The Retail Jeweller MD–CEO Awards 2022

If there’s one lens through which to capture the ongoing revolution in India’s gems and jewellery industry, it is the newly supercharged role of the business leader. Gone are the days when the leader’s job was to push sales. Today, a chief executive in this industry must manage the organisation holistically, with the aim of sustained, long-term growth.

What does this involve? Above all, the customer experience — which begins well before a shopper walks through a showroom door or clicks on an e-commerce link, and includes every aspect of the brand with which they come in contact. Next, brand-building, for the brand must ‘connect’ emotionally with the consumer, to win adherence season after season. After this, relationships within the company must be nurtured and made resilient, assuring women staff members, for instance, of fair and rewarding conditions. In these pandemic times, the responsibility to ‘make things better’ extends beyond the company, with the growing importance of corporate social responsibility.

When consumers are delighted to associate their own persona with that of a chosen brand, that testifies above all to excellent leadership!

Brand and consumer both exist within the larger industry and economy, Indian as well as global. Many top jewellers are listed already and have made or are in the process of making that leap of scale. Listing amounts to a total transformation out of traditional ways of doing business. While not all leading players are listed, all participate in the same economy, and this means committing fully to the processes of formalisation and organisation.

Given the complexities and need for speed and agility inherent in the globalised economy, professional management is the order of the day. Whatever a leader’s designation, the role is so multifaceted and critical that every leader is, in effect, an MD or CEO.

The Retail Jeweller MD–CEO Awards2022 recognise all these key transformations and the new level of accomplishment they demand from leaders in the gems and jewellery industry. It is time for your special successes to gain the admiration and respect they deserve — and to offer inspiration to your industry peers.

The Awards also aim to highlight areas in which creative and pioneering leadership is opening up new paths from which the whole industry may benefit.

Partners of the event were unanimous on the need to push for 360-degree organisation and a similar attitude among the leadership for that matter. Speaking about the event, Vikas Mehta, director, Achal Jewels, said, “The industry has found its direction towards an organised way of working. Jewellery companies typically originated from families in India and the workflow was largely mundane. Now, companies are giving deserving candidates a chance to run the business. Family or not, it’s talent that matters today, with companies taking more practical decisions with their board of directors, instead of just the owner taking tough calls.”

The last couple of years have been truly challenging for the jewellery industry, feels Chirag Soni, co-founder and director, SGL. “I’m proud of the trade for coming out victorious despite these market challenges. Each awardee rightfully deserves this recognition and we hope that with the Retail Jeweller MD–CEO Awards, the industry will strive to reach greater heights in this favourable 2022 and coming years,” he said.

Identifying the 2022 Awardees

To identify the 2022 Awardees, a focused team at the Retail Jeweller brought to bear our deep understanding of the industry, gained over years of interacting with jewellers large and small in every corner of our country, and tracking trends local, regional, national and international. In order to curate the retailer-centric content for which the Retail Jeweller magazine is trusted and respected, we maintain a bird’s-eye as well as a worm’s-eye view of the gems and jewellery industry and the consumer environment. This core competence, as well as informal, targeted research, underpin the selection. We salute the Awardees!

Written by Soma Bhatta

RJ Exclusive