Talk:Doug McMillon

Birthplace?

I reverted in this edit a change by "Walmart Newsroom" which said he was born in Memphis. Walmart's own referenced site says he's originally from Jonesboro. While it's possible he was born across the river in Memphis, there is no reference for that.Americasroof (talk) 04:27, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Request to add photo

Hello Wikipedians! Since this article doesn't contain a photo of Doug McMillon, I suggest we add one. I've uploaded a photo with the filename Doug_McMillon_Profile_Photo.png to Wikimedia Commons. As one of Walmart's representatives on Wikipedia, I have a financial conflict of interest and will not make changes to the article myself. Is there anyone who could add the photo to this article? I'm happy to answer any questions on this. Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 22:07, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

No problem! Thanks for your image donation. Altamel (talk) 18:23, 13 February 2016 (UTC)

Hello, Altamel. Thanks for adding this image to the entry—and for doing it so quickly! Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 20:39, 17 February 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

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Request updates to article

Hello Wikipedians! I posted a new draft of this article in my user space to update, fix inaccuracies, better organize and add citations. My draft maintains most of what already appears in the live article, but it presents the information in a more organized, encyclopedic manner.

There are a few things in the current article that I deleted in my draft. They are:

• That Sam's Club sales under McMillon's leadership exceeded $46 billion annually. This is because the current article cites a Walmart website.
• Under Walmart International, my draft deletes the mention that the division's revenues grew by more than $50 billion and added nearly 3,000 stores. I eliminated this, too, because it relies on a primary source; in this case, a Sam's Club press release.
• I also deleted the mentions to speeches Mr. McMillion has given over the years from what sits currently in the article's Memberships and associations section. Also, I eliminated the phrase that says "McMillon was reported to have been a friend of the Walton family". I'm not sure that's relevant here.

Here's what else you'll see in my draft. My draft separates this article into three main areas: Early life, Career, and Personal life. Career is then broken down to Early career, Sam's Club, Walmart International, CEO of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and Other roles. The current article only mentions that Mr. McMillon is Walmart's CEO. And in my draft, Mr. McMillon's comments on social issues have been incorporated into the Career section as they relate to his leadership at Walmart.

My draft doubles the number of citations used to verify information and corrects several inaccuracies. For instance, Mr. McMillon was born in Memphis, Tennessee, not Jonesboro, Arkansas, as the article states. I can outline additional changes if there are any questions.

As you might have seen above, I am one of Walmart's representatives on Wikipedia. Because I have a financial conflict of interest I will not make changes to the article myself. Is there anyone who could review my draft and incorporate the changes? I'm happy to answer any questions on this. JLD at Walmart (talk) 12:49, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

• It would be much better if you proposed each change separately, rather than trying to replace the entire article. Unlike you, we are not being paid to edit here. Edwardx (talk) 15:03, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Hello Edwardx. I proposed a full article rewrite because my draft would require reorganizing the structure a bit with different section headings. I thought it would be easier for reviewing editors to see everything at once, so they know exactly what I'm proposing in entirety. However, I'm happy to do this section-by-section if that's what you prefer. I think we could start by adding a section that deals with Mr. McMillon's work as CEO. The article as it is mentions that he is CEO, but offers little else. What do you think? Should I move forward and post an edit request for that section specifically? Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 18:47, 18 March 2016 (UTC)

Hi, JLD at Walmart and Edwardx. I carefully compared the revised version to the existing one, made the merge, and smoothed in a change that had been made today while JLD at Walmart was working in the sandbox. Other than that, there were four vandal edits, and one edit reverting the four vandal edits, plus Cyberbot II came in to archive a dead reference which is moot. If this merge had edits on JLD's sandbox page or too many edits were made on the McMillon page, I would not have done it for so many reasons. JLD: You're very lucky this is a low volume page and really only had one significant edit in two weeks and that in two weeks nobody edited in your sandbox. Everything on Wikipedia has to have an attribution trail for copyright purposes. We all maintain the copyright for what we create, but we license it out to be freely used if we are properly attributed. Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 06:53, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Hello Checkingfax. Thank you again for all the work you've put into these articles and for moving the Doug McMillon draft live.

