The Journey to Tomorrowland Ep 6: Building a Career as a Security Intelligence Analyst with Cynthia Ugwu

Cynthia Ugwu is an Alumni of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program from the University of Cambridge. She’s passionate about reducing risks for organisations and humanity, and that is why she chose the career path of a security intelligence analyst. 

In this episode, Cynthia shared her motivation for choosing this career path, the opportunities in this area, the skills required to remain relevant in the industry, how businesses continually look for experts in this area, among others. This episode is filled with wisdom and inspiration for the future of work. 

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Transcript

Micheal Akintunde (00:04):

Hello there and welcome to Journey to Tomorrowland, a podcast series brought to you by the Mastercard Foundation Baobab platform. The theme is simple to reimagine how we understand the future of work by listening to inspiring stories and learning from powerful moments that shape our journeys. I believe the future of work is deeply personal and that every story matters in how we define it. My name is Michael Akintunde. I'm an Alumni of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program from the University of Cambridge, and I will be your host. In each episode, I sit down with guests from diverse educational and professional backgrounds to share their stories, offer their perspectives on the future of work, and of course, leave us with an unforgettable dream of inspiration. So sit tight and let's get started.

(01:10):

Thank you so much, all dear listeners, for joining in again, and thank you for all that I've been listening since the beginning of this podcast. As you know already, the major theme that we've been exploring is around the future of work. And for every single episode, I bring to you guests that have ideas that would shape your perspective as to how to think about a feature of work from different background. Today I have with me, Cynthia Hugu, an alumni of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program from the University of Cambridge. He's a security intelligence analyst. She has done a lot of fantastic work in the field of security and geopolitical risk analysis. But without me doing all of the introduction, I would allow Cynthia to particularly introduce herself. So Cynthia, for anyone who doesn't know you, who has not come across the kind of work that you do, who are you?

(02:11):

What's your story? How did you get your way you had today? What are you currently working on?

Cynthia Ugwu (02:18):

Well, hi, Michael. Really nice to be here. So for anyone that doesn't know me, I think the first thing that stands out, it's security. I'm interested in studying risks and dangers and decision makings around it. So that has been what I'm working on. And the question was how I started. Not one part. I think it had more to do with studying criminology in Nigeria for my bachelor's. And from there, I worked in the defense headquarters for about a year during my service here, which then moved to security consulting. And luckily, the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program happened and Cambridge happened. Well,

Micheal Akintunde (03:13):

That's a fantastic story. Well, let's pick it apart a little bit. You said you studied criminology. That seems like a very big decision at the very early head. People would say, "I want to study accounting or I want to go. " What informed that particular decision to say, "Hey, it's criminology that I would like to go for.

Cynthia Ugwu (03:33):

" I would be honest with you and say the Nigerian education system examination that we did, at first I wanted to study law and like any other art students learned to study law. And when I got to the university, I wasn't able to score high enough post UTME to be able to study law. So when I got to the university, being my very ambitious self, I knocked on the door of my head of the department and I said, "I want to study law." And I am in criminology, which is kind of like a part of law in terms of some of the courses that we do. And he said, okay. He was also in the faculty of law. So he told me, he said, "If you make a 4.5 CGPA by second year, I'm going to help you do the internal applications and all of that.

(04:29):

" And by second year, I had 4.6 and then I said, "No, I'm not going anywhere anymore. I want to study this because the intersection are like patterns and networks of risks, especially in Nigeria where security is very practical and very life changing." If I would use that word, it just felt right to be able to research that, to research the patterns on that, and also to be able to offer solutions and recommendations based on those research.

Micheal Akintunde (05:05):

That is particularly interesting because I had to ask you, and I need to mention this. So for anyone who is not originally from Nigeria, post-UTMA is the examination that you take before you got into the university in Nigeria. And that's particularly interesting because I noticed as well, when you're very young, you want to do quite a lot of things, and then at some point you just decide to narrow down in your case now, criminology. But even at that, criminology law, these are really big society focused kind of courses, which is to drive these big changes, to change everything around you. Was it just like, "Oh, these are courses that people around me are doing," or was there things going on around you that you felt like you could actually contribute a little bit in that space?

