The spirit of entrepreneurship that was instilled at Georgia-Pacific Corporation only resulted in positive gains for the company. By making each and every employee accountable for the overall company performance, then new CEO Joe Moeller was empowering the people towards a win-win situation for the organization. His then new organizational leadership, with emphasis on the empowered capability of the employees, eventually and most definitely resulted in high company morale, teamwork and cooperation, and the fulfillment of the ultimate company goal of superior performance. The CEO as leader imbued the company with individual trust that translated to employee confidence. By making the people his co-equals, as well as co-entrepreneurs, he created one solid team of equally producing individuals. His leadership philosophy created an empowered human resource pool.
At then new Georgia-Pacific, there was no demarcation between employees and executives. The company cafeteria, for example, was equally available for everybody. The old stiff corporate dressing gave way to a business-casual dress code. The company’s compensation system was changed, doing away with the old structure of pay level equals job grade. The company culture shifted to entrepreneurial, eliminating the traditional chains of command. The general atmosphere became more relaxed.
Under the leadership of CEO Joe Moeller the old investor relations program was dismantled. The revised company culture necessitated all employees to think like entrepreneurs. There was now a lot of sense of accountability. Individual responsibility was the new order of the day. The role of the individual as contributory to the success of the company was greatly put in the spotlight. In return, Georgia-Pacific employees were rewarded or compensated like entrepreneurs. The company paid them a commensurate portion of the long term value that they individually brought to the company.
Moeller made himself accessible, to say the least. He had regular lunches with employees. This was because Moeller does not support the notion of bureaucracy. He made himself a co-equal with the rest of his people. Moeller’s empowerment style made him more of a partner. At Georgia-Pacific, therefore, he had 55,000 business partners.