Before I close out this request, I want to bring to your attention the following edit that was posted by an anonymous editor. The claim is not backed up by the source, and it uses weasel words when referring to the "many" who question. While the referenced article might critique companies who take on certain social issues, and names Walmart and Doug McMillon in doing so, the article does not support that "[m]any question whether McMillon holds hostility towards the Christian church and towards Wal-Mart's conservative customers". Can this be removed?

As to your note: I understand it's important for article text to have proper attribution and to keep an article's edit history intact. However, I'm a little confused what issues you had with the way I put together the Doug McMillon draft in my user space. Can you offer me some tips for the future? I want to work with the Wikipedia community and I want to do it right. So how might I do it differently next time as to avoid any problems? Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 19:26, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Hi, JLD at Walmart. You worked in your sandbox in your user namespace. There is another namespace called draft namespace.

There is no perfect way to edit via proxy.

Also, the sandbox is intended more for experimentation or for new articles where you do not wish to start them as draft articles in the draft namespace. The user namespace usually attracts less attention if that is what you seek. The draft namespace invites more collaboration. But you are not writing an article from scratch. You can also tag your sandbox work with a {{NOINDEX}} template if you do not wish your sandbox to be indexed by search engines. Nothing like having somebody stumble in and start shredding your work. Plus, you then have to be more careful about the copyright attribution.

Wikipedia articles suffer from being stitched together and being refined in snippets, but that is the process. There is no good way to do a rewrite, but you picked a low-volume article so it worked out pretty good. I would not suggest trying it on the Walmart article as it is too active for you to go off and do a big rewrite in your sandbox.

Edwardx has about the best solution for big changes: Do them in sections. Maybe restructure the section heading layout first, then edit the contents of each section one-by-one, seeking input on the talk page. If nobody chimes in, then put in an edit request for somebody to insert your section edit. As long as your edit requests are not vandalism, POV, or BLP violations your text should be inserted intact. If there are small issues, then an editor can take them on themselves like I did on Doug McMillon. I boldly fixed some things I felt like fixing. You are free to review what I did and suggest changes.

I did not want to banish the edit made by the other editor so I merged it back in. Now, we can work on it. "Many question" is a weasel phrase.

If you review the Diffs of my edits you will see I put some of your deletions back into the article. If you have questions about the why let me know.

Please make a formal edit request, in a new section, to revise the objectionable content that was inserted. You might ask editor Changedforbetter about how to manage big rewrites successfully. Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 20:14, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Hi JLD at Walmart. I got this on my talk page but I want to let you solve it so you can learn one disambiguation process. I used to be confused by this bot's terminology and suggested process. In the message there is a fix with Dab solver link. Just click on that link and scroll down the page until you find red links. Double click on a red link and it will give you several choices so you can disambiguate the link and point it at your desired target article. Pick one, and save your changes when you have disambiguated all the links needing disambiguation.

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Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 21:00, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Request to reconsider questionable material

Hello, Wikipedians! As I mentioned in the discussion above, I want to bring to people's attention the following edit that was posted by an anonymous editor. The sentence contains a weasel phrase and is not backed up by the source referenced. While critical of Walmart and other companies, the cited article does not support that "[m]any question whether McMillon holds hostility towards the Christian church and towards Wal-Mart's conservative customers". Can this be removed? As I have mentioned on this page, I have a financial conflict of interest because I am a Walmart employee, so I am asking volunteer editors on this Talk page to consider making any edits. Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 13:38, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Hi, JLD at Walmart. An IP editor removed it without any consensus. Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 01:36, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Hello Checkingfax. I just saw! Thanks for the heads up. I'm glad an editor saw that that paragraph did not belong in the article. And I hope that in the future, such potential controversial additions by other editors can always be discussed on the Talk page. Thanks for suggesting I create a separate request to handle this. Best, JLD at Walmart (talk) 13:26, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

Request re: political affiliation

Hello, Wikipedians! Another thing I wanted to bring to editors' attention. Earlier this month, an IP address editor edited the infobox to say that Mr. McMillon is politically affiliated with the Democratic Party. The IP editor also added two categories (Category:Arkansas Democrats and Category:Tennessee Democrats) at the bottom of the page. This information is unsourced. Per WP:VERIFY, this material should be removed. The policy reads: "All material in Wikipedia mainspace, including everything in articles, lists and captions, must be verifiable. All quotations, and any material whose verifiability has been challenged or is likely to be challenged, must include an inline citation that directly supports the material. Any material that needs a source but does not have one may be removed."