Cynthia Ugwu (05:56):

I think it was more towards the fact that I've always been a person that believes in ... My friends would say I do complaints, complaining about a system that doesn't work and not doing anything about it. So I already had questions about some of the systems in Nigeria when I was young and some of the laws I saw and how they weren't practical and they weren't working. So for me, it was about why complain about something, get into the system and go change it if you can. So that was the energy I used. And interestingly enough, I actually took that energy into my actual career and I will tell you how that went while the interview continues.

Micheal Akintunde (06:46):

Okay. Interesting. And how do you feel following your passion? Now you studied criminology at the University of Cambridge and then you still pursuing a career in that field. How does that make you feel?

Cynthia Ugwu (07:00):

Fulfilled.

(07:03):

I feel like I'm one of the very minority group of people that love the job that they're doing. I feel very fulfilled because like I mentioned, I've always been interested in patterns and networks of risks and how it propagates around everything around us and how different sectors of the society contribute to this risks without even knowing it. So at the University of Cambridge, the opportunity to now ... In my undergrad, it was about drug abuse and how the youths were part of a system of destruction that they didn't even see. So at Cambridge, it stopped being about the youth who were part of the destruction and became about the terrorists who were causing the destruction and analyzing patterns about them. And now it's about helping organizations in my work right now, it's about helping organizations to be able to continue to do business even as uncertain and as volatile the world has got.

Micheal Akintunde (08:08):

That's a brilliant answer. And I must say, just like you rightfully said, it's very unique to find somebody who at a very young age love what they are doing, especially when they've chosen a very unique path. So I want to ask you a follow-up question just on that. We will talk more about the future of work, but right now, you have chosen this very specific and unique path. What are the opportunities that actually exist in this field that you think a lot of people might be missing out on?

Cynthia Ugwu (08:45):

Well, I would say to the listeners to open the news, the world is becoming volatile. The geopolitical situations are developing in places that we can't keep up with, and because we can't keep up with it, organizations can't keep up with it. And when I speak about organizations, I'm talking businesses, nonprofits, governmental organizations, and they need people who understand this, who understand uncertainty, who don't just say, "You know what? Because this policy is happening here, pack up and run." People who understand that uncertainty, what is interesting about today's youth, and I would of course include myself in it, what is interesting about today's youth is the large interest that we'd see in what the geopolitical situation is. The today is we know what's happening and some of us know what the implications of that is, and that is where the opportunities lie because these developments are moving at paces that we can't keep up with even as individuals.

(09:57):

So organizations, businesses, nonprofits, governments, a lot of them are trying to keep up and keep business. Continuity even amidst everything that is happening. And that creates a lot of opportunities for people who are interested in the sector because these developments affect regulatory concerns, which countries can some companies hire from, which companies can they not hire from and things like that. So it affects everything. And being able to understand that and being able to be able to guide the organizations into making good decisions that keep them in business, which is what the goal is, I think that presents a lot of opportunities that many do not know exist.

Micheal Akintunde (10:43):

Well, I do agree with you totally because everything centers around uncertainty. That's why we've got insurance and being able to do a lot of analysis and helping people to make the right decisions or much more specifically to make strategic decisions when they do not have all the information, I think that is particularly helpful. But now I know that you work with Lenovo. Can you describe what exactly do you do for them if it is not non-disclosure in a way? And what is interesting about that in particular?

Cynthia Ugwu (11:22):

Like every tech company, Lenovo is a global brand, of course. What I do for them is third-party due diligence, which is also a part of security. It is how companies assess who their partners are in today's world where there are a lot of regulations on different countries, trade regulations, all of those. Companies like Lenovo try to assess their partners to ensure that they remain compliant to the different regulations that have been put in place. So my job is to help them assess those partners and make sure that we are fully

Micheal Akintunde (12:05):

Compliant. And in this role, what sort of heroes or mistakes or aha moments have you come across?

Cynthia Ugwu (12:16):

I think with due diligence, so I would explain a bit to your listeners who don't maybe understand what due diligence is about. So due diligence is when you get a job and your employer is saying, "We want to do a basic background check on you, " just to make sure you are not, especially in the UK when if you're working with a kid, there has to be an enhanced one just to make sure you're not someone who's problematic or you're not someone who at some point has harmed the child or you don't have a record. So translate that to companies, translate that to organizational due diligence. So what you do basically is to ensure that your partners, the vendors you buy from, the ones you sell to, they are compliant too, because the law operates in ignorance is no excuse. So to say that, "Oh, I didn't know they were involved with these actors.

