Entrepreneurial Organization or Family Firm? A Strategic Analysis of Gulf States Paper Corporation

century. Throughout the last one hundred and seventeen years, the leadership atGulf States Paper has emphasized ideals and values as the cornerstone of the business.Mildred Warner, the second President of the organization, felt that the company shouldalways strive to possess four virtues: patience, faith, vision, and determination. Eventhough Gulf States Paper has changed its strategic direction several times over the lastcentury, the company has still been able to achieve several of its main organizationalobjectives, namely financial security and family control of the business.Gulf States Paper has experienced slow but steady growth over its one hundredyears plus of operation. However, the company has experienced this growth without agreat deal of external strategic actions, such as mergers and alliances. Instead, thecompany has been very tightly held and managed. The firm’s growth strategy hasconsisted mainly of acquisitions and expansion, strategies such as the building of newmills, the purchasing and development of new equipment, the procurement of forestland,etc. Gulf States Paper has tended to be rather inward-looking as an organization, and inthe words of Jack Warner, “one hundred years after its founding, Gulf States Paper is stilla small, privately held corporation, not bound to Wall Street”(Fletcher, 1984: vii).In this paper, I will trace the historical and strategic development of Gulf StatesPaper Corporation since its founding in 1884. The game metaphor developed by Nasi etal (1998) will be used as the centerpiece for this analysis. An analysis of the company’s