36. Why Relationships Beat Sales Pipelines with Anna McGovern

Anna McGovern spent 23 years climbing the ranks at Unilever, from local supply chains all the way to global, before trading Park Avenue for her own consulting practice. As founder of Pondview Consulting, she now helps mid-market companies and private equity backed brands turn supply chains into a competitive advantage instead of a liability. In this episode, Anna and Jack dig into why "anti-fragile" beats "resilient," how she built a negotiating edge without cigars, golf, or poker, and the real story of leaving a W-2 paycheck to bet on herself, twice. Chapters: Meet Anna McGovern, founder of Pondview Consulting Growing up the daughter of immigrant entrepreneurs Psychology major to Unilever procurement, the unlikely path 23 years at Unilever, from local to global supply chains What she teaches college students about supply chain careers Anti-fragile vs resilient, the thesis behind her book Building trust with suppliers without cigars, golf, or poker Starting Pondview, COVID, and the leap to going all in How relationships built her client base from day one Scrappy vs sophisticated lightning round Connect with Anna: Website: https://pondviewconsulting.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annamcgovern/ X: https://x.com/annamcgovern_sc Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_supplychainexpert Connect with Jack: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-tompkins/ Company: https://www.pineapplecf.com Speaking: https://www.pineappleanalyst.ai YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCalnj5yLU0ZH9y_tVl1J4ng