(Copyright, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution -
2006)
They've loosened their shirt collars and made ties
the exception rather than the rule at Georgia-Pacific headquarters.
The executive dining room is used only for special
occasions. Indeed, Chairman A.D. "Pete" Correll was recently seen grabbing a
chicken biscuit from the Chick-fil-A station in the public employee
cafeteria.
"Koch doesn't believe in separation of employees and
executives," said G-P spokeswoman Sheila Weidman. "They go to the lunchroom just
like everybody else."
Those are among the visible changes at the downtown
headquarters of once buttoned-up Georgia-Pacific since Koch Industries bought
the company two months ago and began instilling its culture.
The changes go deeper as well.
Among the first was a literal changing of the guard.
More than a dozen top G-P execs left the company in the first few weeks after
the buyout. The company also dismantled its investor relations program, since
Koch is privately held and G-P stock disappeared.
Meanwhile, 17 Koch executives have relocated to
Atlanta, including Joe Moeller, the new chief executive of the G-P unit. Moeller
was formerly president of Wichita, Kan.-based Koch, which has wide-ranging
holdings ranging from pipelines to cattle ranches. He is said to have championed
the buyout of the Atlanta building products and paper goods giant.
Ex-Koch managers called New Capabilities Leaders,
installed at G- P in early January, are helping oversee change among the 55,000
employees. Already, hundreds of executives have taken two-day crash courses at a
Market Based Management academy at G-P headquarters.
It's designed to instill the Market Based Management
philosophy of Koch founder Charles Koch. MBM calls for all employees to think
like entrepreneurs and downplays traditional chains of command.
John Challenger, chief executive of outplacement firm
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said adapting to change in leadership and
culture can be challenging.
"It's going to be jarring at times," he said. "With
old-line companies in retrograde, the new organization can come in and enliven
and change things. But it comes with a lot of dubiousness over the new
regime."
Some of the superficial changes are intended to
buttress the Koch philosophy, including the business-casual dress code.
The new dress code suits Keith Bentley just fine.
"I have lots of suits hanging in my closet," said
Bentley, G-P's vice president of environmental affairs. "But I'm more a sport
coat kind of guy anyway."
An architect of the company's billion-dollar buyout,
Correll moved out of his executive penthouse suite on the 51st floor after
relinquishing the CEO title to Moeller.
Correll's much smaller digs take up a corner on a
lower floor that once housed investor relations, which is all but dismantled,
save one employee still filing bondholder and other necessary information with
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
G-P is no longer required to file its earnings now
that it's part of Koch, the nation's largest privately held company.
The company's compensation structure, too, is
changing. G-P is getting rid of its job grades, which define pay levels, Weidman
said.
The new structure is "complicated," she added, but
measures workers by their roles, responsibilities and expectations. She did not
elaborate.
Employees at Koch companies are rewarded like
entrepreneurs, and the company pays them a portion of the long-term value they
create, the company Web site says.
"G-P had a more traditional philosophy with different
job levels and grades," Weidman said. "The new philosophy doesn't support that.
Change is scary, but change is also good. It pushes people to step up to the
next level."
To communicate many of the changes following the
acquisition, G- P is sending workers "transition updates" from Moeller and other
executives.
G-P declined an interview request with Moeller but
provided a Q&A with him and one of the transition updates. In the update,
Moeller says he's having a regular series of lunches with employees from all
parts of the country.
He also talks about change and how he's not a big
believer in bureaucracy. Part of Koch's culture is free-thinking
entrepreneurialism. Among the new buzzwords at G-P are "creative
destruction."
In other words, workers are expected to challenge the
status quo.
"I'm a huge believer in empowering you to get things
done," he said in the employee message.
CAPTION: JOEY IVANSCO / Staff Hank Bauer, director of
supplier relations at Georgia-Pacific, displays the new casual attire under the
Koch umbrella during lunch in the G-P cafeteria. The executives eat in the same
cafeteria as the rest of the staff.
CAPTION: CEO Joe Moeller says his job has been like
"drinking from two fire hoses."
CAPTION: RICHARD DREW / Associated Press Former G-P
CEO A.D. "Pete" Correll has moved to a smaller office, where the investor
relations team used to be.
CAPTION: Q&A WITH JOE MOELLER, G-P'S NEW CEO Joe
Moeller is a Koch Industries veteran who became chief executive of Georgia-
Pacific after the buyout. He hasn't given interviews yet, but the company
provided this question-and-answer exchange about the transition: Q: What kind of
major transition challenges have you faced, and how does your work compare and
contrast to your work in Wichita? A: I have spent 39 years working in the
petroleum business and other Koch [industries]. Now I'm consumed with learning
the paper, tissue and forest products businesses. I'm working to understand our
markets, our customers, our challenges and our opportunities. It's not like
drinking from a fire hose; it's like drinking from two fire hoses
simultaneously. So my focus is learning about our businesses, meeting with our
customers, visiting our operations and meeting with employees. On a personal
note, now that I've been in Atlanta for a couple months, I can tell you that I
miss my 10-minute commute in Wichita. As I understand it, that's an
impossibility here. Q: How can Market Based Management help advance G-P's
success? A: With strong-capability leaders who have joined G-P, we will develop
and leverage what we believe are the core capabilities of Koch companies and
build a culture of principled entrepreneurship. MBM will help us to attract,
develop and reward superior performers. I'm going to work very hard to unleash
the entrepreneurial spirit and unique knowledge and skills of every single
employee. The employees who I've talked to are excited about these opportunities
and their ability to learn and grow as part of an even stronger G-P. Our new
private status will help us ensure we remain firmly focused on long-term success
and enable us to respond quickly to create superior value for our customers. Q:
G-P has a strong reputation in downtown Atlanta as a first-class corporate
citizen. How will the company now interact with the greater Atlanta community?
A: The company and I will absolutely remain good corporate citizens. We will
remain committed to all of the communities where we operate. I already have
enjoyed meeting some of the key Atlanta community leaders. And this week, Mary
and I are closing on our house. We look forward to being a part of the Atlanta
community, as do all of the leaders who have joined G-P from Wichita. Q:
Industry analysts think the company consumer products business will be spun off
by Koch. Are any such discussions under way? A: There are a lot of opportunities
in this industry ... G-P has always had a practice of continually reviewing
assets for strategic fit. That practice will continue. We will evaluate all
businesses, understand their position in the market and develop a long-term
point of view. ... In some cases, we could sell certain assets, and in other
cases we could be a consolidator.
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