Talk:Lou D'Ambrosio

Requested move 27 March 2023

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) ■ ∃ Madeline ⇔ ∃ Part of me ; 19:48, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

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Louis D'Ambrosio → Lou D'Ambrosio – D'Ambrosio is more commonly referred to as Lou rather than Louis, both colloquially and in the press, as seen in [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]. AB for LouDA (talk) 13:58, 27 March 2023 (UTC) — Relisting. {{ping|ClydeFranklin}} (t/c) 17:24, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

A Google search for "Lou D'Ambrosio" "Sears" produced 10,200 hits; a search for "Louis D'Ambrosio" "Sears" produced 186,000. Of course a Google search is far from being a totally reliable test of frequency of use, but a ratio of more than 18:1 in favour of "Louis" encourages me to think that in order to justify a move we need more reliable evidence than a set of 6 examples chosen by someone paid to request the move. Those examples prove that D'Ambrosio is sometimes referred to in the press as "Lou": they don't prove that he is "more commonly" referred to as Lou. JBW (talk) 18:46, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

JBW Appreciate your attention here. Interesting. I hadn't originally thought to check overall search results. I wonder if some of those "Louis" results are public filings or documents which list his full legal name, which, of course, is Louis, but wouldn't necessarily indicate that that is how he is commonly known. My understanding is that the quality of sources used on Wikipedia is a big factor for determining content, and the examples I brought were aimed at some of the more prominent publications, as opposed to quantity of sources. I'm not sure that this qualifies as reliable evidence, but the following search results show that he is more often referred to as Lou in highly regarded third-party sources:

• Wall Street Journal: Lou (17), Louis (7)
• LA Times: Lou (7), Louis (5)
• Washington Post: Lou (2), Louis (0)
• Bloomberg News: Lou (23), Louis (3)
• Reuters: Lou (27), Louis (16)
• New York Times: Lou (6), Louis (3)

Thanks again for your time. I leave this now in the hands of the community to decide. AB for LouDA (talk) 18:34, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

I understand what you say, and the figures you have now given are likely to be a better indication than overall Google hit statistics. JBW (talk) 16:43, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Updates to content and sourcing

Hi, I work for Lou D'Ambrosio and am hoping to help update the content and sourcing of this article. Because of my COI, I will be engaging the assistance of the larger Wikipedia community here on the Talk page.

I'd like to suggest adding some additional information to Career:

• Regarding his roles at IBM, add the following after the first sentence of the first paragraph:

He was a member of the worldwide management committee and also led a vertical business unit in Asia Pacific.

• Expand on his work at Avaya in the second paragraph as follows (suggested updates are bolded):

In July 2006, he became president and chief executive officer at Avaya, and he led the company as it went private. He had been president, global sales and marketing at Avaya (using [ current reference 5]) and prior to that had been a senior vice president for services in charge of Avaya's $2 billion global services business unit, including network consulting, integration, maintenance and managed services.

I noticed that many of the existing sources are weak, and looked into alternatives to strengthen the article. Here are a few that I've found. If additional references are needed, I'm happy to continue my research.

Six months as Sears board consultant and 16 years at IBM:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sears-idUSTRE71N1SM20110224

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/business/at-sears-the-price-of-excessive-confidence.html

CEO of Sears, CEO of Avaya:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703842004576163100659291630

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/business/24retail.html

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303717304577275632246292326

References

I am more than happy to discuss any of these points, and appreciate the community's feedback and assistance. Thank you, AB for LouDA (talk) 10:58, 22 May 2023 (UTC)

I've added the sources I could, namely the economic times and reuters, most of them didn't talk about anything new other than the specific situations in IBM and Avaya but I've added them regardless. I do not have a bloomberg, NYT or WSJ subscription, so I can't help out any further. Scu ba (talk) 13:54, 11 June 2023 (UTC)::Scu ba, thank you very much for your work on this.