I am one of Walmart's representatives on Wikipedia so I won't edit this article and am asking editors for help here. I am happy to answer any questions. Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 13:39, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

To update this request: An editor removed the unsourced political party affiliation from the infobox on April 26. However, the two categories (Category:Arkansas Democrats and Category:Tennessee Democrats) at the bottom of the page remain. Can someone remove those as there is no evidence supporting such claims? Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 21:15, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

 Done —  crh ₂₃  (Talk) 17:06, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Overly long with too much detail

Hi, I've tagged this article as "written like an autobiography" because it introduces too much detail that has nothing to do with the reason Doug is notable. He is notable because he is the CEO of Wal-Mart. Everything else could easily be discarded or summarised. This page should not read like Doug's CV or autobiography. -- HighKing⁺⁺ 14:07, 13 August 2016 (UTC)

Hi HighKing, I would like to provide some background here. In March 2016, I prepared a draft of the Doug McMillon article through my work as Walmart's representative on Wikipedia. Because of my financial conflict of interest I posted an edit request on March 17, 2016 (see above), where there was discussion. My draft was merged into the live article by Checkingfax on April 1. Are there any areas in particular that you believe are too detailed? Prior to my involvement on Wikipedia, this page contained errors, lacked a photo of Mr. Millon, and, while it mentioned that he was CEO of Walmart, there was almost no detail about his work in that post. It also included what I thought was excessive detail, such as speeches he has given.

I would love to hear from others, too. Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 21:22, 17 August 2016 (UTC)

Hi JLD, yes I looked at the history of the article before tagging. The best way to think about BLP articles it to think in reverse - what is main claim to notability of the subject and make sure that it is adequately covered in the article. In this case, I can only discern that Doug is notable because he is the CEO of Wal-Mart. If there is another reason for notability, it is not evident in the article or the provided references. Most of the content in this article relating to his career is not notable and should be summarised into one or two sentences along the lines of "Doug started working in Wal-Mart as a teenager and joined as an assistant manager in 1990". The article implies that Doug has an MBA but the reference states he "enrolled" and not that he acquired one. The section entitled "CEO of Wal-Mart Store" is really about things that Wal-Mart has done and not Doug. It is a little disingenuous to credit Doug with Wal-Mart actions like this and that section should also be edited. -- HighKing⁺⁺ 12:39, 18 August 2016 (UTC)

Hi, HighKing.

This article is an autobiography or has been extensively edited by the subject or by someone connected to the subject.

1. McMillon did not write this article, nor did his staff.
2. It is a BLP, not an autobiography.

Please be specific with your constructive criticisms.

Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 09:11, 18 August 2016 (UTC)

Hi Checkingfax, please get the facts correct - I did not state that Doug wrote the article. Nor did I state that is was an autobiography. I've posted my reasoning above - please read it a little more carefully next time. -- HighKing⁺⁺ 12:23, 18 August 2016 (UTC)

Hi HighKing and Checkingfax. I agree that this article falls under Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons, not autobiography, as the article was tagged. If HighKing has specific examples of areas that appear too detailed, I'm all for taking a look at them. My understanding is that the notability guidelines are for whether a person or topic qualifies for a Wikipedia article, whereas the content of an article is governed by other policies. WP:NOTE says "These guidelines only outline how suitable a topic is for its own article or list. They do not limit the content of an article or list. For Wikipedia's policies regarding content, see Neutral point of view, Verifiability, No original research, What Wikipedia is not, and Biographies of living persons". I believe this article is made of neutral content verified by independent, third-party sources, without original research. Also, the USA Today story cited in the following sentence says that Mr. McMillon earned his MBA in 1991: After completing his MBA in 1991, McMillon moved to Walmart's Bentonville headquarters to join the buyer-training program.

