Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? Edward Jay Epstein | Feb 1, 1982

The diamond invention—the creation of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem—is a relatively recent development in the history of the diamond trade. Until the late nineteenth century, diamonds were found only in a few riverbeds in India and in the jungles of Brazil, and the entire world production of gem diamonds amounted to a few pounds a year. In 1870, however, huge diamond mines were discovered near the Orange River, in South Africa, where diamonds were soon being scooped out by the ton. Suddenly, the market was deluged with diamonds. The British financiers who had organized the South African mines quickly realized that their investment was endangered; diamonds had little intrinsic value—and their price depended almost entirely on their scarcity. The financiers feared that when new mines were developed in South Africa, diamonds would become at best only semiprecious gems. The major investors in the diamond mines realized that they had no alternative but to merge their interests into a single entity that would be powerful enough to control production and perpetuate the illusion of scarcity of diamonds. The instrument they created, in 1888, was called De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., incorporated in South Africa. As De Beers took control of all aspects of the world diamond trade, it assumed many forms. In London, it operated under the innocuous name of the Diamond Trading Company. In Israel, it was known as "The Syndicate." In Europe, it was called the "C.S.O." -- initials referring to the Central Selling Organization, which was an arm of the Diamond Trading Company. And in black Africa, it disguised its South African origins under subsidiaries with names like Diamond Development Corporation and Mining Services, Inc. At its height -- for most of this century -- it not only either directly owned or controlled all the diamond mines in southern Africa but also owned diamond trading companies in England, Portugal, Israel, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland. De Beers proved to be the most successful cartel arrangement in the annals of modern commerce. While other commodities, such as gold, silver, copper, rubber, and grains, fluctuated wildly in response to economic conditions, diamonds have continued, with few exceptions, to advance upward in price every year since the Depression. Indeed, the cartel seemed so superbly in control of prices -- and unassailable -- that, in the late 1970s, even speculators began buying diamonds as a guard against the vagaries of inflation and recession. The diamond invention is far more than a monopoly for fixing diamond prices; it is a mechanism for converting tiny crystals of carbon into universally recognized tokens of wealth, power, and romance. To achieve this goal, De Beers had to control demand as well as supply. Both women and men had to be made to perceive diamonds not as marketable precious stones but as an inseparable part of courtship and married life. To stabilize the market, De Beers had to endow these stones with a sentiment that would inhibit the public from ever reselling them. The illusion had to be created that diamonds were forever -- "forever" in the sense that they should never be resold. In September of 1938, Harry Oppenheimer, son of the founder of De Beers and then twenty-nine, traveled from Johannesburg to New York City, to meet with Gerold M. Lauck, the president of N. W. Ayer, a leading advertising agency in the United States. Lauck and N. W. Ayer had been recommended to Oppenheimer by the Morgan Bank, which had helped his father consolidate the De Beers financial empire. His bankers were concerned about the price of diamonds, which had declined worldwide. In Europe, where diamond prices had collapsed during the Depression, there seemed little possibility of restoring public confidence in diamonds. In Germany, Austria, Italy, and Spain, the notion of giving a diamond ring to commemorate an engagement had never taken hold. In England and France, diamonds were still presumed to be jewels for aristocrats rather than the masses. Furthermore, Europe was on the verge of war, and there seemed little possibility of expanding diamond sales. This left the United States as the only real market for De Beers's diamonds. In fact, in 1938 some three quarters of all the cartel's diamonds were sold for engagement rings in the United States. Most of these stones, however, were smaller and of poorer quality than those bought in Europe, and had an average price of $80 apiece. Oppenheimer and the bankers believed that an advertising campaign could persuade Americans to buy more expensive diamonds. Oppenheimer suggested to Lauck that his agency prepare a plan for creating a new image for diamonds among Americans. He assured Lauck that De Beers had not called on any other American advertising agency with this proposal, and that if the plan met with his father's approval, N. W. Ayer would be the exclusive agents for the placement of newspaper and radio advertisements in the United States. Oppenheimer agreed to underwrite the costs of the research necessary for developing the campaign. Lauck instantly accepted the offer. In their subsequent investigation of the American diamond market, the staff of N. W. Ayer found that since the end of World War I, in 1919, the total amount of diamonds sold in America, measured in carats, had declined by 50 percent; at the same time, the quality of the diamonds, measured in dollar value, had declined by nearly 100 percent. An Ayer memo concluded that the depressed state of the market for diamonds was "the result of the economy, changes in social attitudes and the promotion of competitive luxuries." Although it could do little about the state of the economy, N. W. Ayer suggested that through a well-orchestrated advertising and public-relations campaign it could have a significant impact on the "social attitudes of the public at large and thereby channel American spending toward larger and more expensive diamonds instead of "competitive luxuries." Specifically, the Ayer study stressed the need to strengthen the association in the public's mind of diamonds with romance. Since "young men buy over 90% of all engagement rings" it would be crucial to inculcate in them the idea that diamonds were a gift of love: the larger and finer the diamond, the greater the expression of love. Similarly, young women had to be encouraged to view diamonds as an integral part of any romantic courtship. Since the Ayer plan to romanticize diamonds required subtly altering the public's picture of the way a man courts -- and wins -- a woman, the advertising agency strongly suggested exploiting the relatively new medium of motion pictures. Movie idols, the paragons of romance for the mass audience, would be given diamonds to use as their symbols of indestructible love. In addition, the agency suggested offering stories and society photographs to selected magazines and newspapers which would reinforce the link between diamonds and romance. Stories would stress the size of diamonds that celebrities presented to their loved ones, and photographs would conspicuously show the glittering stone on the hand of a well-known woman. Fashion designers would talk on radio programs about the "trend towards diamonds" that Ayer planned to start. The Ayer plan also envisioned using the British royal family to help foster the romantic allure of diamonds. An Ayer memo said, "Since Great Britain has such an important interest in the diamond industry, the royal couple could be of tremendous assistance to this British industry by wearing diamonds rather than other jewels." Queen Elizabeth later went on a well-publicized trip to several South African diamond mines, and she accepted a diamond from Oppenheimer. In addition to putting these plans into action, N. W. Ayer placed a series of lush four-color advertisements in magazines that were presumed to mold elite opinion, featuring reproductions of famous paintings by such artists as Picasso, Derain, Dali, and Dufy. The advertisements were intended to convey the idea that diamonds, like paintings, were unique works of art.