I want to address two points please regarding your updates based on The Economic Times article:

• The article was written soon after Lou's appointment as Avaya's CEO and is therefore mostly speculative. It doesn't assert that Lou "undid" the prior CEO's focus on expanding the European markets, but rather notes the assumptions of market analysts. Would you therefore consider removing the European part of the sentence to avoid inaccuracy?
• Lou actually worked for one out of multiple vertical business units in Asia Pacific, so it would be more accurate to change that sentence to read: "He led a vertical business unit...", to better reflect the source and avoid misrepresentation of his role.

Also, Regarding the paywalled publications, would it be helpful if I pasted the relevant quotes from the sources here?

Thanks again, AB for LouDA (talk) 14:35, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

That would be a great help! thanks, ill take a look at the other stuff either later tonight or tomorrow. Scu ba (talk) 00:02, 27 June 2023 (UTC)

Hi Scu ba, I am pasting direct quotes from the paywalled articles referred to above.

To support the suggested updates in the second bullet point relating to Avaya:

• "Sears noted that Mr. D'Ambrosio had led Avaya as the company went private, 'delivering attractive returns to its shareholders.'" WSJ

• "D’Ambrosio joined Avaya as a vice president for services in 2002 after spending 16 years at International Business Machines Corp." Bloomberg

To strengthen the article by adding strong sources:

To support the first sentence of the lead:

• "Lou D'Ambrosio, the chief executive of Sears Holdings Corp., walks through a Sears store in the Chicago suburbs pointing out the new strategies..." WSJ

To support the first sentence in the second paragraph of Career, in addition to reference 7:

• "The current chief executive, Lou D’Ambrosio, had a long career at I.B.M. and ran Avaya, a technology company that went private during his tenure. NY Times

To replace source 8:

• "Sears Holdings Corporation named a new chief executive on Wednesday, ending a three-year search. The company, which runs Sears and Kmart, said its board had elected Lou D’Ambrosio as its new chief executive and president...For the last six months, Mr. D’Ambrosio has been working as a consultant to Sears’ board." NY Times

Thanks again for your time and assistance, and I appreciate your looking into my two points above regarding the updates you made to the article. AB for LouDA (talk) 17:24, 29 June 2023 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay, I had a busy week, ill start editing this now. Scu ba (talk) 15:50, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

Reply 1-JUL-2023

  Unable to review  

• Your edit request could not be reviewed because the provided references are not formatted correctly. The citation style predominantly used by the Lou D'Ambrosio article is Citation Style 1 (CS1). The citation style used in the edit request consists of bare URL's. Any requested edit of yours which may be implemented will need to resemble the current style already in use in the article – in this case, CS1. (See WP:CITEVAR.) In the extended section below titled Citation style, I have illustrated two examples: one showing how the edit request was submitted, and another showing how requests should be submitted in the future:

Citation style

Bare URL reference formatting: The Sun's diameter is 864,337 miles, while the Moon's diameter is 2,159 miles. The Sun's temperature is 5,778 Kelvin. References 1. https://www.booksource.com 2. http://www.journalsource.com 3. http://www.websource.com In the example above there are three URL's provided with the claim statements, but these URL's have not been placed using Citation Style 1, which is the style predominantly used by the Lou D'Ambrosio article. Using this style, the WikiFormatted text should resemble the following: Citation Style 1 formatting: The Sun's diameter is 864,337 miles,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sjöblad|first1=Tristan|title=The Sun|url=http://www.booksource.com|publisher=Academic Press|date=2020|page=1}}</ref> while the Moon's diameter is 2,159 miles.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Harinath|first1=Prisha|title=Size of the Moon|journal=Science|issue=78|volume=51|url=http://www.journalsource.com|date=2020|page=46}}</ref> The Sun's temperature is 5,778 Kelvin.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Uemura|first1=Shu|title=The Sun's Heat|url=http://www.websource.com|publisher=Academic Press|date=2020|page=2}}</ref> Which displays as: The Sun's diameter is 864,337 miles, while the Moon's diameter is 2,159 miles. The Sun's temperature is 5,778 Kelvin. References In the example above the references have been formatted according to Citation Style 1, which shows the author, the source's name, date, etc., all information which is lost when only the links are provided. As Wikipedia is a volunteer project, edit requests such as yours are generally expected to have this formatting done before the request is submitted for review.

