Running toward the fire: Their success isn’t a coincidence but a strategy: crafting ventures that flourish in fragile contexts by replacing extractive business practices with collaborative models that build lasting economic foundations.

*Running toward the fire* <https://t.devex.com/dc/kyXVoDpAY__Vu56MNr4POoCeJC7v4O0jdIMuhMAw_UtvWH9vfJ9NFPfmYBC1ylV_AB2LtGK5uXt9EimrPx1TgJQZTBUZGr_aVErEvsiLjQeZU9uC1Vr52j71hoXMjci-N3u2l6Jx-nAiSSkRnNJrqAaOWc2lktrP1Tiuqu2Q1vYZeMPNm94zlY2PKc1wUpqKD_2yEgrIQH3fVSSEcmNXls4JSub63J4_SHs9GkVc7WzOm_snxy8cC1jcjPLKRvAKWo2hlginzAK1sD136VNQ50xQRsmRc6pGiF8IXGo1eBk=/Njg1LUtCTC03NjUAAAGZuTJQBjj1okZHF5ScN9Tptzo6EBjUCDp3z50t0RdlxL4ACYrdLHTCLVCu3OBDDJkvds6cvUI=> On the latest episode of the Devex Book Club, Notre Dame Professor Emerita Viva Ona Bartkus, the author of “Business on the Edge: How to Turn a Profit and Improve Lives in the World’s Toughest Places,” discusses how the world's most challenging markets are a place where some businesses are figuring out how to thrive <https://t.devex.com/dc/kyXVoDpAY__Vu56MNr4POoCeJC7v4O0jdIMuhMAw_UtvWH9vfJ9NFPfmYBC1ylV_AB2LtGK5uXt9EimrPx1TgJQZTBUZGr_aVErEvsiLjQeZU9uC1Vr52j71hoXMjci-N3u2l6Jx-nAiSSkRnNJrqAaOWc2lktrP1Tiuqu2Q1vYZeMPNm94zlY2PKc1wUpqKD_2yEgrIQH3fVSSEcmNXls4JSub63J4_SHs9GkVc7WzOm_snxy8cC1jcjPLKRvAKqLzHzIzl5KBYsO0DxsuW5A==/Njg1LUtCTC03NjUAAAGZuTJQBjj1okZHF5ScN9Tptzo6EBjUCDp3z50t0RdlxL4ACYrdLHTCLVCu3OBDDJkvds6cvUI=> . In a conversation with Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar, Bartkus shares findings from her research, which documents 80 companies that are achieving high returns by engaging with — not avoiding — conflict zones and extreme poverty. Their success isn’t a coincidence but a strategy: *crafting ventures that flourish in fragile contexts* by replacing extractive business practices with collaborative models that build lasting economic foundations. * Listen to* Hard places, high returns: Rethinking crisis markets with Viva Ona Bartkus <https://t.devex.com/dc/kyXVoDpAY__Vu56MNr4POoCeJC7v4O0jdIMuhMAw_UtvWH9vfJ9NFPfmYBC1ylV_AB2LtGK5uXt9EimrPx1TgJQZTBUZGr_aVErEvsiLjQeZU9uC1Vr52j71hoXMjci-N3u2l6Jx-nAiSSkRnNJrqAaOWc2lktrP1Tiuqu2Q1vYZeMPNm94zlY2PKc1wUpqKD_2yEgrIQH3fVSSEcmNXls4JSub63J4_SHs9GkVc7WzOm_snxy8cC1jcjPLKRvAKWc3bl4n7v4jvcZA7lAfdVg==/Njg1LUtCTC03NjUAAAGZuTJQBjj1okZHF5ScN9Tptzo6EBjUCDp3z50t0RdlxL4ACYrdLHTCLVCu3OBDDJkvds6cvUI=> .