Personality Ellen Joncheere, HRD Antwerp ‘My aiM is to get HRD antweRp futuRe ReaDy’ To hold the reins of Europe’s leading authority in diamond grading is no mean feat, accomplishing this daunting task is Ellen Joncheere, the newly appointed CEO of HRD Antwerp. A multi-talented woman who has gained immense experience in heading varied organizations, she shares her future plans with Diamond World 120 | february-march 2020 | INDIAN www.indianjeweller.in JEWELLER
Q: As the newly appointed CEO, what will your important roles and responsibilities at HRD Antwerp be? A: First and foremost, I believe HRD Antwerp brought me on board to help regain its focus, to make sure all its branches, departments and individuals share a common sense of purpose and are all pulling in the same direction. One of my key roles will therefore be to clearly remind our staff of the mission of HRD Antwerp and the important role it plays as a leading diamond grading laboratory: conducting high-level diamond research and translating that research into services. This is a broad definition of the role I will play. On a more specific level, I believe it is my mandate to create an organisational culture that never loses sight of the fundamentals: providing reliable, consistent and quality service, and communicating effectively with existing and potential clients. To be even more specific: I intend to make sure that HRD Antwerp achieves complete uniformity when it comes to diamond grading. Clients must have total certainty that when HRD grades a diamond, whether it is in Antwerp, Istanbul or Mumbai, the result will be the same. Again, it is about taking care of the fundamentals. HRD has already built a tremendous brand and acquired a wealth of knowledge. It is already respected in the industry. If we are not performing as we should, that can only mean we have taken our collective eye off the ball. I see it as my job to sharpen our focus again. Q: You’ve joined HRD at a tricky time, the company itself is going through many changes – amidst a lot of tasks at hand, what tops your priority at the moment? A: My first task will be to streamline our operations as a whole, to create functional stability, but this objective is in service of my top priority, which is to grow HRD Antwerp. When an organisation goes through changes such as the ones we have been through, from management turnover to takeover negotiations, it is difficult to grow. There is too much uncertainty. That is why I intend to focus on our mission, move forward and regain HRD Antwerp’s market share. To achieve growth, we also need to adapt the organisation to the changing environment. It has been a long time since Antwerp was the leading polished-diamond trading center. This is not to suggest that Antwerp no longer plays a leading role, but rather to recognise that the polished trade has largely shifted to India, where HRD has a lab. We need to grow our client base where the clients are located, and generate greater awareness of the services we provide. <strong>Jeweller</strong>y grading is an excellent example of an opportunity for growth. Demand for this service is increasing along with the growing market for heirloom The diamond industry sinks or swims according to consumer demand. If consumers are confused, they might become frustrated and turn away from our product altogether. HRD Antwerp can and should play a more prominent role in educating consumers about our industry and its product. and previously-owned jewellery. We should be marketing this service more effectively. Another priority is to reposition the HRD Antwerp brand. As I said, it already has strong name recognition which could be capitalised on more effectively. This takes outreach and smart marketing. Our educational courses can play a role here as well – I don’t mean training more graders, but engaging with jewellers and deepening their knowledge of diamonds so they can raise their sales game. When promoted and used effectively, HRD Antwerp’s educational offering can serve as a point of entry for new customers and help generate further growth. Q: The diamond industry at large is also going through a rough patch – how important do you think is the role of a grading and an educational institute like HRD at this challenging time? A: The rough patch the industry is going through right now does not have a much to do with grading labs, but the labs do have a critical role to play in keeping the industry upto-date and defended against new challenges that can undermine consumer confidence. The diamond grading labs are continually engaged in a cat and mouse game with labgrown diamond producers. They seek to develop new ways to evade detection, and the labs must track their every move and respond with new detection technology. This is unfortunate, but is what we are dealing with. It is one thing if the LGD producers and retailers promote and sell an alternative to natural diamonds and compete fairly. But it is another thing entirely if undisclosed mixing of natural and synthetic diamonds is done in order to deceive customers and gain an unfair advantage. This practice still happens much more often than one would think. Diamond grading and detection still have a very important role to play here. It has also become imperative that grading and education combine forces to eliminate confusion among consumers. People in the industry might know all about the differences between the different products, but that does not mean the consumers do as well. As we have seen with the Diamond Terminology Guideline developed by eight leading diamond organisations, the US FTC guidelines and their warnings to synthetics retailers about false labeling, and the recent adoption of European custom codes for synthetic diamonds,just to name a few, lab-grown diamonds not only need to be identified properly, but also named properly. That is step one. Secondly, consumers also need to be clearly informed about the value propositions of the different products, because there is a great deal of disinformation out there. I have given you a long answer. The short answer is that the diamond industry sinks or swims according to consumer demand. If consumers are confused, they might become frustrated and turn away from our product altogether. HRD Antwerp can and should play a more prominent role in educating consumers about our industry and its product. We might compete with other organisations for our share of the pie, but if that pie is shrinking, everyone loses out. Q: This is also a completely new industry for you – do you think an outsider’s perspective will help bring in more clarity and focus to the business? A: My belief is that in most industries we should step away from always hiring people coming from the same business, new views, other experiences bring innovation into the company. Q: What did you find particularly interesting and exciting about this role? A: As I used to work in very disruptive environments, I see a challenge for the diamond industry from lab grown diamonds, a shift from Antwerp to other countries and the need for an adapted organisational structure, another marketing approach etc. In a nutshell a turnaround is necessary and that is where my experience lies. INDIAN www.indianjeweller.in JEWELLER | february-march 2020 | 121
Change language