Being Human....Robin Sharma

As William Penn once noted: "I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again." #1. Be Real Call it being authentic. Call it being yourself. The fact is that few things are as powerful as standing in the presence of a person who is really really comfortable in their own skin. What I'm suggesting is that you speak with your unique voice and that you live under your true values and that you present the real you to the world around you. Please trust me on this one. I promise you that when you get to the last hour of your last day, you will regret having lived the life society sold you versus the life that you knew deep within was meant for you. #2. Smile Sure this sounds obvious. But what makes greatness is the daily executing around simple ideas. And if smiling during good and hard times was so easy, then why is it so hard for most people? I travel across the planet constantly. But no matter whether I'm in Qatar or Napa, Buenos Aires or Malaysia, Mumbai or Amsterdam, a quick and genuine smile to a stranger always connects. Unites. Uplifts. #3. Use People's Names The fantastic Dale Carnegie taught us well. He observed that a person's name is the sweetest sound to their ears. And yet, it's so very easy to forget to go the extra mile and remember - and then use - someone's name. World-class communicators get that when they address people by name, it brings them closer. And makes them stand out. #4. Look People In The Eye Okay. I really need to rant mildly on this one. Sure we all have our smart phones and iPods and PCs. But this new way of communicating where our mouths move while we speak to the person in front of us but our eyes stay on the screens before us sends a message to that person that they just are not that important. The best gift you can give a customer+teammate+loved one is the gift of your presence. In this age of easy digitization, giving the human being you're communicating with 1000% of your attention is a spectacular method to lead the field. So, look people in the eye. Engage with what they are saying. Make them feel special. No, make them feel--for the brief moments they interact with you - that they are the most important person in the world. #5. Be Honest Again, simple, I know. But leadership and success really does come down to the daily doing of a series of fundamentals staggeringly well. Be the most honest person you know. Let your ethics drive your behavior. And please remember, anyone can be honest when times are easy. The true measure of your leadership is how honest you are when everything's falling apart. #6. Choose Good Words I was up in the mountains last weekend. Wanted to get some breakfast. Walked into a new Italian restaurant that advertised breakfast until 11:30 am. It was 11:40. I asked the man behind the counter: "Is it possible to still get breakfast?" His instant reply: "Absolutely not." Now I understand this man wasn't trying to be rude. He was most likely unskilled with his words. Just not a great communicator. But his words had impact (as all words do). A more effective communicator could have said, "I wish we could but we've just switched over to the lunch menu. I think you'll love it. C'mon in and give it a try." It's all in the languaging. Instead, his words caused me to try his competitor. And to think that this is a restaurant that just doesn't care that much.

