Essay A day in the life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products

A day in the life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products is a case study addressing Alexs characteristics as person through her everyday positions and actions. Working in a company for cosmetic products as product manager Alex had the opportunity and motivation not only to prove herself, but to show a great side of her temper as well. Analyzing her opinions and reactions, as well as the behavior other people, described in this case study, have towards her, we can come to some general conclusions about the person Alex is.

On the one hand, Alex is a young highly motivated woman who has contributed greatly to her company. After a short work experience as account executive, Alex accepts a job in Landon as a product manager which provided her with the needed creativity and motivation. In only one year Alex successfully rebrands two major products for the company and at the same time at age of 32 is one of the youngest product managers. It is easily to observe and conclude that Alex loves challenges and is sacrificing her personal life to a great extent for the company. She is the person who takes care of every single detail, as shown in the conversation with Garrison, because Alex is challenged by perfection but at the same time because her work has become her life. Even in her personal time and space, when at home and working out, the only thing that occupies her thoughts is her job and the situations she faces at that field. Same with her communication with other people, whoever she talks with- her boss, her colleagues, the reporter even her neighbor, the only topic she is interested in, is her work and every time she is talking there is noticeable passion. Partly that is why Alex is considered to be the star in the company-her devotion. Yet there is something that even her supervisors admit-Alex has a talent that intimidates and thats why they are very interested in keeping her in the company.

On the other hand Alex is not a team player. Her ambition and passion are so big that they have become an obstacle for delegating. The fact that she is good in what she does and the recognitions she has got automatically help her egoistical character show even more through the relations with other people. To her colleagues she is unhelpful and unkind but as well to her supervisor- she takes over peoples assignments underestimating them and not showing trust but as well refuses to accept anything that someone above her position has decided. Another issue is her high temper, though we cant be sure whats worse- her temper or the fact that she considers that as a constructive managerial tool. In the

Essay A day in the life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products

conversation with her neighbor she mentions confidently that even people seem to show lack of commitment her temper has proven to be a good solution to this problem. Despite the wrong values and high temper this also shows how bad leader Alex in fact is. The great individualists from experience always have issue with authorities and Alex is not exception, moreover she is even a classic example of it. Considering her input in the company as essential she shows to have little respect to her boss and to the new system he is trying to implement in the company. In several examples in the case study, in a conversation with her neighbor she clearly states she believes that the 360 system is useless and with her actions she silently boycotts it. It may seem that Alex is not supporting the system because she doesnt believe in it but whats behind that, I believe, is that Alex is not supporting the system because she is seeing it as a representation of forced power on her. This is threatening to her personality and her perception of how things should be, so she simply refuses to adopt and continues doing things her way. These actions of hers are the clear indicator that Alex could never work well in a team or with authorities-simply because she believes too much in herself and too little in everyone else.

Even thought we can get a glance of Alexs character I dont think anyone can be absolute in judging what kind of person she is or if she should stay in the company. People like Alex, I think, tend to be very independent and will rarely accept the culture and rules of the organization as their own, moreover they are trying to make things all the way around. Yet I dont believe that there is a company which would not try and motivate Alex to stay and commit to the organization as such, not only to the work assignments, simply because not every person is talented and ambitious to this point. There is always a chance that Alex would leave the company for a better offer but one great truth says that if you never try you will never know.