At the top

H. James Dallas is VP for IT and CIO of Georgia Pacific

He's a strong proponent of a business focus for IT: "making sure our products and initiatives let us gain and keep competitive advantages"

H. James Dallas makes a motivational speech: "I look for people with fire..."

Information, product and money: "All three come together because technology is pervasive among them," says H. James Dallas, VP of information technology and CIO for Georgia Pacific Corp (Atlanta, GA).

"It's my job to see that the IT organization is aligned with the company's business goals, then make sure we are moving forth and achieving those goals," he says.

Georgia Pacific is one of the world's leading manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, packaging, building products and related chemicals. It employs more than 60,000 people at more than 400 facilities in North America and Europe.

IT is a business
To Dallas, IT is not a support function. It's another business area, contributing to the success of the company as a whole.

For example, IT helps the company's sales and supply chain management strategies respond to market changes.

The market for building products, Dallas notes, is becoming more consolidated as major retailers like Home Depot and Lowe's capture the consumer market, and national builders, like Centex Homes, move farther into the construction market.

IT, says Dallas, needs to anticipate such changes in time to take advantage of them - without getting dangerously far out in front.

Some areas of the company, he postulates, might benefit from a change to the Linux operating system because it can lower costs. That could be a significant advantage for the areas that compete in commodity markets.

But it's irrelevant for parts of the company that compete based on product differentiation: they need technologies that enhance differentiation. "Business needs someone to come in and figure out what the strategies should be and go out and execute them," Dallas says.

"...who just need to have it directed..."

Gaining that focus
Dallas acquired that business focus during almost twenty years with the company. He started in accounting, learning about the flow of money, and moved on to the flow of product and the flow of information. "It provides me with a good foundation to develop strategies and a feel for what it takes to execute them," he says.

Growing up in Atlanta, Dallas and his four sisters and brothers learned from their mother's example that hard work led to accomplishment. "She worked, and didn't let the conditions dictate what the outcome would be," he says.

As he grew - to 6'7" - basketball looked like a lucrative career. He went to the University of South Carolina on a basketball scholarship, majoring in accounting. "I expected to go pro, and I wanted to keep track of my money," he says with a chuckle.

But knee injuries ended that dream. Instead, he found himself a job as a janitor at a Pepperidge Farms bakery, working third shift and weekends while he finished college.

Learning from Ernie
Dallas learned his first lessons in business leadership from Ernie, his bakery boss.

Ernie impressed the janitors with the importance of clean machinery to the bakery's success. "I didn't think of myself as a janitor," Dallas says. "I thought of myself as someone who contributed to the business."

When he received his BS in 1983, he joined C&S National Bank (Atlanta, GA) as a branch auditor. The following year he moved to Georgia Pacific as a cost accountant in the gypsum division.

Transition to PCs
The company was making the transition to PCs. But Dallas, fresh from accounting, had trouble communicating with IT people who'd been there a while. He began to take courses in programming at Georgia State University. "I had a vision of being a financial systems guru," he says. "I wanted to know both the financial and IT sides."

He was the first accountant ever hired as a programmer in IT. Not long afterward he moved into data processing.

One of the areas he supported was transportation, whose mainframe technology and fragmented organization made it the last choice of all the IT folks. The people in transportation welcomed Dallas' positive attitude. "They taught me the business," he says.

"...I try to give them an opportunity."

Into transportation
Getting interested in transportation, he rode with company truck drivers and traveled with train shipments to learn the ropes. When he started, each business unit had its own transportation department. When a 1989 management study recommended that the fragmented transportation services be consolidated in one department, Dallas moved from IT into transportation operations.

The job gave him a great view of every business unit in the company. Georgia Pacific's building products division alone shipped over 400,000 truckloads annually.

Clearly, savvy IT was essential to manage the area and communicate with carriers. Electronic data interchange (EDI) technology was selected for strong connections to carriers and links to order processing throughout the company. And as Dallas managed the installation of new EDI links to each business unit, he learned even more about how the entire corporation operated.

Strategy and planning
Dallas moved up to general manager for transportation operations in 1992. He felt a bit out of his depth, but got help from his friends and mentors. "That taught me to depend on others. There have always been people willing to take me under their wing," he recalls with gratitude.

He also enrolled at Emory University (Atlanta, GA), and received his MBA in 1994.

That same year Carl Wilson came aboard as CIO, and asked Dallas to join the corporate IT group as director of strategy and planning. "Right off the bat, I saw in him that business focus for IT," says Dallas - and he took the job.

It was a lonely job at first. From heading an entire division, Dallas was now running a one-man operation. He had to work through persuasion and high-level strategy instead of just issuing instructions. "It drove me nuts the first six months," he says. "But it turned out to be the best experience in my career. I learned not only to develop strategies at an enterprise level, but also how to use the governance structures and processes to implement them."

Two years later he became group director of building products manufacturing. "That role gave me visibility across all the functions and business units in that area," he says proudly - including gypsum, where he started.

After two years of participating in ideas and plans, he added the distribution division to his IT responsibilities in 1998.

VP and above
Another year, another promotion. In 2000 Dallas became VP for building products distribution, sales and logistics for the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions. While he was there, the distribution function swelled from $1 billion to $2.5 billion. "That gave me real hands-on experience in physical goods operations," he says.

He wanted to add manufacturing flow to his expertise. "I thought I could add some value there," he says. He became president of the lumber division in 2001.

And last year he stepped up to the corporate CIO position.

Mentoring
Dallas values the mentors he had along the way. Most were a level or two above him, and were able to give him a different perspective. He's returning the favor in the workplace by seeking out others who could benefit from a little guidance. "I look for people with fire," he says, "who just need to have it directed. I try to give them an opportunity."

After hours, Dallas has been a United Way Big Brother and is active in Habitat for Humanity and Partnership against Domestic Violence. He serves on the board of Cool Girls.

National Eagle Leadership Institution, which recognizes African Americans and Hispanics for their business and community contributions, honored him with its CareerFocus Eagle Award in 2000. "That's an award I was very proud of," he reflects.

Secrets of success?
From his earliest career days, taking on jobs that lacked obvious advantages let Dallas show his talent and advance.

He was never afraid to make mistakes. "I've made many, but I don't dwell on them," he says. "You might say, I'm often wrong but seldom in doubt," he adds with a twinkle in his eye.

And he certainly never limited himself to doing things the way they had always been done. "I wasn't confined by the title or what was expected," he says. "I viewed myself as a businessman regardless of whether my card said IT or transportation, and tried to take the time to learn the business from the frontline perspective.

"You can't be great until you get comfortable with being different," says H. James Dallas. "To me, everybody has greatness in them."

Certainly including Mr. Dallas.

D/C

- Kate Colborn & Christine Willard