(13:15):

I didn't know they did this. " That is not an excuse. So as an organization, you try your best to remain compliant. So that is what due diligence is about. And to answer your question, at hard moments, rarely you rarely get them. Sorry, you rarely get them because, well, if you count finding out about something about an organization that you wouldn't primarily know as a member of the audience, which is like all of us, you wouldn't primarily know if you're not actually checking for them. I think those moments are, I wouldn't speak about Lenovo. I speak about a former job now where I was doing investments due diligence, which is like for individuals that are interested in country citizenship investment, you kind of check them out just to make sure they're compliant, they're not involved with terrorists, they're not bad people. I think things get very interesting there, especially with like you do, I think at some point you do fundraising there, the question of source of funds, proof of funds, it becomes like that is a hard moment because you see a lot of money and you can't seem to understand where that money's coming from.

(14:42):

And one day you are checking and checking and checking and suddenly clicks, you find something, you find an offshore business, you find something heeding in a different country or in a different region, you're like, "Oh, okay, this is where the money's coming from." So those moments where you are so blind to everything and then you suddenly just find something and you're like, "Oh, aha, found you.

Micheal Akintunde (15:08):

" Well, I have, because I work in fundraising, I've seen cases where you would realize the importance of due diligence, especially when somebody, a donor, a donor is somebody who has decided to give you money or to donate to a particular cause wanted to make a donation. And then you realize that probably they've been involved in some sort of criminal activities or their company or whatever and they've been in the news. And it's just so important because first of all, you need to protect the brand that you work with. And at the same time, you want to make sure that you are not pointing your fingers directly into the eyes of the law. And I think that is totally important. So I, in a way, understand the kind of work that you do, but let me shift the conversation a little bit. So you are a young African just like myself, and you're working, that's good, and you're working in a very specific fit, which I also think is amazing, but there is the whole concept of the future of work, what it means with the changes that are going on in our world right now.

(16:18):

And sometimes it can be very concerning, but I want to ask you specifically, what does it mean to you when the concept is rolled out, the future of work, how do you think about it?

Cynthia Ugwu (16:32):

I think the first time you hear about the future of work, especially with what the space, the ecosystem is looking like, the first thing that comes to your mind is like remote working, AI automations, tech innovations, things like that. But I think for me, the future of work is distribution and access,

(16:57):

Right? I think that currently the idea of the future of work, of course, is this innovative space, but I think we are at a point where there are staggering features in different regions. There are regions that there are countries that haven't even explored half of what some other countries have. And what that does for them is that what that means to a youth is that wherever you are, you can actually push for the future of work that may have already started somewhere else. In some countries, the technology hasn't even adapted enough to the machine learning, not to talk of the artificial intelligence that it powers. So I think those staggering points and the understanding ... So when I think about the future of work, I think about access and distribution in terms of knowing where the future of where you are, the future of the work, of the context where you are, I think that's more important than the global future of work.

Micheal Akintunde (18:07):

That is an amazing perspective. One thing I've picked is the concept of the staggering of future. I think that's very new in my vocabulary. I've heard a very big author, Nicolas Tarleb said there are varieties of future and that would be peculiar to each individual. But this is an amazing perspective because you made mention of distribution and access and in some particular part of the world that would determine what the future of work mean. In terms of the access and the distribution, do you have some specific areas or examples that you've come across that you feel like, "Oh no, look at this, " for example.

Cynthia Ugwu (18:51):

I would think at some point I get kind of personistic and worried that we are addressing a new standard of inequality as future of work because I think in access and distribution, for instance, the global future of work is moving at a pace that we can't even catch up to. Six months ago, what the tools in the market right now can do, six months ago we didn't have that. But the thing when I talk about access is this point that there are some youth and some people in countries where the future that we had six months ago is still the feature of work to them. And that distinction is kind of, I wouldn't say it's problematic because of course we can't expect the world to pause because some people are yet to catch upon, but I think we should also have the opportunity to point the light towards distribution and how to encourage everyone to think of the feature of work where they are and kind of push it forward.

