We have now been in lockdown in France for more than a month. It is more or less the same for everybody in the diamond industry. Although work and life may have been organized, there are still lots of questions about how to do things on day-to-day basis, how to hold out, and how to maintain our activities.
The selection of articles that you read every week on Rubel & Ménasché follows a strict editorial policy that we have tested over the 8 years since we launched the website. We do not have the resources and the striking force of a big magazine or a press agency, so we make a drastic selection, based on objectivity, quality, the understanding of the needs and issues of stakeholders, the need to be audacious and understand the times, its trends and its issues, but also the desire to open doors and to look ahead without pretense.
This week we would like to offer you a more extensive press review, with a series of practical and functional articles, to find a different way to look at the crisis that has shaken up our lives, by going a bit further than sources from our own industry strictly speaking.
Working from home
The article 7 Tips for Working From Home Right Now from National Jeweler, which you all know, gives some ideas for how to facilitate working in a domestic setting. We already suggested a selection of articles on this subject for our French-speaking readers; so, this helps to balance things for our English-speaking audience! The tips are much the same: plan your days, set aside a specific workspace (and keep it tidy!), take breaks, keep in touch with your customers, take care of yourself, take the time to think and be creative, etc.
Articles and practical data to face up to coronavirus
Some websites that you may follow regularly update the information about the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the diamond industry. Such as Rapaport, Coronavirus Updates: Impact on the Diamond Trade, which is updated daily, with the support on offer, suspensions of business, initiatives, etc. A very practical timeline to make sure you do not miss anything.
JCK Online also has its own, which is more focused on the American market, but which is instructive nonetheless: Jewelry Industry Cancellations, Closings, Reschedulings, Reopenings.
National Jeweler has published an article on the resources offered to the industry, like the Jewellers Support Network: A Guide to the Online Resources Available to the Industry.
And here is more specifically the associated page from the RJC.
Finally, this article is not regularly updated, but it seemed interesting to pass on to you. The article Covid-19 robs diamond sector of recovery hopes, by Cecilia Jamasmie on mining.com, reviews the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the activity of gem producers, when we were hoping for a revival in 2020.
Take a step back and look at the Coronavirus outside our industry
The article Luxury after Covid-19: Changed for (the) Good?, published by Bain & Co, considers the consequences of the current health crisis for the luxury market that, even if it is confronted with a very high fall in sales (down by at least 25-30% in the 1st half of 2020), may come out of it strengthened. To achieve this, we will need to review the leadership (informing, communicating and caring), how we operate (greater agility) and the business model (innovation, marketing, and multi-channel sales). We also should not forget, in view of how important it is for the Chinese market, that the luxury sector was one of the first to be hit by the impact of the epidemic. What about the future? China may nonetheless be the key to the recovery of the luxury market, online purchasing will certainly keep a major place and the social and environmental commitment of each company will be ever more decisive for consumers’ choices…
On the same subject, you can also read on this site: Covid-19: Protect, Recover and Retool.
The article A perspective for the luxury-goods industry during—and after—coronavirus by McKinsey&Company is more focused on recovery. It reminds us that effective and disruptive short-term actions need to be taken, without forgetting about the “after” and therefore thinking about defining innovative and creative strategies that are built to last. Dialog and understanding the needs of diamond consumers are and will remain primordial during these times of crisis and afterwards.
In its article Our New Historical Divide: B.C. and A.C. — the World Before Corona and the World After the New York Times invites you to reflect on the connections between the coronavirus, our societies, our cultures, how we approach it and how we counter it…
French-speakers can read L’impact économique du coronavirus en 4 graphiques (on Atlantico), to better understand the financial management of the “big” nations and the economic consequences expected in this context. On Le Monde.fr you can also read (for subscribers only): “La Chine pourrait s’imposer comme la première puissance mondiale dès la fin de l’épidémie” and Cyril Dion: “La crise du Covid-19 peut nous aider à construire le monde d’après”
Obviously, between the time that this article is written and its publication the crisis will have continued, coronavirus will continue to spread and the world will be further changed. But, we have all understood, the consequences of what we are going through today will reach beyond the coming months. We will still speak about it next year and in the years to come. Maybe it is time to learn lessons for the future? Even if we do not rethink our economic models from top to bottom—which would however be a good idea—one word will help us to keep on moving forward with peace of mind, all together and will unite us in our fight for a better future: resilience.
Source Rubel & Ménasché
