THE 5th C – CREDIBILITY

One doesn’t hear much about ‘The 4 C’s’ these days but in its time this De Beers inspired theme was the widely recognised and understood description of a diamond’s basic attributes and as recognisable to consumers as the perennial ‘A Diamond is Forever’ slogan.

At this last Sight the consultation process for the next contract period was initiated by Howard Davies and interesting discussions took place around the company structure element.

While the discussion comprehensively covered many of the concerns of the DTC and Sightholders a word that I think is underused in our industry didn’t feature. That word is credibility.

As long as I’ve been in the business credibility has seemed to me to be perhaps the most important denominator and differentiator between one business and another. Coherent business plans are great, exciting marketing concepts too but without credibility they are no more than words on paper.

It is not often that one of my previous blogs themes (and dreams!) has come true so it is only fair to acknowledge it when it happens. In September 2008 I wrote a blog lamenting the fact that the DTC senior management from London (and I included myself as a leading DTC broker) had not attended any of the GJEPC Award functions for many years, so I am very pleased that Varda is indeed guest of honour tonight, attending the ceremony in Mumbai.

Why is this so important? First of all because the awards have credibility and it is the performance of the companies that earn them the awards. So let’s hear a lot more of the word credibility in these discussions that are leading up to the finalisation of the assessment process because it’s not merely a box ticking exercise or an exercise in creative writing. It is the credibility of everyone (and we include ourselves) that is on the line and most importantly the credibility of the process itself.