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Podcast: The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership | Critical Thinking | Problem-Solving
Episode: 620: Former McKinsey partner on How to Turn a Profit and Improve Lives in the World's Toughest Places (Strategy Skills classics)
Description: This episode examines what happens when strategy is applied in environments where institutional stability, reliable data, and conventional partners cannot be assumed. Former McKinsey partner and University of Notre Dame Professor Emerita Viva Ona Bartkus draws on decades of experience across management consulting, academic research, and frontline fieldwork in conflict-affected regions to explain why many standard strategy doctrines collapse outside developed markets. Bartkus reflects on her path through McKinsey, including what truly determines advancement inside elite professional services firms. She argues that early career performance is less about isolated brilliance and more about establishing trust, judgment, and...