Former Newell Brands CEO Michael Polk Finds Purpose at Implus
Few executives make the deliberate choice to move from running a $15 billion enterprise to leading a smaller private company. Michael Polk Newell Brands did exactly that, and he has spent the years since explaining why the decision made more sense than it might appear.
Polk served in senior roles at Kraft Foods and Unilever before becoming CEO of Newell Brands, where he oversaw a significant expansion of the company’s enterprise value over several years. He stepped down from that role in 2019, and after a brief period away from the workforce, he joined Implus LLC in 2020 as chief executive.
A New Kind of Leadership
Implus is a portfolio company owned by Berkshire Partners that houses 16 fitness and active lifestyle brands. When Polk arrived, the pandemic was just beginning to reshape consumer behavior and global supply chains. Michael Polk first task was steering the company through that turbulence while simultaneously building a foundation for long-term growth.
What he found along the way was a mode of leadership he had not experienced since the early stages of his career. At public companies, the CEO role tends to involve setting direction from a distance, approving resource allocation, and monitoring outcomes through multiple layers of management. At Implus, Michael Polk operates differently.
“I spend much more time doing the brand and business development work directly with my team as opposed to focusing on resource allocation and having to work through layers in the organization to influence the demand-creation or cost-reduction choices people are making. I am right there with them in the crucible, helping them make the choices that are going to drive our business forward,” he said.
Development Through Doing
Private companies, Polk argues, accelerate professional growth in ways that large organizations often cannot. Without the depth of staffing that public corporations maintain, employees at smaller companies must take on significant responsibilities early. “They grow and learn by doing,” Polk noted. “As a corollary, senior leaders are drawn deeper into the business as player-coaches and have to help their people in those moments of choice and also manage risk.” For Michael Polk, that dynamic has transformed what could have been a quiet second act into one of the most engaging chapters of his professional life. He has described his work at Implus as combining the CEO’s broad accountability with the hands-on brand and business development he found most energizing decades ago. Read this article for additional information.
Learn more about Michael Polk Newell Brands on https://www.rttnews.com/2986513/newell-brands-president-and-ceo-michael-polk-to-retire.aspx?Arch=1