I want to work with the Wikipedia community to make this article as good as it can be. If there are specific issues with the content, let's discuss them and make it better. Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 20:22, 19 August 2016 (UTC)

Hi again HighKing and Checkingfax. I wanted to check in to see if there are any specific areas we should address so we can work to remove the "autobiography" tag on the article. As I said above: If there are specific issues with the content, let's discuss them and make it better. Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 15:55, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

Hi JLD, following on from my previous comments. First off, there's far too much irrelevant detail. The first question is to figure out why McMillon is notable - and this is because he is the CEO of Walmart. His education is relevant, but the "Early Career" section is just too long. It is not relevant that he joined the buyer-training program or that he was in charge of buying fishing tackle. In my view, the "Career" section would be fine with a sub-section detailing his education and a final section dealing with Walmart with most of the emphasis on being CEO. It is also not relevant to note the achievements or performance of Walmart - there's a Walmart article for that. The brevity of the "Personal life" section should be taken as a template for the other sections. -- HighKing⁺⁺ 13:42, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

@HighKing: I'm a bit confused. You did say "This article is an autobiography or has been extensively edited by the subject or by someone connected to the subject." That's the text of the tag you added to the article. Now you've said "I did not state that Doug wrote the article. Nor did I state that is was an autobiography." So you're saying that it's been extensively edited by the subject or by someone connected to the subject? Which editor exactly? Are you sure you have the right tag? Kendall-K1 (talk) 01:55, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

Although user:Checkingfax applied the recent edits containing the superfluous detail, the draft was actually prepared by an employee of Walmart (see above). The original tag was correctly applied; nevertheless, I've changed the tag. -- HighKing⁺⁺ 13:32, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

Hi to everyone who has taken time to look into this recently, specifically HighKing, Checkingfax, Kendall-K1 and Lemongirl942. Since some of you find that this article contains excessive detail, I have created a new draft of what is currently the Early life and Career sections. You can see this in my user space. I have replaced those existing sections with Early life and education and Career, although this version of Career deletes much of the detail about Mr. McMillon's early career and focuses on his work as CEO. I have also added sentences and citations with response to some of Mr. McMillon's initiatives, such as criticism to when Walmart increased employee wages and stopped selling Confederate battle flag merchandise. Additionally, there is a new sentence that says the National Shooting Sports Foundation said demand was strong for the types of weapons Walmart was dropping from its inventory. To make this easier for review, this diff[1] shows how my current draft differs from what's on the Doug McMillon page now. I hope this allays some concerns editors have had with the amount of detail in the article. Is there anyone who can review? Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 18:39, 29 September 2016 (UTC)

Hi JLD, I edited the version in your Userspace. I removed the parts about the confederate flags merchandise, raising the min wage, etc. These are not "McMillon" actions - these are actions taken by Walmart and not McMillon as an individual (unless there's a clear references that state otherwise). Chosing only specific Walmart actions as a reflection of McMillon is really a cheap way to shower "reflected glory" on McMillon, the danger being that this tactic could be used to associate McMillon directly with unpopular actions! It only ends up skewing the article so lets stick with "McMillon" actions and facts. -- HighKing⁺⁺ 10:11, 30 September 2016 (UTC)

Hi HighKing, I have taken some time to review the changes you made in my user space draft and available sourcing. While Walmart would say that major company-wide decisions reflect the actions of our chief executive, I understand that Wikipedia's policies require sources to explicitly state that connection. With that understanding, there are some details you cut that make sense to me, such as the detailed paragraph on wage increases. However, I think you also deleted items that are backed up by the sources I provided. I kindly ask that you reconsider those issues detailed below.

• You deleted the following paragraph:
  • McMillon took over the company at a time of slowing growth and increased competition from rivals, such as Costco, Amazon.com, grocery store chains Kroger and Safeway, and discount chains of small stores like Family Dollar and Dollar General. Within his first two years as chief executive, McMillon raised wages for hourly workers in the U.S., boosted the company's commitment to e-commerce and revamped Walmart's executive team. While increased spending on labor and Walmart's digital offerings lowered short-term profits, McMillon stated that the moves would lead to happier workers and better customer service, as well as a better footing in a changing retail market.

References

• I do not see a problem with the opening sentence. It gives readers context about some of the challenges the company faced when Mr. McMillon took the job. The second sentence is also backed up by sources. The Fortune piece that is cited reads: “With so much to accomplish, McMillon has moved with a sense of urgency in his first 16 months on the job. He has put new executives into key roles, accelerated investments in e-commerce, and made news by raising the minimum wage for hundreds of thousands of Walmart workers—the last of these as part of a concerted effort to improve the store experience by empowering frontline associates. McMillon is trying to reinvent his half-century-old company and infuse it with a new, Silicon Valley–esque metabolism”.
• Additionally, sources back up Mr. McMillon’s increased investment in e-commerce. The New York Times story cited reads: “Mr. McMillon, a Walmart veteran who took the helm at the retailer last year, wants to again put e-commerce front and center, pledging to invest $1 billion in its online operations this year. Under Mr. McMillon, Walmart has expanded the number of products sold on Walmart.com to seven million from one million just three years ago. That number is set to rise to 10 million by the end of the year, though that is a fraction of the estimated 300 million items for sale on Amazon.”
• I do not think it is a stretch to say that Mr. McMillon is a driving force on some of the issues you deleted, such as removing Confederate flag merchandise from Walmart’s inventory and environmental sustainability. A Bloomberg article referenced in the article is titled “Wal-Mart CEO Sees Chance to Make Difference on Social Issues”.