(20:03):

So if we are telling the youth we're telling you now, everyone is saying, "Go learn AI." I listened to your last podcast with Blossom and you guys talked about something really amazing about how I think you had mentioned about computer science dropping and artificial intelligence growing. Everyone is like, "Go do this, go do that, " which is good. Innovation is good, but expansion is better. So I think that is what I understand to be access and distribution. So we should push forward the future of work, but global has to be global. Global is not exclusive to certain countries. I

Micheal Akintunde (20:46):

Do agree with you on the fact that for some people in some specific places, especially in Africa, the future of work six months ago is still the same future of work. And that's even the spirit behind this podcast, believing that the future of work is determined by our stories. For example, I always say that if you grew up in a refugee camp, and that's your formative years, that's what you're exposed to. The way you're going to think about a future of work is going to be a little bit different. It's not going to just be all about artificial intelligence. You remember your stories, the kids that you were, other people that you could help, and that is going to shape what the future of work will mean to you, and how you are going to define satisfaction for yourself. But let me, again, drive it to the specific field that you're in.

(21:37):

What does the future of work look like in security intelligence right now?

Cynthia Ugwu (21:43):

Opportunities, but when I talk about opportunities as the future of work in security is because we are seeing a lot of shifts. The future of work, for example, we're seeing a lot of shifts in how in Africa, some of the countries of Africa are renegotiating the stance they had with their former colonial powers, which is creating a different spectrum of security risks. It's creating a different war ground that the Western countries are yet to catch up to. So that also creates opportunities for youths who are in these realities, who know what the situations are to be able to also join in the security analysis space to also profile their own solutions on how these organizations can move forward. I think also it's in the future of work for security also is a rise of AI. Of course, we can't dismiss that. We definitely can't dismiss that.

(22:50):

AI is being used in security in a kind of different way. No, I don't think anybody's automating analysis because analysis is judgment.You're making a judgment. I don't think any organization as it stands is about to put millions and thousands of pounds into an AI judgment call on what is happening in Bokina Faso or what is happening in a different country. I don't think any ... So there is still a strong reliance on the person, the individual, but then AI is being used to automate data collection, to get more information, to data analysis, which previously used to be individual. So that is another feature, which anyone who is interested in this field has to also catch up to that. You have to be AI forward. I use AI forward because AI is supposed to be an augmentation for hope to what we already have and not to take over our entire existence or whatever the story is.

(23:59):

So I think the feature of work and security is very fueled with opportunities for people who want to continue to join the decision making and help organizations and individuals and states to move forward.

Micheal Akintunde (24:18):

And the direct consequence of what you said is the question that will follow, which is like, what are the skills that you use in your day-to-day job to be able to do analysis and to be able to do some sort of discovery that would help organizations to better position themselves?

Cynthia Ugwu (24:39):

That would be Googling. Mike, how you Google what is happening is different from how I Google it. So there are different tools that we use to go ... So with the web that you know, it's Surface Web, there is a dip web and there's a dark web. We try not to talk about the DACA one, but the DEIP one just goes into archived pages, things that have been buried in page 10 of the website. And we try to get ... So that is my day-to-day, trying to find out what these organizations have buried on a lot of paperwork and trying to find them and just find them, read about it. And I also use AI a lot in automating my data collection. I have a personal agent, and the job of my agent is to collect news from all over the place. I already gave it restrictions on the type of news that I want, and that also informs what I do day-to-day, because you also want to keep up with what is happening to be able to advise anybody about ... So I think with the skills required, I think basically that mostly is your call of judgment.

(26:06):

It's like telling an organization, they're telling you there is a possibility of a riot or crisis in this location, and it's on you to use the knowledge that you have, but open source and also country or regional knowledge to say, no, this is fine. All of you should stay put, you're fine. Or to say, "Pack up and run as fast as you can. " So yeah, that's it.

Micheal Akintunde (26:34):

And what I sense is they would be able to trust you because you would've used the necessary tools to come up with a very evidence-based empirical analysis. But I noticed that you focused your attention quite a lot on the technical skills. So in your day-to-day, are there like what all those would call soft skills or all those kind of human related skills that despite the fact that you're using artificial intelligence, you still have to daily because of the people you work with or the kind of stuff that you do. Are there skills that you notice that are not fixed?

