Rising Through Resilience: “Resiliency is a function of environment and mindset” with Anuj Goel of Cyware

I believe resiliency is a function of environment and mindset. The environment provides the external stimulus through experiences which in turn shapes the mindset over a period of time. The mindset subconsciously curates the natural response of an individual when faced with stressful situations and thereby building resiliency.

In my work as a coach and consultant, I speak with business leaders across multiple industries about their most significant challenges. One common theme continues to emerge — rapid change and disruption are the new norm in business, and the only constant is the demand for resilience. At the heart of resilience is the ability to adapt and recover quickly from adversity. I am certain that more than intelligence and talent, resilience is the single most important trait required to succeed in today’s highly complex market. My “Rising through Resilience” interview series explores the topic of resilience in interviews with leaders across all walks of business.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Anuj Goel, a security evangelist and innovator, who is a strong proponent of cybersecurity and its advancements in today’s age. With more than 18 years of experience in the security industry, Anuj has a solid command in areas like critical infrastructure protection, threat intelligence sharing, threat modeling, and cyber fusion analysis. His wide range of expertise in technology blended with astute leadership skills has propelled large teams in cross-functional environments towards felicitous success. At Cyware, Anuj steers the strategic face of the company and oversees its strategic planning and growth initiatives. Prior to founding Cyware, Anuj served as the Head of Global Strategy and Planning covering information security and Chief of Staff to the CISO, Citigroup, New York. Anuj was also an executive committee member of the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council (FSSCC) and has actively participated in information sharing initiatives.

Thank you so much for joining me! Our readers would love to get to know you. Can you tell us your ‘backstory’?

Thank you for the warm introduction. As you mentioned, I am the Co-founder and CEO of Cyware Labs. We are a cybersecurity company delivering proactive cyber fusion and threat intelligence automation solutions. As you can imagine with any leadership role, I wear many hats and am constantly being pulled in multiple directions. Prior to Cyware, I worked at Citigroup as the CISO’s Chief of Staff. I was in charge of all strategy and planning for Citi’s information security, globally.

What are the top three factors you would attribute to your success as a leader at Cyware?

1. A passion for cybersecurity and enabling change across the industry (understanding intrinsically the market gaps, delivering innovative solutions to meet customer’s unmet needs
2. A strong work ethic (dedication, commitment, discipline, self-starter)
3. Leading by example with values such as integrity, self-accountability, devolution and people empowerment.

In your opinion, what do you think makes your company stand out from the crowd?

Although there are many things that differentiate Cyware, few things in particular stand out:

1. Delivering solutions that allow customers to be proactive in their approach to cybersecurity rather than only being able to react after a cyber incident has already occurred. Our products enable customers to easily and systematically consume the wealth of threat intelligence available providing context to their security environment and allowing them to take a preemptive stance to cyberattacks.
2. We believe bringing good actors together can create a potent force against bad actors. This philosophy of sharing and collaboration is a core capability central to our products. All too often, critical information exists within a company but is not communicated because of the organizational silos that have developed. Our solutions break down these walls promoting communication and collaboration across security teams, with the general employee base and even with external organizations, such as vendors, customers, and peers.
3. We believe cybersecurity is no more a game of reaction. Every second after a security incident matters and costs are imposed in an escalatory spiral. Therefore, it is required that organizations be able to actually predict attacks and proactively bridge all gaps and loopholes in a systematic manner. We enable such a security paradigm with our solutions that provide visibility, promote collaboration and inculcate resilience.

How has your company continued to thrive in the face of rapid change and disruption in your industry?

The very nature of cybersecurity is a state of flux. The threat landscape is continuously changing with bad actors utilizing new attack vectors, sophisticated malware and complex delivery techniques 24x7. Our recognition of this fundamental property is core to the philosophy behind our security solutions. Our suite of security products provides an overarching cyber fusion solution with capabilities for threat intelligence sharing, situational alerting, security automation and threat response. Our solutions are designed to enable organizations to predict and respond to attacks even before they strike. We enable organizations to organically thrive in a chaotic and transient security threat environment. The four core pillars of our solutions are visibility, collaboration, resilience and control, making our solutions more intrinsic to the requirements of all types of organizations, which allows us to not only thrive but lead the market in our segments.

I’d like to jump to the main focus of this interview. We would like to explore and flesh out the trait of resilience. All of my successful clients seem to have one quality in common, and that is resilience. What does resilience mean to you?

