Michael Polk built his reputation running large public companies, most notably as chief executive of Newell Brands, where he oversaw the merger that combined Newell Rubbermaid with Jarden. Under Michael Polk Newell Brands leadership, the company’s enterprise value grew from around five billion dollars to more than fifteen billion. He retired from that role in 2019.
Retirement, however, did not suit him for long. In 2020, Michael Polk became CEO of Implus LLC, a fitness accessories company owned by Berkshire Partners, and he now calls the move a chance to blend the decision making instincts of a chief executive with the marketing and sales work he loved earlier in his career.
A Different Kind of Challenge
Polk described his time at Implus as a “back to the future moment,” one that reconnected him with the parts of business he found most fulfilling before his career pulled him into higher level roles. The company’s sixteen brands and global reach still demand serious attention, but the private structure lets him operate with far more direct involvement than his public company experience allowed.
Finding Fulfillment in a Smaller Setting
“I am having the time of my professional life building Implus LLC into what I expect will be a bigger, better, and highly competitive fitness and active lifestyle consumer goods company,” Michael Polk said. “That just makes the work so much fun.” His comments suggest that scale alone does not determine whether an executive finds meaning in the work.
Polk has often pointed back to his time at Newell Brands to explain how much his approach to leadership has changed. There, big decisions moved through layers of staff before reaching the market. At Implus, Michael Polk can watch an idea move from concept to shelf in a matter of weeks, a pace he has said reminds him why he wanted to keep working in the first place rather than staying retired. Check out this page for more information.
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