After running one of the largest consumer products companies in the country, Michael Polk Newell Brands didn’t expect a small, privately owned business to become the highlight of his career. Yet that’s exactly how he describes his current role at Implus LLC.
Finding Fulfillment After Retirement
Polk retired in 2019 after eight years as CEO of Newell Brands, capping off a career that also included leadership roles at Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods and Unilever. The break didn’t last long. In 2020, Berkshire Partners approached him about leading Implus, a fitness accessories portfolio company, and Polk decided he wasn’t quite finished yet.
What followed surprised him. Despite having led an organization of more than 50,000 people at Newell and helped transform it from a holding company into a single operating business, Michael Polk has called his time at Implus LLC the most rewarding stretch of his professional life.
Part of that satisfaction comes from proximity. Instead of focusing on resource allocation from a distance, Polk now spends much of his day working directly with employees on brand and business development. He has described the feeling as being in the crucible with his team, helping shape the decisions that move the business forward together.
He also points to watching his team grow. Junior employees at Implus take on major responsibilities earlier than they would at a larger company, learning largely through direct experience, and Polk considers witnessing that growth one of the most meaningful parts of his job.
The accountability hasn’t gone away. Polk still answers to a board of directors and to the company’s owners, much as he did at Newell, and he still measures his success by the results the business produces. What’s changed is how personally involved he gets to be in producing them, and that difference has made all the change worthwhile for him. Refer to this article for more information.
Find more information about Polk on https://www.youngupstarts.com/2024/11/22/implus-ceo-michael-polk-explains-why-leaders-thrive-in-privately-owned-businesses/