Kindly resubmit the edit request below at your earliest convenience, taking care to ensure that it makes use of CS1. If you have any questions about this formatting please don't hesitate to ask myself or another editor. Regards,  Spintendo  20:41, 1 July 2023 (UTC)

Notes

References

Updates for Early life and Education, Career, and Other

Hi, I'd like to suggest adding the following to the article:

• Update the Early life and education section to include the year he earned his degree, as follows:

D'Ambrosio earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University (summa cum laude and Valedictorian) in 1986 and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

• In Career:

-Update the last sentence of the third paragraph to read:

On January 7, 2013, it was announced that he would step down at the end of its fiscal year on February 2, 2013 due to family health matters.

-Add to the last paragraph:

After serving as executive chairman of Sensus, D'Ambrosio was a senior advisor at Goldman Sachs. He later became a partner at the firm and leads its Value Accelerator.

• In Other, add the following:

D'Ambrosio presented at the World Economic Forum and served on panel discussions.

D'Ambrosio was one of the executive producers of Mandy Gonzalez's debut album Fearless.

References

I welcome your feedback and assistance in implementing these edits. Thank you, AB for LouDA (talk) 12:45, 13 July 2023 (UTC)

 Done Xan747 (talk) 20:51, 13 July 2023 (UTC)

Update to Lead and Career

Hi, I have a couple suggested improvements for the article:

• Update the lead to better reflect the content of the current article, as follows:

Louis J. D'Ambrosio is an American business executive and a partner at Goldman Sachs. He is the former CEO of Sears Holding Corporation and Avaya, and he also served as executive chairman of Sensus. D'Ambrosio also worked at IBM for 16 years and served on its worldwide management committee.

• Regarding the sentence in the second paragraph of Career, "His work turned Avaya into one of the leading companies in the IP Telephony market, undoing the prior CEO's focus on expanding the European market in favor of the domestic American market":

The Economic Times article (current reference 7) was written soon after Lou's appointment as Avaya's CEO and is therefore mostly speculative. It doesn't assert that Lou "undid" the prior CEO's focus on expanding the European markets; market analysts shared their assumptions about the company's intentions in making Lou CEO, and the sentence in Lou's Wikipedia article is an interpretation of those speculations. As such, please consider removing the second half of the sentence, "undoing the prior CEO's focus on expanding the European market in favor of the domestic American market", as it is inaccurate and not supported by the source.

Xan747 Thank you very much for your assistance on my previous request. Would you be able to review these new suggestions as well? Appreciate it. AB for LouDA (talk) 11:57, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

 Done: as requested. I don't mind that you pinged me for this edit, but I cannot guarantee I'll always be available to handle your requests. In any case, you should always use the edit COI request template to make it clear that a COI editor is asking for the change. I went ahead and added the template for you.

Separately, I am concerned that this article contains too many descriptors that are promotional in nature. The section Puffery in the Manual of Style contains some examples of what I'm talking about. A good example in current state of the article is in the Career section you asked me to edit: His work turned Avaya into one of the leading companies in the IP Telephony market. His leadership also saw Avaya transition from selling hardware to selling software as the company continued to grow in value.[7] Additonally, during his tenure as CEO, he took Avaya private, delivering attractive returns to its shareholders. My emphasis to highlight the problematic text.

It would please me if you could spend some time reviewing the article and finding a more neutral way to convey the same information. Definitely ping me for making those sorts of mods. Best, Xan747 (talk) 16:54, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

Thank you Xan747 for your assistance in implementing the requested edits. I appreciate your flagging the promotional phrasing in the article. I was not involved in adding that content but will have a look and try to come back with some suggestions to neutralize the tone. All the best. AB for LouDA (talk) 15:25, 26 July 2023 (UTC)