Navigating the Headwinds: Is Your Business Ready?
Columnist Peter Smith shares a prediction for the year ahead as the jewelry industry faces a possible slowdown.

If you’ve ever been one of the many who, just moments earlier, deplaned after flying through the night, and across time zones, you may recall the experience as having a certain zombie-like quality to it.
There are herds of exhausted people, moving in unison, mostly quiet, longing for a bed, or at least a breath of fresh air.
After what seemed like an interminable wait, my attention was drawn to one of the immigration officers. He was clearly having difficulty making himself understood to the woman standing in front of him, and his growing agitation was becoming ever more noticeable.
If, as reported in UCLA Professor Emeritus Albert Mehrabian’s famous study on communication, body language is 55 percent of what is communicated, the officer was operating at about 80 percent – and it was all pissed off.
That is, until he recovered his verbals, and he took them, as per Spinal Tap—for those of you old enough to remember —to 11.
The exhausted woman, who had been unable to hear what the officer was saying, was now being berated for having the audacity to show up for a holiday in England without being proficient in the native tongue.
I often think about that airport experience when I see companies that appear to lack a clear sense of direction.
Having defaulted to a lane, or two, or three, they deal with disappointment by going faster in the direction (or lack thereof) they were already headed. They take the immigration officer’s approach and scream their ambiguity even louder.
Inc. magazine asked leaders of 600 companies to estimate the number of their employees who could name their company’s top three priorities. While the leaders predicted that 64 percent would be able to identify the top three priorities, a mere 2 percent were able to do so.
That kind of disconnect is not unusual, and it is even more telling when it is the companies’ own personnel who are confused about who and what their company is trying to be.
How are customers supposed to know? What about prospective new customers? Good luck with that.
The first and most important responsibility of a leader is to set the course for the business. That requires more than hollow sloganeering and bumper stickers.
It starts with being brutally honest about the current circumstances; that includes products, people, processes, investments made or not made, deployment of resources, etc.
It is much easier to make meaningless statements about what you want your business to be than to actually articulate, in blisteringly simple terms, what the business is about, and what it aspires to be, and then set about the task of charting the course with real work, concrete actions, and an honest appraisal of what it will take to get there.
We have ridden the crest of the COVID economy for more than two years. That was then, and this is now.
The task ahead will be infinitely more challenging, and we may not all be quite as smart as we seemed to be when business was flying.
It is hardly prophetic to suggest that we will see a decline in business this year as an industry.
That is not just because the circumstances are beginning to change, due to inflation, diamond supply and pricing, and the broader economy opening up, etc. There’s little doubt those conditions will impact the industry negatively.
The real difference, however, is that the circumstances of the past couple of years were just so deliciously good for our industry. We may never again see that positive confluence of events providing such strong winds at our backs.
Despite the anticipated decline for our industry this year, I am certain that not all companies will retreat from their 2020/2021 performance.
Some companies will “outrun the bear” by executing brilliantly and making important investments, be it in technology, people, expansion, or renovations.
They will obsess over their customers, exceed expectations everywhere they can, use data to help run their business, and create experiences that separate them from the masses.
For some, unfortunately, they’ll blame circumstances beyond their control, make excuses for poor performance, and do a lot of finger pointing.
They may even shout a little louder.
The Latest

Two attorneys purchased Windsor Jewelry, which was set to close, and will retain all existing staff at the downtown Indianapolis store.

Adam Heyman joined the family business in 1965, just weeks after graduating from Columbia Business School.

The “Essence of Nature, Chapter One” collection echoes trees and roots, literally and figuratively, through three sets of high jewelry.

Colored stones are stepping into a jewelry spotlight typically reserved for diamonds—are you ready to sell color?

The fourth-generation, family-owned jeweler has given its Worth Avenue store a new look.


Luxury watch dealer Anthony Farrer pleaded guilty late last year to defrauding clients in a scheme with Ponzi-type elements.

In its full-year results, the retailer shared its 2025 outlook and an update on the global rollout of its lab-grown diamond collection.

The new year feels like a clean slate, inspiring reflection, hope, and the motivation to become better versions of ourselves.

Celebrate February birthstones and the gem shows in Arizona this month with a versatile stone like amethyst.

Scheetz has been with the nonprofit since 2007.

The agreement will allocate an increasing proportion of the country’s rough diamonds to the government of Botswana over the next decade.

“Cosmic Splendor: Jewelry From the Collections of Van Cleef & Arpels,” opens April 11 at the American Museum of Natural History.

Those celebrating Valentine’s Day this year are expected to spend a record $27.5 billion on jewels, flowers, candy, and more.

From Lady Gaga’s 1930s Tiffany & Co. necklace to Taylor Swift’s “T,” Michelle Graff recaps the night’s most memorable jewelry looks.

Layoffs will reportedly start next month as HSN plans to move into QVC’s location in Pennsylvania.

A group of creatives talked to Associate Editor Lauren McLemore about their approach to the annual Tucson gem, mineral, and fossil shows.

The auction also featured the sale of a Cartier necklace made when Egyptomania was sweeping Great Britain.

The “Blossom Rosette” blooms with love, beauty, and hope for the year ahead.

Rovinsky is remembered as a great mentor who made the employees of his stores feel like family.

For every jeweler who tries their luck, the company will make a donation to Jewelers for Children.

The boards of at least five chapters have resigned in response to controversial statements the WJA national board president made last month.

An experienced jewelry writer and curator, Grant led the organization for two years.

Five new designs were added, all donning Tahitian cultured pearls and spear-like trident motifs, along with the new “Titan” setting.

The inaugural event is being co-hosted by the American Gem Society and the Gemological Institute of America.

Jewelers of America’s Annie Doresca and AGTA CEO John W. Ford Sr. are among the new members.

The jeweler’s latest high jewelry collection looks into the Boucheron archives to create a “living encyclopedia of high jewelry.”

Watch and jewelry sales slipped 3 percent in 2024, though the luxury conglomerate did see business pick up in the fourth quarter.