical role in the local economy, as it set the tone for new sectors and assisted socioeconomic development, job creation and new entrepreneurs. “This is the easiest way to set up small to medium enterprises,” he said.

Manilal planned to build on his experience and successes from his tenure at the Automotive Industry Development Centre (AIDC).

“The AIDC was a nice training ground – it taught me a lot of lessons. I was able to also execute a very successful merger process at the AIDC and lead it to a point where it was among the best government agencies in the country.”

Manilal said he would draw on the experience he gained in the automotive industry to ensure that the TIA was efficient, productive and responsive to industry and the stakeholders that it served.