In hindsight, Shine reckons that each step of her professional experience, from the air force to the early days at Diamdel, prepared her for her ever-expanding responsibilities at DTC. “At the air force there were five of us girls running a training facility for new air traffic technology. We had our own budgets, building...it was really like running a business,” explains Shine. And despite pressure from the forces to stay back— “a tempting offer”, Shine recalls—she decided to move on.
When she joined Diamdel, Shine remembers that the international market was just recovering from a slump. “So it was a good time in 1983, because the market had just started rising again. It was a great experience. And then I went from sales assistant to sales manager and then I developed a computer system for stock management which they still use in Hindustan Diamond Corp.!”
So with the experience of one fall and rise behind her, is Shine coping better with the current slump in the global economy?
Shine smiles and takes a deep breath before replying. No doubt she has a well thought-out, cut and polished answer to this stock question. “There is a problem. We can’t deny that. But diamonds are different. We have three stories to tell.”
The first, Shine explains, is that diamonds retain their value over a long time. So people buy and hold them. I try to ask her if diamond prices fluctuate like those of other commodities when she interrupts, “Diamonds are not commodities!” She has a look of a shock on her face, and not all of it is faux.
The second story is “a new trend in consumerism”: “What we call ‘fewer, better things’. In times of recession, consumers gravitate towards quality. In good days, people buy, buy, buy... But now quality is more important. Would you buy a handbag that goes out of fashion in two months...or a diamond that is always in fashion?”
The final reason why she believes diamonds will buck the trend is the emotional aspect. “It is the ultimate way in which people...human beings know how to express their feelings,” she explains.
No doubt the story has been told and retold a thousand times to colleagues and business associates on her many journeys all over the world. But Shine’s moving hands and nodding head convey a sense of sincerity; this woman really likes her diamonds.
As she sips on her coffee, I ask her what keeps her in the De Beers family—DTC is part of the Belgian conglomerate. Isn’t she sick of the stones after 25 years? Shine rubbishes the idea. She explains: “We did some market research which showed that once a woman gets a diamond she is addicted. I am living proof!”
And she’s right: From where I sit, I can see Shine’s diamond ear studs, a diamond pendant and a rather glamorous diamond-studded ring. Each one of them several times the size of the one I had bought for my fiancee at our engagement.
Her husband, Shine explains, can never gift her anything with diamonds because “I always know the real price and I tell him, poor man, how much he overpaid for it!”
I take a courtesy sip of my otherwise untouched coffee as her assistant politely tells me to wrap up our meeting.