China will be the world’s biggest app market, and other predictions for Asia in 2012 13TH JANUARY 2012 by JON RUSSELL

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve run a series of features looking back at 2011 and forward to 2012 from a number of different angles. We have already reviewed the last year in Asia, and took some time out to get the thoughts of Bubble Motion CEO Tom Clayton on what the next twelve months could hold for the Internet in the region. For those that are not familiar with Bubble Motion, the company runs Bubbly, a voice microblogging service that allows users to send short messages from a smartphone or regular phone. The Singapore-head quartered firm has 12 million users and is particularly popular in Asia, making Clayton a well qualified pundit on the region’s tech scene. Twitter will grow substantially in key markets Asia Pacific is notable for having the world’s highest mobile penetration (registered numbers to people) and Clayton believes that mobile will help extend Twitter beyond the already strong numbers that it enjoys across the region, particularly amongst Indonesia’s 240 million population. “Thanks to limited Internet users and very mobile-centric populations, Twitter use in Indonesia will overtake the US and Brazil in number of tweet volume,” predicts Clayton, before explaining that Japan will also see more growth. Twitter is already huge in Japan, where it has partnered with leading domestic social network Mixi, but the Bubble Motion boss sees the country developer further still, becoming key to Twitter in Asia. The accelerating growth in Japan will be even more impressive, as it will contribute more revenue to the company than all other countries in Asia combined. With over 27 percent of Japanese online population and 22 percent of the Indonesian online population using the network, Twitter will be the first “foreign” social media service to really make huge inroads relative to the entrenched “Big 3″ locally” Facebook will dominate all of Asia by the end of the year Facebook is already colossal in Asia but there are some key pockets and significant markets where it is not yet dominant, while China remains a big issue for it, like many other Western firms. In our Facebook 2012 preview, we foretold that the company will begin to look at the issue of China, putting a strategy on the table in the next twelve months. While Clayton believes that no progress will be made there, unless it partners up, he does feels that Japan, Korea and Taiwan are ripe for the taking: 2012 is the year Facebook takes over the last 3 major Asian countries and dominates the sub-continent. If Facebook can buy a Chinese social network or do a joint venture in China, they may well displace all other local networks. Asia to pass 3 billion mobile users and account for half worldwide Having said that mobile is already big in Asia, the stage is set for the communications medium to develop even further across the continent and account for half of all mobile phone users worldwide, according to Clayton. He believes that “significant economic development across the region”, alongside the increasing sophistication of mobile networks — 4G is already available in Korea and soon to launch in Singapore, for example — and the increasing affordability of devices will drive higher adoption rates. But it isn’t just more users, Clayton foresees that a change in how many Asians will interact with Web is coming. Mobile broadband is growing rapidly to increase the number of Asian mobile Internet users beyond what is already a huge number: In September 2011, China alone surpassed 100M 3G subscriptions, which makes up just 10 percent of its total mobile population. India has reached 859M mobile subscriptions, and Indonesia and Japan each have well over 100M users. With such rapid growth in handheld devices, mobile phone usage far surpasses fixed-line PC usage. For example, In India there are only 70 million Internet users, but there are over 700 million mobile subscribers. Smartphone penetration will remain low but pass 500 million devices While the smartphones will grow beyond the current rate of 19 percent of Asia’s mobile market, Clayton thinks that, outside of major countries, growth will continue but at a lower rate: Singapore, Korea and Malaysia will lead the pack but the largest markets China, India and Indonesia still lag significantly with all of them in single digits in percentage terms. However, when you view it from the absolute number of smartphone devices, the numbers are significant. Taking India as an example, a 9 percent smartphone penetration would equal around 80 million devices. The American expects that smartphone ownership in ‘advanced’ Asia markets like Korea and Japan, will grow beyond 50 percent to mirror its rate in North America and across parts of Europe. It may surprise some but neither Japan nor Korea has a long history of smartphones, although Apple and Google are leading the revolution, as he reveals: Most of their phones, while packed with exhaustive features, are not technically considered smartphones, but rather very capable, feature-rich feature phones. However, iPhone and Android phones are on fire in each country and there seems to be no signs of this growth slowing anytime soon. Apps: China will become world’s biggest market, Asia will keep growing Last year, a report from Flurry found China to be the world’s second largest downloader of apps, and you can see the country’s potential by the fact that China Mobile’s own store has 149 million users. Clayton believes that the time is right for China to overtake the US to take the top spot, while Asia will continue to be an important focus as the only region posting significant growth in app downloads: While app download growth has flattened and even begun to decline in some countries in the Western world, Asia will continue to grow at a break-neck pace, as 3G deployments and coverage are solidified in the emerging markets and more and more users add data plans. Android shipments to Asia grew massively in 2011, tripling in Southeast Asia, and Clayton cites the Google-owned system as being a key part behind the growth of apps, by providing affordable devices for consumers: The MediaTek ecosystem will soon produce numerous sub-$90 Android-powered smartphones that will fuel even further Android growth in the region. Monetization of apps will remain a challenge, but we already see many app providers in the region (like our own), figuring out creative ways to solve that problem. What do you think: Do you agree with Tom Clayton’s predictions, or do you have other ideas of areas that are set to be significant this year in Asia? http://thenextweb.com/asia/2012/01/13/china-will-be-the-worlds-biggest-app-market-and-other-predictions-for-asia-in-2012/ JOIN TNW ASIA ON: OR RSS ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jon Russell is the Asia Editor of The Next Web. Jon has been commenting on and writing about Asia's internet, technology and start-up scenes since he swapped London for Bangkok in 2008. You can reach him through Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn or by emailing jon@thenextweb.com.