Cynthia Ugwu (27:12):

Yes. So intelligence writing, for example, there is a method, I think it's kind of general called bluff method. I don't know if you've heard, bottom line upfront, it's kind of like nobody wants to read five pages of paper. So your communication skills has to come through in both verbal and writing. So that is a soft skill. You have to be able to like, "What do I want to know? Why is this important? Who is affected?" Full stop. Nobody wants to read the other stories. So in my day today, communication is very important because you are communicating with an executive who for the past 15 years of his life has been in sales or business. They don't understand why you think

(28:03):

A mining accident in a different country is going to affect what they're doing here. They don't understand what the supply chain and the second and third effect looks like. So you have to explain that in very simple and micro, very short words. So that is communication, I think, problem solving, all of those soft skills are very important. And you also have to believe in what you're saying. You can't tell me to stay put in a crisis situation if you sound like you are scared even when you're not there. So you have to be also able to say, "I've read everything. You don't need to read everything, but based on all I know, this is what you should do, " which it all comes out to communication again.

Micheal Akintunde (28:49):

So I imagine that the kind of work that you do, you use creativity and problem solving to be able to do some sort of analysis and to be able to know the right thing to look for, which I think is just super important. But let me give you this particular scenario. I'm a young graduate, so I'm just even listening to this podcast by, let me say accidentally, and I love what you're doing and I want to get into it. What are the things that I need to know? What are the steps that I can probably take to be able to position myself to be able to do that?

Cynthia Ugwu (29:28):

I think a part of getting into the sector that is both a blessing and a curse is that there is no part to entry to it, which means two things. It means you can fall into it or you can also not be able to assess it. For me, it was with education, of course. I was quite lucky because I was very audacious. I did my bachelor's, like I mentioned at the beginning, and at the time I was doing my I serviced here with the defense headquarters in Nigeria. I realized the military was not for me as a civilian and I started messaging a lot of CEOs to security consulting firms in Abuja and Nigeria. And that worked, but it worked because I said I did security. I know about policies, I know about patents. I don't know how to apply yet, but if you give me an opportunity to, you can't teach me how to apply to organizations and to institutions, which they did.

(30:34):

Someone took a chance. And there is some people coming from military backgrounds, they've been in the tactical, operational part. And now they're like, I have ground level experience. For some of the youth who maybe went to a military school, I have ground level experience. Now I want to translate that to strategy because it's part of strategy. You're telling somebody this is a decision you should make because of this. So I think there is no one part to it. It's just find your part. But if I would give a very practical, I want to be a very practical person right now in your practice, but I would say find a region, a country, a region, preferably a region, and try to know as much as you can about it. If you're not on LinkedIn, get on LinkedIn. Post about that region, post your understanding of it.

(31:28):

There must be global corporations, small to medium sized businesses who have interest in that region and they need someone that understands that region to be able to guide them to decision making when it gets volatile, and that is where you're coming.

Micheal Akintunde (31:43):

You built a very interesting application related to security and intelligence analysis. Can you tell me more about that?

Cynthia Ugwu (31:55):

For now, it's kind of like a project. So I am trying to build the first, what I hope would be the first mission learning of risk data to exist in Nigeria, where it's about ensuring that people are safe when they're moving. It's going to be free to Nigerians, which is good to know. For some people who are in Nigeria right now, what it's about is about using real-time intelligence. I search the web all the time and using real-time intelligence to be able to tell you, you're in trouble, you're not in trouble. If you're in trouble, call someone, don't call someone. The system practically automates that. So you can't say I'm using artificial intelligence to build the next frontier of what travel risk security is.

Micheal Akintunde (32:50):

So travel risks, that is huge and part clear to Nigeria. And I know that it's quite like a big problem in Africa as a whole, but I know what motivated you to start this project?

Cynthia Ugwu (33:07):

Well, as part of my job, I tried to be multifaceted, which is in any, like I said, I am very enthusiastic about security and risk analysis. So I try to get myself involved in all parts of investigations, geopolitical risk, and travel risk was one of them because you have high net worth individuals or organizations who are deploying nonprofits who are deploying their staff to different locations. And one of the key challenges that they have is the person I'm deploying to this place, are they safe? How can I ensure their safety? How do I know that they are safe? And most of the time when I support a team to get their staff in a new country, most of the time we're on WhatsApp where we are trying to like, "Are you fine?" I just thought to myself, AI, tech, everything is growing. And luckily I am lucky enough thanks to Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program to be one of those people who are the staggered point of the future that is now, and I'm able to use artificial intelligence to like, how are we able to monitor this so we don't have to keep calling on WhatsApp?

