SMOKESTACK VILLAGE INC.

CASE ANALYSIS

SMOKESTACK VILLAGE, INC. INTRODUCTION:

Smokestack Village was a tourist attraction for those fun lovers who wanted to enjoy excursion rides in the Continental divide in Central Colorado running on a 26 mile track through a valley in the Rockies. Founded under the supervision of Miles E. Smith and Thomson J. Bronston, the theme park housed a museum with over 40 steam locomotives on display and many other attractions of the railroad history.

Thomas J. Bronston had to look after the park because of the unexpected demise of Miles E. Smith, Bronston had to move into a small town, Grenoble, 45 miles from the park and had to handle the complete day to day responsibilities of the park. Bronston had his son Ned, engineer Sven Olson, Assistant Manager Jim Harris and other summer interns working in the Smokestack Village and handling their jobs and duties responsibly by cooperating with each other and helping each other complete their tasks efficiently. The workers were willing to work overtime as they enjoyed their work.

Bronston had been handling the Smokestack Village for over 5 years now and was willing to transfer his responsibilities to someone who could take the Village to a new heights and promote it across the country. Bronston found Karl Olson, son of Sven Olson, interested in handling the responsibilities and after asking all the employees he offered Karl the position of trustee in the company which Karl readily accepted. Karl was a successful man with few patents to his name and huge experience on his back to impress anyone and to take the company to a new height. Karl took the unsaid responsibility of Bronston and took an initiative to improve Smokestack. This created problem amongst the employees as Karl displayed immense control and displayed the power of the trustee that he held. Karl made the employees feel uncomfortable as earlier they were working in symphony and learning more of a job than what was in it and now Karl made all the employees stick to their specific duties and almost threatened the employees to work in the way that he wanted to by his expressions.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

The various problems that Bronston was facing as being a protagonist in the situation were:

Whether to appoint Karl Olson as the new General Manager and bring in the “New Blood” into the company and promote it on a large scale across the country?

Were the employees of the Smokestack happy with the way Karl Olson was working in the company and were the employees willing to work under the supervision of Karl?

Will Karl understand how to use the immense power that he held at the position of the General Manager and keep the employees happy and create their interest in the job?