bite the apple

Why are those 10 minutes of sleep...b4 u actually need to get up, so precious?!…. was my sister’s facebook status. Agreeing wholeheartedly, I commented, “Because you are stealing them...Always exciting to do what one is not supposed to do...!” Isnt it true? Forbidden fruit always tastes sweeter, that’s what got Adam and Eve into huge trouble. Problem is that while they were denied just that one experience and even then couldn’t resist having a taste, we have temptations galore! We encounter nays and don’ts at every turn; some imposed by law, some by society, others by those close to us, and yes, some restrictions we impose on ourselves! And now it seems it’s not just the forbidden that tempts us, but even the out-of-the-ordinary things that help break the monotony of everyday life. The world of Adam and Eve was a spanking new one with untold treasures yet to be discovered; we live in a jaded world where anything out of the ordinary excites and rejuvenates while the ordinary, everyday stuff bores. And that’s how you have people like New York Congressman Anthony Weiner and Oscar winning film director Quentin Tarantino, who are in the news not for something as mundane as having an affair, but for acts that make fellow beings sit up -- somewhat in disgust, somewhat in amusement somewhat in wonder, and yes, even envy! While public personalities like golf legend Tiger Woods met their nemesis by having multiple affairs and IMF Chief Strauss-Kahn pounced on a hotel maid and N.D. Tiwari was caught with sex workers, nothing as ordinary would do for Weiner! He got his kick by tweeting sexually explicit photos and messages of himself in an aroused state to young girls before and during his marriage! Technically, he didn’t have an extra-marital affair but to most, what he did was somehow far worse! Not to be outdone in affaires extraordinaire, Tarantino has now hit the headlines with his toe fetish. An Indian girl has revealed how the talented filmmaker sucked on her toes while pleasuring himself. Most men, though they may jeer at Tarantino, would have been curious about and fascinated by his twinkle toe act! As Mark Oppenheimer writes in Huffington Post, “There was something not weird, but too familiar about Weiner. His style might not be for everyone (to put it politely), but the impulse to be something other than what we are in our daily, monogamous lives, the thrill that comes from the illicit rather than the predictable, is something I imagine many couples can identify with. With his online flirtations and soft-porn photos, he did what a lot of us might do if we were lonely and determined to not really cheat.” Defying the law, flouting traffic rules, drinking yourself senseless, destroying public property, ringing a bell and running away – all these activities seem so exciting when teenage hormones are raging. Unfortunately for some, those hormones never do quite settle down. And Mr Hyde is always waiting just a breath away to emerge and exhibit a vastly different persona and morality from that of Dr Jekyll. Everyone is faced with the same temptations at some point or the other, and all of us have a Mr Hyde lurking within us. The difference is that while some give in to forbidden pleasures and excitement, others consider repercussions and hold on steadfast against temptation. Minor temptations such as 10 minutes of extra sleep, chocolates, rich chocolate pastries or that extra helping of food cannot harm anyone as much as temptations that have the potential to turn into public scandals and take down loved ones along with us. The worst fear of succumbing to temptations is when you end up hurting loved ones or harming yourselves. One can never really know one’s vulnerability unless actually faced with temptation. Each of us knows our strengths and weaknesses in normal conditions; but it would help to consider what exactly we are capable of doing in our vulnerable moments.We have no idea what are our friends, colleagues and neighbours capable of doing in unusual circumstances? Do loneliness and depression lead us into doing things we would never do under normal conditions? What is the worst thing that the colleague seated in the next