Gareth Penny, leading candidate to take over De Beers, spells out where the company should go

Gareth Penny, the former De Beers CEO who is now the leading candidate to take over his old company, said that the trade must “give consumers a reason to buy natural diamond jewelry”,  in a speech delivered at the CIBJO Congress in Vincenza, Italy.

“The {diamond} industry is in the middle of a real crisis,” he said. “Synthetic or man-made diamonds have taken the bulk of the volume of U.S. engagement rings.”

He listed the following principles the industry needs to follow to prosper in the future: “We need to sell meaning, not minerals. If we don’t sell a dream, over time, our industry will disappear,” he said. “People don’t buy what a luxury product is. They are not buying the leather or the products or components. They are buying what the product says about them. That’s what brands do. They tell a story about the person wearing the brand.”

He said, “Our task is not to win a contest with synthetic diamonds. It is to restore meaning to natural diamonds so that comparison becomes irrelevant.” Our task is not to win a contest with synthetic diamonds. It is to restore meaning to natural diamonds so that comparison becomes irrelevant.”

“Only a natural diamond can say something powerful,” he added. “‘I am loved. I have been chosen. Someone has committed to me. We need to prove that natural diamonds change lives. For decades in Botswana, diamond revenue has supported health care, infrastructure, wildlife, and one of Africa’s most remarkable transformations,” he said. “Our greatest failure is not what we have done, but what we have failed to explain.”

“Transparency must become the industry standard. Consumers increasingly assume that if something cannot be traced, it cannot be trusted,” he said. Sustainability must become visible. We need to move from doing good to showing good,” he said. “We must create desire among Generations Y, Z, and Alpha.”

He said that the industry tends to speak in trade-based language like the Four Cs and the Rapaport price list. In the future, he said, the trade needs to communicate with younger consumers on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram and tout diamonds for every milestone occasion, not just marriage

“The value chain must work as one. Success needs to be shared,” he said, “because reputation certainly is. Innovation must strengthen tradition. Technology should never replace craftsmanship. But it should amplify it. De Beers must lead the way.

Gareth Penny said his old company “must become a steward for the natural diamond industry. No single company can build demand alone,” he added. “But an industry without a leader cannot build demand at all.”

He said that the new De Beers must lead “not with dominance but by partnerships. He closed by declaring that if the industry follows these eight principles, it will shine brighter than before.