One of the quieter debates in management circles concerns where leaders actually develop best. Large public companies offer resources, programs, and the prestige of operating at scale. Smaller private companies offer something harder to quantify but, according to Michael Polk Newell Brands, ultimately more valuable: the chance to learn by doing, at every level of the organization.
A Different Kind of Management School
Polk brings credibility to this argument. He served in senior roles at Kraft Foods and Unilever and led Newell Brands as CEO for years, growing its enterprise value from $5 billion to over $15 billion. When he joined Implus LLC in 2020, he entered a very different environment, one defined by leaner structures and more direct engagement.
The contrast was immediately instructive. At large public corporations, Polk observed, employees within functional lanes rarely get full visibility into how other parts of the business operate. Private companies, constrained by resources and the absence of management layers, solve that problem involuntarily. Everyone has to understand more because there is no one else to handle it.
Michael Polk on the Player-Coach Model
For senior leaders, this dynamic creates a specific kind of obligation. Polk describes it as being a “player-coach,” someone who not only sets direction but participates in the work directly. At Implus LLC, that meant engaging in brand and business development work alongside his team rather than processing decisions through organizational layers.
“I am right there with them in the crucible, helping them make the choices that are going to drive our business forward,” Michael Polk explains. This is not incidental to the private company model, he argues; it is central to why it works. When senior leaders remain connected to the substance of the business, decision quality improves, risk gets managed more carefully, and junior employees gain access to guidance that formal mentorship programs often fail to deliver. Polk has carried that philosophy through his tenure at Implus and sees it as a defining feature of the company’s continued growth. Visit this page on LinkedIn, for more information.
Find more information about Michael Polk on https://www.businessmole.com/former-newell-brands-ceo-michael-polk-how-a-strategic-corporate-move-reshaped-newell-brands/