(34:25):

So what if the person gets to a location, which as you know some of the data connectivity problem in some countries when there is no data, how do I ensure, how do I make organizations to know that you can't send people to our countries, they would be safe, we'll try to keep them safe. So that is what my project is all about.

Micheal Akintunde (34:50):

Well, it sounds like a very big and auditious project to me. And I'm not surprised because knowing you fully well, I know that you are not only capable, but you are always, just like you mentioned, enthusiastic about what can make us feel secure physically why. So I think it's going to be an amazing project. And it's also a good thing to be thinking about, especially with what is going on in the world right now, which I want to touch a little bit about. So in recent times, as you know, there's a war going on and around that is affecting everything else in the world energy wise specifically and all the things. You are a security analyst. What's your assessment so far? And if you can give a little bit of context, one as to whatsoever doesn't know what this is all about, and what's your assessment of what is really going on?

Cynthia Ugwu (35:48):

I usually try to stay away from conversations of geopolitical situations besides, of course, from the perspective of organizational resilience and business continuity because to give you an assessment, I would say what we are saying now is I feel like it's a mix of disinformation campaigns being one of the strategies of the world that is going on and also what is happening in Iran where the players are engaging each other on social media, which is another future of work. Okay. So first to the future of work, like I mentioned earlier, with uncertainty, there is a need for people who understand it. I am not a professional in the region where there is currently an escalation of violence, which is between Iran and the United States and Israel, but to people who are part of that region who has been part of policy in any way, form, education, work, it presents an opportunity in the future of people to be able to guide organizations into resilience.

(37:04):

And what I would say to the issue at hand, which is the war that is going on in Iran and what it means for us is that it is creating risk and increasing the pockets of conflict zones around. And what that is doing, as we can see where a lot of countries are currently complaining about oil, is that it's creating a supply chain problem. Someone who is in a different country, let's say someone who is in the UK would probably, when the issues are first escalated, when the missiles were first exchanged, someone who is here will probably be like, "Okay, maybe it's not my business. Maybe it's not me, maybe it's them, it's not us." But what happens with supply chain is that you never know how you're connected. You're connected somehow. And in this case, we've seen that oil is the connection and we're seeing the problem it has to do with the energy sector and things like that.

(38:05):

So I think also for the organizational part, it also changes how companies are doing business and where they operate because as the war is going on, allies are picking sides and that comes regulatory, new laws, new sanctions that will probably follow next. And that changes a lot, especially if as a business you're trying to go into emerging markets. But I would bring it back to what it means, because I know that most of the people who are going to be listening to this are youth who want to know where do I come in? Where you would come in in this conflict situation is to read about it. Don't just say, "It's not my country, it's not my business. Read about it, know what is happening, know how you probably would get affected. Maybe in hiring, you probably would think it's not my business and your country becomes one of the people sanctioned." And then you can't come from there.

(39:06):

We see immigration laws as part of a sanctioned move from different governments. So know about it. And if you're interested in security, this is an opportunity. Write about it. What do you think about it? What do you think about? Of course, from very safe perspective. So I think that is what my assessment of it will be because for organizations, a lot of them have teams consisting of analysts like myself who are monitoring what it means for them and not for the global populates.

Micheal Akintunde (39:42):

So as a security analyst, I've been using that term because I kind of really love it. It's not- I

Cynthia Ugwu (39:49):

Think I noticed you did.

Micheal Akintunde (39:52):

I

Cynthia Ugwu (39:52):

Feel like in a few years, Michael, maybe you would be like, "You know what? I want to analyze security right now."

Micheal Akintunde (39:59):

Well, I have a passion of bias because in my undergrad, I studied political science. So I did a little bit of international law, sociology, psychology, everything in between, philosophy. So all of that always get me interested in anything related to understanding what's going on in our world and how that is shaping the kind of feature that is available for everyone. And it is an amazing thing that is going on. I said amazing, not because it's not involving casualties and killing people, but it also helps us to understand the failties of what it means to think about a future and why you should relax as a youth thinking about it and then just take your time, everything is going to go well and just look for opportunities, just like my guest rightfully mentioned. I've got two more questions for you, Cynthia. The first one is, right now, what are the skills that you're currently building that you believe?