Generally, resilience is defined as the ability to bounce back from an inferior state. This definition makes it a reactive trait which is not enough to sustain yourselves in present times when things keep on changing every minute. To me resilience means to be situationally aware about the changes happening in your environment, identify trends, anticipate what future is going to look like and accordingly plan and prepare for it. It is this personal belief that is the keystone of my professional thought process and philosophy behind the security solutions that we provide to our customers. The security landscape is changing every minute with attackers coming up with new techniques. For big organizations who are targeted every second from all corners of the world, resilience would hold no value if it limited itself to just bouncing back after a cyberattack or minimizing operational downtime. Resilience has to come with a predictive element that helps understand what you need to plan for and accordingly help you devise and implement new strategies in an organic manner. Resilience is not just bouncing back; it is also staying afloat at all times.

When you think of tenacity and endurance, what person comes to mind?

Mohammad Ali — his ability to control the entire match and out-maneuver his opponents in all rounds, firmly standing on his two feet is a hallmark of remarkable endurance.

Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway?

I wouldn’t say anyone said that it was impossible, but when we shared our vision of furthering collaboration through automated threat intelligence sharing, several industry experts expressed serious reservations. While everyone agreed that there was a need for greater collaboration between the good actors, few thought it possible to achieve it in a fully, real-time automated manner without burdening security operations with significant costs and process complications. We received a lot of feedback that front line security professionals, already feeling overwhelmed, would push back. But now, given the acceptance of our products in the market, I feel vindicated. We have actually made the security professionals lives easier through advanced automation involving them only on critical situations that require human judgement. We have simplified the overall security operations process and made the professionals more efficient, focused and productive.

Did you have a time in your life where you had one of your greatest setbacks, but you bounced back from it stronger than ever?

As the leader of a newly started company, there are constantly day-to-day challenges that you face. Most of these challenges are a new experience and require one to use undeveloped muscles. Individually the challenges might look minor, but in total, they are very significant and count for most of the learnings and growth trajectory of one’s professional career.

Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency?

I believe resiliency is a function of environment and mindset. The environment provides the external stimulus through experiences which in turn shapes the mindset over a period of time. The mindset subconsciously curates the natural response of an individual when faced with stressful situations and thereby building resiliency. Like everyone, I too have been through several demanding situations during my educational and professional life. One particular event during the early days of Cyware was a client opportunity with a very large organization. Their technology infrastructure was significant and extremely complex. They were looking for an overarching threat response solution — something that is still not widely available in the market. Their requirements were technologically challenging, as they needed several disparate technologies integrated and fused to work out of a single security tool. For a small company at the time, it was a huge opportunity, but also a big challenge given our limited resources. It was a “fight or flight” moment for Cyware. I would say — it was the collective resiliency of our leadership team that not only enabled us to say “Yes” to the project but also drove us to deliver the state-of-the-art threat response solution earlier than promised. Not only did this event significantly shape our future, but the experience in and of itself has been a great learning experience on how to perceive stressful situations from an opportunity perspective and has further made us more resilient and forthcoming for such challenges.

Resilience is like a muscle that can be strengthened. What strategies do you use to strengthen your resilience?

On a personal front, I always try to view a particular situation from multiple perspectives. Often, during stressful times we tend to buckle under the pressure of a situation. As a result, the problem gets magnified and we end up expending far more time and energy than necessary. However, when I adopt a multiple perspective approach, it allows me to take a step back and see the varied dimensions of an issue. This affords me the benefit on not only gaining a greater perspective of the problem but also coming to a quicker and better decision. I always try to take multiple views of a situation and ask myself several critical questions like a) How big is this problem, really? b) What is the real and lasting impact of my decision? If wrong, can I course correct, quickly? c) What are the key learnings from this situation? Can they be repeated? d) Could this open a door to a new opportunity?

What are your thoughts on how leaders can create a more resilient workforce?

1. Create a sense of empowerment and belonging among employees;
2. Adopt a bottom-up approach; listen to employees on how they perceive their role, understand their needs and provide an environment for growth and success.
3. To that end celebrate success and positive attitude; ensure the focus on the larger company goals and vision is not lost when going after short-term goals.
4. Adopt resource-development and not resource-management approach towards employees

Extensive research suggests that people who have a clear purpose in their lives are more likely to persevere during difficult times. What is your purpose?

If I were to summarize the purpose of my life, I would call it “value-driven happiness”. I derive happiness that comes from ethical and value-driven actions in both my personal and professional lives. It provides purpose to my being and clarity of judgment during difficult times. It helps me determine what I want and in which direction to sail. One interesting fact about being happy is that you also wish the same joy for the people you interact with. In my professional capacity, I have always tried to ameliorate the troubles of clients by helping them understand their requirements from what they actually need and not what everyone is after in the market. Once you know what you want, the solution becomes an easy task.

What is your favorite quote or personal philosophy that relates to the concept of resilience?

One of my favorite quotes that relates to the concept of resilience comes from Michael Jordan, who said “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”

Can our readers follow you on social media?

You can follow us on social media at:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cyware/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CywareCo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cywareco/

Thank you for all of these great insights!