The morning session on Day 2 of the GJEPC’s Mines to Markets addressed the issues and concerns of the mid-stream players and concluded on a fairly positive note, despite the many challenges that the segment faces. A broad consenus emerged that the challenges would have to be faced at two levels – while individual companies would need to assess their strengths, understand the external environment and create an appropriate business model, the mid-segment as a whole needed to work with greater collaboration and cooperation to leverage the key role that it plays in the diamond value chain for its benefit.

The panelists all agreed that size of the company or the scale of production was not an issue; even small niche players could run a reasonably profitable business with the correct approach. At the same time they also agreed that the various centres in this part of the value chain should share experiences and work together. Negotiating credit payments for rough bought from miners or concentrating resources for effective genenric promotions were some of the broader issues that were raised.

Earlier individual speakers had focused on the different approaches that companies needed to adopt if they wished to stay profitable and healthy given the challenges of slower retail sales, the gap between polished and rough prices, the growing expenses on compliance, marketing etc.

Stephane Fischler of AWDC emphasised the need to invest in personnel and to draw up business plans that were deeply rooted in a study of the market scenario. He said that while drawing up their strategies, companies should “use the power of data” and focus on greater efficiencies. He however, cautioned companies not to over emphasise the need for lower costs, pointing out that “Cheap is sometimes more expensive”.

With such an approach that gave importance to use of brains instead of only hands, a company would give up what he called “blind manufacturing” and focus on investing in human skills and using technology to enhance margins. His words of advice were “Polish what you need to earn profit”.

Ghanshyam Dholakia of HK Exports too stressed that the people employed in our business are our biggest assets and we invest in them. He also urged diamantaires not to be distracted by the seemingly easy profits that could be made in the stock markets or real estate. “Diamonds are our business and we should devote ‘Tan, Mann and Dhan’ (physical and emotional attention and investment) to them alone”.

He also pointed out that planning should be based on the current scenario and used a series of price charts to show that holding on to inventory in times of a slowdown could yield losses or profits depending on sizes, qualities and many other variables.

Mavjibhai Patel of Kiran Gems advised the manufaturers to have a clear perspective in their approach on four key parameters of the business. On Procurement, he suggested only buying goods that could be manufactured profitably; in the area of Manufacturing he said that the focus should be on achieving high quality rather than merely large quantity by investments in technology and training.

Speaking about Finance, he said that companies should be aware of what is happening in the global economy and how it could impact one’s business, and also urged the diamond community to realise that bankers are also stakeholders, and should be treated as “a part of the family”.

Finally, Patel said that there was a need to innovate in sales and marketing, to “think out of the box” and discover the many opportunities that exist and could be tapped.

Sanjay Kothari of KGK Group said that while Indian diamantaires could be genuinely proud of their achievements of the last 50 years, there was a real need to look forward, understand how things have changed and what companies should do to adapt to these changes. “The yolk has to break out of the egg shell to move to the next level of its life-cycle,” was an analogy that he put forward to say that the challenges today could only be faced if one did not look for mere survival, but how to advance to the next level.