by pnolette
gokeefe wrote:MEC407 wrote:And what does Mr. Mellon think of all this, seeing as how it's ultimately his railroad? Surely if he wasn't happy with Senior's way of doing things, he wouldn't have kept Senior in charge for the past 30 years.The only thing that makes any sense to me is that Mr. Mellon was somehow either a) more interested in the airline opportunities or b) was genuinely disinterested in the railroad and let Mr. Fink, Sr., do more or less as he pleased as long as he wasn't losing money.
Here's another possible perspective to try and understand how the ownership structure works. Let's look at Pan Am's recent foray into network TV. That kind of project is in my mind something that Mr. Mellon is directly involved in. There is a strong emphasis on protecting the historical legacy of the brand and also a nostalgic element that romanticizes jet travel on Pan Am in the 1960s (not that that's all that hard to do, but it may be hard to do right). Notice also in the press releases the high level of tension in descriptions regarding protecting the integrity of the brand and the steps which were apparently taken to do so. Notice also the lack of any direct presence or influence by Mr. Fink, Jr. in the show. Where is the leadership? Easy enough its Mr. Mellon, he's just not out in front of the cameras.
This TV show in my mind is not something that's being negotiated by a railroad executive. It's a special project of Mr. Mellon's. He's done well with the brand and in essence runs the "real" Pan Am side of the company (brands, marketing, anything to do with the airline) almost personally. The railroad might be better described as the Mr. Fink Central R.R. (perhaps in the same way that the NYC was essentially Vanderbilt Rail Co. early on). The reason for the branding was that the Mr. Mellon maintains majority ownership and is the capital behind the company. Mr's. Fink, Sr. and Fink, Jr. are the executives (and partial owners).
So the broader point is Mr. Mellon didn't really care about the details as long as the bottom line showed a profit, which may at times have been used to subsidize his airline operations. To a certain extent this begs the question, "Why did GTI/GRS change over to PAR?". I think this was a symbolic corporate consolidation that eliminated a weak brand in favor of a stronger brand that had an established iconic image. Mr. Mellon decided that he was committed to "Pan Am" not just as an airline but as an idea which meant that having a competing image "Guilford" (as in Guilford, CT, his home town) was actually hurting his efforts.
So in short PAR was created to a) ensure the railroad didn't have a competing image with other Pan Am brand efforts b) to have corporate unity across all corporate operations and c) to allow PAR to strengthen the Pan Am brand by being or becoming a more successful railroad.
This last element may have been the most important. Mr. Mellon may have decided that he didn't just want consistent income, which Mr. Fink, Sr., very likely produced. He wanted consistent growth and success. This required spending money, investing capital and taking risks with a project scope which by that time may or may not have been beyond Mr. Fink, Sr.'s capacities.
Well said Sir!
Peter B&MMEC
