#guest blog
The record from 30 years ago shows how a claim first made by producers and sellers of synthetic gemstones, without supporting evidence, became the basis for taking “synthetic” off the FTC’s list of recommended qualifiers for diamonds.
“When a consumer asks whether a diamond “has Kimberley,” what he or she means to ask is: “Can I trust its story? That is not a failure of understanding. It is market feedback.”
“Standards used to concentrate on product categories. But they were joined by others focusing on standards of behavior that are incumbent on all members of our industry, irrespective of the area of the business in which they are involved.”
“The future of ESG leadership will belong to organizations that can demonstrate measurable outcomes. Stakeholders expect more than promises. They want proof.”
“The future of ESG leadership will belong to organizations that can demonstrate measurable outcomes. Stakeholders expect more than promises. They want proof.”
Formed over billions of years, every diamond begins a new journey when it reaches a customer. Each purchase represents a milestone, and each glance serves as a lasting reminder of the indelible bond between that moment and the diamond itself.
“The risk is not that we fail to modernize, but that modernization is undertaken without fully understanding the system and listening to the wrong people.”
“Today we would measure the margin, the risk, the time and the tires, and then decide that the potential reward does not justify the effort. But diamonds do not begin in spreadsheets. They begin on gravel roads”
To train a diamond cutter today, you cannot follow the model of 50 years ago. That was a process that took 10 years to complete. We no longer have that time.”
“Policies and procedures guide business corporations, but culture and trust are what make them endure. Understanding people is no less strategic than understanding products or markets.”
“Across much of East and Central Africa’s diamond belt, artisanal production was not treated as an aberration, but as a feature of the industry that had to be managed.”
“We cannot afford a generation of practitioners who see conflict diamond certification as bureaucratic theater, rather than as a bulwark against humanitarian catastrophe.”
“Watching students hold up their first finished pieces, eyes wide with pride, moves me every time. It’s because I know that for some of them, this is the first moment they can see themselves in this industry “
“When decisions are made and accepted by all, the feeling is amazing. Of course, when they are not, sometimes for no reason that you can discern, the lows are truly low!”
“Just as it was in 2003, when many awoke and realized that compliance with the Kimberley Process was now a legal obligation, so it soon may be with ESG.”
“I exited the senior leadership ranks of a global market leader for military systems and entered the world’s largest retailer of diamond jewelry. Quite a different career vector, or so it seemed.”
‘As a fourth generation diamantaire, I am grateful for the opportunity to have a front row seat to both the fascinating history of our industry and a glimpse of where it is going. ’
‘We have so much knowledge, expertise, and passion spread across different sectors—miners, manufacturers, traders, jewelers—but no single place where we can come together efficiently.’
By introducing their incredible talents and products to the U.S. market, we create sustainable opportunities for African artisans to thrive and receive fair compensation for their work.
During the lockdown we found that there was a demand among diamantaires in Israel and around the world for a new and transparent international trading platform.
The economic crisis that struck in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted in unprecedented ways on China’s jewelry retail markets and their supply chains.
After 32 years of practically residing in airports around the world and earning a PhD in business lounges, I am finally homebound. Yes, not by choice and I wish under different circumstances, but that’s life.
Like everywhere, in Dubai, people’s everyday lives have been impacted and disrupted. In such circumstances, businesses have a responsibility to act, to be part of the solution and to shoulder the burden and support their employees, their partners, their customers, and their entire communities.
During these days of global crisis, where all of us to one degree or another find ourselves in the same boat, it’s tough to decide who is offering special insight into our collective predicament.
What I had not figured out were the unknowns that lay ahead. Unknowns that I wasn’t even aware would ever exist.
When the jewelry industry comes out of this crisis, it can return to the success we were headed towards for 2020. The reason for the optimism is because of the amazing people that make up this industry.
These are very strange but also anxious times, for we feel that the most basic foundations of our existence are being eroded.
In the United States, which with more than half of all sales made each year in terms of value is the world’s largest diamond jewelry market, the expansion of the SoW is a massive undertaking.
Elsewhere as well, and sometimes closer to home, WDC members are reinvesting in the communities in which they operate and upon which they depend.