Talk:Arthur D. Little

Translation

French and German pages are quite poor. Looks like more of the English material could be usefully translated.

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NPOV: Article an Example of Company Editing its Own Page

This page has clearly been edited and modified by current Arthur D. Little employees.

Cyoung makes an important point about the bankruptcy of ADL and its demise. While I wish the company that now calls itself (with reason, since it bought the name) ADL all success. The company founded by Dr. Little that established the reputation of ADL ceased to exist in 2002. The new ADL is not a continuation of that entity, but rather an entirely new enterprise.

Charles Koch is listed as an ADL alumnus who became a success in business. His web bio makes no mention of this connection and notes that he received his 2nd MS from MIT in 1960 and joined his father's firm, soon to become Koch Industries, in 1961. Charles La Mantia, President of ADL in the 1990s did work at one time for Koch Industries. Could their be some confusion here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hermanpeter (talk • contribs) 04:03, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Headline text

IT was RATS who bankrupted Arthur D Little The executives who could not get their money out of the private Memorial Drive Trust Schemed and scammed their way into bankruptcy while they all got multi million dollar bonuses for running it into the ground. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.90.35.146 (talk) 20:45, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Article has been updated to mention bankrupcy and current ownership by Altran.--Thuriaux (talk) 15:49, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

I am a former ADL employee who was in residence during the years of Lamantia. As was pointed out, Charles Lamantia was in charge from the 1980's into the early/mid 1990's. He's the person responsible for pushing the company into bankruptcy. While it's true he didn't do so all by himself, he was at the wheel and drove that ship to it's grave. Arrogant beyond reason and clearly lacking the ability to manage such a company, his policies drove ADL into the ground! By the time he lost the Directors chair ADL was beyond saving. How utterly sad.

I would also like to add that ADL was much more than a management consulting company (though the irony of bad management under Lamantia causing ADL to go bankrupt isn't lost on any former employee). Consulting in the sciences created ADL and was it's long term business. I don't know for sure but I believe the growth of the management consulting business section came about under Lamantia. Again, how ironic is that?

Many (but certainly not all) of the senior section managers at ADL were similar to Lamantia. While proficient in their field they were often arrogant beyond their ability to manage. Yet under Lamantia the place was run so badly that they were all made Vice Presidents of ABC section to impress clients. Ha ha ha, what a joke! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fjdk21 (talk • contribs) 21:24, 4 January 2020 (UTC)

Corporate Pages Cannot Function as Masked Advertisements

I'm afraid that this page still reads like an advertisement, and is not NPOV.

Thuriaux, a simple question: are you an employee of Arthur D. Little, Altran, or an affiliated company? If so, then you should play no role whatsoever in editing this page, and any content that you have added is a candidate for deletion.

This article should be far shorter. Comments about ADL being well-regarded, etc. are not encyclopedic. A simpler version would simply explain that ADL is a management consulting company, give a short description of its history, including its bankruptcy, and explain its current status. There is no need for anything more in the Wikipedia context. Cyoung66 (talk) 15:29, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

As there has been no reply to this comment over a sustained period, I will edit the page into something with a genuine NPOV, with a considerable shortening of the material. I'd be grateful if any other editors add a note specifically stating whether they are in any way affiliated with ADL or Altran.Cyoung66 (talk) 17:45, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

Someone edited my comment, and changed my words from an intention to make some edits to the statement that I had already made them. This is not true, and the actions of the person at 80.229.165.4 are inappropriate and unethical. Cyoung66 (talk) 12:09, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

I've updated the material in a more POV form. Would someone else please look through it and highlight the parts that are not acceptable? 80.229.165.4 (talk) 22:11, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

2010 update

The historical overview makes a useful addition to the site. Maybe we could get some of the old ADLers to add additional material here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thuriaux (talk • contribs) 20:32, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

To Hermanpeter

I'm afraid that what now call itself Arthur D. Little is in some way the same company that officially went bankrupt in 2002 (after all, chapter 11 has been conceived to ensure business continuity, isn't it?). In fact, I think that in the consulting business a company is fundamentally made of a brand/name (that is currently used by ADL), accumulated knowledge(ADL can leverage the knowledge acquired through hundreds of projects performed during the twentieth century), people (when ADL "ceased to exist", as you mentioned, many consultants continued to work for ADL with no difference but a new shareholder - Altran . Some of them is still active. They transferred to youngest people ADL culture, heritage and way of doing). I think that ADL is somehow smaller and more focused on strategic consulting than it actually was over the last century. Nevertheless, it remains the same company and its alumni should help it in succeeding in the marketplace. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.217.37.108 (talk) 16:35, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Booz & Company Contradiction

The page for Booz & Company says it is the oldest consulting company in the US, founded in 1914. ADL was founded in 1909. How is Booz & Company the oldest?

Deerekid1 (talk) 14:20, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Booz stopped making this claim following quite a lot of obvious pushback within the industry (and their reincarnation as Strategy&) .B A Thuriaux (talk) 08:02, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

References

Bhopal Disaster Report

I was surprised to see no mention of the ADL's Bhopal Disaster report here, so I added a brief paragraph with two citations. This was one of ADL's most controversial and most covered investigations. Mvblair (talk) 15:08, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Coverage of the Bhopal disaster report have been included, along with references to ADL's report which concluded that the most likely explanation was an act of sabotage.B A Thuriaux (talk) 22:20, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

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