cabin has done? Has he sexted sexy pictures of himself to women? Is he a closet gay? Is he a stalker?! Or the friend you share lunch with every day. Do you know what she is up to when nobody observes her? After all would Weiner’s friends and relatives have ever suspected he was sexting lewd photographs of himself to young girls on social networking sites? It is only by unearthing the Hyde within us and understanding him that we can strengthen Jekyll to maintain his strength and will power under all circumstances. It is only by knowing the extent to which we can fall that we can determine and establish the heights we can reach. So go on, give in to the temptation of that extra 10 minutes of eye-shut …it may even help you keep Mr Hyde under check, lest greater temptations lead you astray…

need for pursuit

One of the most often overlooked aspects of leadership is the need for pursuit. Great leaders are never satisfied with traditional practice, static thinking, conventional wisdom, or common performance. In fact, the best leaders are simply uncomfortable with anything that embraces the status quo. Leadership is pursuit – pursuit of excellence, of elegance, of truth, of what’s next, of what if, of change, of value, of results, of relationships, of service, of knowledge, and of something bigger than themselves. In the text that follows I’ll examine the value of being a pursuer… Here’s the thing – pursuit leads to attainment. What you pursue will determine the paths you travel, the people you associate with, the character you develop, and ultimately, what you do or don’t achieve. Having a mindset focused on pursuit is so critical to leadership that lacking this one quality can sentence you to mediocrity or even obsolescence. The manner, method, and motivation behind any pursuit is what sets truly great leaders apart from the masses. If you want to become a great leader, become a great pursuer. A failure to embrace pursuit is to cede opportunity to others. A leader’s failure to pursue clarity leaves them amidst the fog. Their failure to pursue creativity relegates them to the routine and mundane. Their failure to pursue talent sentences them to a world of isolation. Their failure to pursue change approves apathy. Their failure to pursue wisdom and discernment subjects them to distraction and folly. Their failure to pursue character leaves a question mark on their integrity. Let me put this as simply as I can – you cannot attain what you do not pursue. Smart leaders understand it’s not just enough to pursue, but pursuit must be intentional, focused, consistent, aggressive, and unyielding. You must pursue the right things, for the right reasons, and at the right times. Perhaps most of all, the best forms of pursuit enlist others in the chase. Pursuit in its purest form is highly collaborative, very inclusive and easily transferable. Pursuit operates at greatest strength when it leverages velocity and scale. I also want to caution you against trivial pursuits – don’t confuse pursuit with simple goal setting. Outcomes are clearly important, but as a leader, it’s what happens after the outcome that you need to be in pursuit of. Pursue discovery, seek dissenting opinions, develop your ability unlearn by embracing how much you don’t know, and find the kind of vision that truly does see around corners. Don’t use your pursuits to shift paradigms, pursue breaking them. Knowing what not to pursue is just as important as knowing what to pursue. It’s important to keep in mind that nothing tells the world more about a leader than what or who they pursue – that which you pursue is that which you value. If you message to your organization you value talent, but don’t treat people well and don’t spend time developing the talent around you, then I would suggest you value rhetoric more than talent. Put simply, you can wax eloquent all you like, but your actions will ultimately reveal what you truly value. Lastly, the best leaders pursue being better leaders. They know to fail in this pursuit is nothing short of a guarantee they’ll be replaced by those who don’t. All leaders would be well served to go back to school on what I refer to as the science of pursuitology.