I appreciate your time and assistance. My intention is not to pump this article with “reflected glory”. Rather, I think it is important to include some of Mr. McMillon’s major initiatives. Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 17:59, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

Hi, just my opinion (and hopefully others will chime in too) but as I've said before this is an article about Doug. It is not an article about Wal-Mart, or his job as CEO or whatever ins-and-outs he may (or may not) have faced in his job. All of the references you provided are really about Wal-Mart - all the titles make it clear that the focus is on Wal-Mart. Suer, the CEO is relevant for some companyies when the company is going through changes and the changes have to be explained/pushed by the executives (including the CEO) - but they are of insignificant relevant to this article. Also, it could be argued that the references you provided are not "independent" since they essentially are interviews with Doug and/or take their information from Doug or Wal-Mart. -- HighKing⁺⁺ 18:54, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

Hi HighKing, Thanks again for continuing the conversation. As it appears we have hit a standstill, I am reaching out to WP:3O to see if another editor can take a look at this, too. Note: I have gone back into my revised draft and added information you deleted from it previously (Here is a copy of your revised version). I have included those two versions here so reviewing editors can see both proposals. Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 17:56, 16 November 2016 (UTC)

That's fine by me, the more eyes in here the easier to see what's what. -- HighKing⁺⁺ 20:05, 16 November 2016 (UTC)

The problem I have with this article is the amount of WP:COATRACK content. The subject has no claim to notability other than being a CEO of Walmart. As such, we don't need to put in every single intricate detail related to the job scope. A sentence summarising the stuff (if at all required) is good enough. And yes, for any contested claim, third party sources are required. --Lemongirl942 (talk) 17:04, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Hi Lemongirl942, thanks for responding. I am aware that some editors feel there is too much detail in the article as it stands now, and I am trying to help devise a plan to address it. Have you seen the revised draft of the Career section in my user space? I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on it. As I have stated previously, I have a conflict of interest and do not edit live articles directly. Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 22:27, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

Third Opinion

There appear to be already at least three editors. Also, the third opinion request has been up for more than six days. Robert McClenon (talk) 18:17, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

Moving forward

Hi editors, particularly HighKing, Checkingfax, Kendall-K1 and Lemongirl942, who have joined in on this discussion. How do we move forward to reach a compromise here? I understand some editors feel this article contains too much detail and I am trying in good faith to resolve the article's {{like resume}} maintenance tag.

In an attempt to fix this, I prepared this draft, cutting down on details to the Career section. HighKing edited my proposal to this.

As a result of this standstill, I requested an editor at Third Opinion take a look. The Third Opinion editor did not engage in the conversation because more than two editors have discussed it.

I want to note that I appreciate everyone's time and attention to this discussion. If we cannot come to an agreement here, are there any other forums that might assist us in moving forward? Thanks, JLD at Walmart (talk) 15:48, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

Hi, JLD at Walmart. I have been very busy off-wiki. I apologize for not getting on this. I should be free soon to attend to this. Please poke me every few days until I get to it. Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 07:24, 8 January 2017 (UTC)

Is McMillon the best CEO ever?

Has this guy never done any wrong? A brief search turns up labor activists saying his wage raises aren't enough[2] and a crime wave.[3] The article seems a bit unbalanced to me. Kendall-K1 (talk) 02:23, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

(Came here from WP:COIN) The problem with the article is the excessive amount of info. Every small detail is mentioned which goes against WP:WEIGHT. I have removed a bunch of minor appointments. --Lemongirl942 (talk) 16:35, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

A Message From Doug

after the Unite the Right rally (August 2017) :

https://us3.walmartone.com/pages/stories-and-news/articles/a-message-from-doug/

should we mention it in the article ? --Neun-x (talk) 19:39, 15 August 2017 (UTC)