(41:06):

I can see this thing about the future of work. I've had this thing about artificial intelligence and I need to better position myself. What are the skills that you think are valuable to you right now that you're currently looking at and building as you continue to go day by day?

Cynthia Ugwu (41:22):

As you know, one of my projects is building emission learning for rix data. So I would say one of the skills I am very focused on learning is machine learning and artificial intelligence, but not artificial intelligence in terms of coding artificial intelligence in terms of understanding flows. So right now, a lot of tools can automate the production of the product. In lots of companies, a lot of companies are building their own internal AI systems. And what that means for people, anyone who is interested in my sector is that there needs to be somebody who understands a little bit of code and how AI works and who understands the sector and the domain, which I think your listeners can translate to any domain that they work in. You understand your domain, you understand what analysis means to you, you understand what patterns means to your domain.

(42:25):

Understanding the technical part of it, just a little bit enough to be able to guide the flow, the pipeline, enough to be able to guide what the pipeline is going to be. So that is what I'm building now and I'm very focused on doing.

Micheal Akintunde (42:38):

Lovely. I've had other guests on the podcast, and I'm saying this because we may have listeners that have not listened to the other episodes that we've recorded. So all those guests that I've interviewed have mentioned that they're building skills that will help them to become a better storyteller, which I also think it's an important skill if you're looking into going into security analysis and geopolitical risk analysis. Some have mentioned, just like my guest Anthea also mentioned, skills around good communication, relationship building, proactive problem solving. I think those things really just matter at this point in time. And to call it a quote on the podcast today, I have a tradition. I ask all of my guests to mention if they could, one book that they read and that book just transformed their perspectives about live and everything. And they just go, "This is an unpost-danhable book for me.

Cynthia Ugwu (43:44):

" Mike, I think I had mentioned to you earlier that I prefer reading textbooks, not necessarily self-helps or fiction, but there is a fiction I really like. And because I know your tradition, I'm literally showing you my book right now. The name is called Name Wolf. It's a book written by Gil Hork, he's the author of the book. And for anyone who is interested in security, in any part of it, national security, organizational security, he's someone that went from operational to strategy just by creating versions of himself that he knew people wanted to see. And that is part, and I will direct that to part of storytelling. Why I am focused on technical skills is because the part of storytelling, I am already cultivating as part of who I am and not a skill I have to do. So I think that is also important, an important distinction.

(44:57):

So he created this persona that people didn't question because the persona was confident, he was knowledgeable, he knew the right things to say at the right time, and he knew who needed to hear them and who didn't. So I think reading this made me like, "Oh, I was writing doing this. " So I think for everyone who is listening, some of the skills needed in today's world, especially with how the technological movement is going, it should become a cultivation of who you are and not necessarily a pick button of, "I want to just pick this one skill and go with it. " Translation and communication, you must be able to translate what you're doing, what you're working on to simply English. And you must be able to communicate that so that the person who is on the receiving and understands what the full cycle is.

(45:58):

And that is what the character here, Roger, that is his name try to do.

Micheal Akintunde (46:05):

That is amazing. And for anyone interested, I'm definitely going to pull the name of this book as part of the description attached to this episode. So you can have a link and enjoy reading it. And I must also say that it's a tradition because I think the culture of reading is dying gradually. I don't know whether to say thanks to AI or not, and we all need to read more, not just because, of course, we may have the technology to help us do a quick summary and do analysis, but you cannot condense a book by 300 pages to just two pages of summary. It doesn't work that way. You need the examples, you need a context, you need a research that's been done, and we all just need to get back into reading. Thank you everyone who has been part of this particular, amazing, interesting, wonderful, entertaining, and incisive episode.

(47:03):

Again, my guest is Cynthia Bugo, who is a security analyst right now for Lenovo. She has been amazing talking us through some of the skills needed in this particular area and we even had to branch to talk about what is going on and what it means for the future of work and what it means for all of us, whether you are in Africa or whether you are living in Kingdom. So this is an amazing episode and I give very huge thank you to my guest. All of you, this episode, this podcast still continue and I hope you'll join me and another guest I bring for you guys the next step. Thank you so, so, so much.