The Truth about Capricons

People belonging to the Capricorn sign are born between December 22nd and January 19th. Capricorn men have strong desires to achieve power, money, status and love. Although love does appear last on the list, it is comparatively a significant part of his personality. Patience comes naturally to them, implying they wait until they find the perfection. Effectively a loner sign, Capricorns find relationships to be a challenge. Find it difficult to trust another human being. Although they appear to be a bitter people from the outside, they are more sensitive than many and just covering up to experience a sense of security. A Capricorn man wants to be appreciated praised and ego fed. Any woman who manages to successfully ensure the above will have a very loyal, dedicated and sincere partner for life. Thus proving a Capricorn man's sensitive heart and swayable emotions! By equalizing material and financial possessions with emotional security the Capricorn man mixes up the feeling sphere with the materialistic realm. Keeping the positive traits in mind, one big weakness in any relationship will be the Capricorn trying to run the show. Could be mistaken for independence but actually is nothing but desperation for control. Being so emotionally attached to their partners, Capricorns find it difficult to understand and believe that there are lessons to be learnt from their partners.

Life and Some more

The highlight of the evening was an interactive session of questions and answers with Rev. Dada, involving various facts of peace. Some of the questions and answers were – Q1: What is the price for attaining peace of mind? A: one should rejoice in the Will of God, for His will is the best, whether in pain or pleasure. With this attitude, one will be filled with peace. Sadhu Vaswani’s wise words were God upsets our plans, to set up His own. But his plans are perfect. Q2: Why is that earlier generations seemed to have lived in greater peace? A: This is so because they lived in the love and fear of God. Nowadays, there is no belief in God. We must bring God back into our lives. Q3: Are the pursuit of wealth, power and position compatible with peace? A: Keep in mind that wealth, power and position will be earned only according to the power of our Karma. Then one will always be at peace. There is irritation and frustration only because we do not understand the law of Karma. Q4: Was there a time when you experienced disturbance? A: There was a time when the slightest thing would make me upset and angry. But through God’s grace that stage has been cleansed out. We should pray to Him and beg for his Grace. We have thrown God out of our homes, schools and colleges. The vacuum thus created is filled by the devil. Q5: The Vedas mention the mantra, ‘Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. What significance does it have? A: The following is my interpretation – According to the scriptures, three important elements make up man – i. Body and senses ii. Mind iii. Speech which expresses our thoughts. Hence, Shanti being repeated thrice is once each for the above three. Peace in every aspect that makes up man. Q6: How to respond and not react? A: Vanquish the ego. Then there will be no reacting. The hurt and the pain belong to the ego. Till then there will be no peace. Q7: I am in a position of authority. If a subordinate is rude or misbehaves, what should I do? A: Do your duty. You may use some firm or even harsh words to correct the person. But your anger should emanate only from your lips, not from your heart. Q8: How can children be made to feel more peaceful? A: This great responsibility lies with the mother. She should accept the Will of God peacefully when the child is in the womb. Then those vibrations of peace will pass on automatically to the c