The [International Diamond Board] is desperately needed in the U.S. market. We are losing market share to other luxury goods, and we need promotion of the diamond category. Other diamond promotions such as Everlon are not serving the diamond category as a whole but rather the interests of individual companies. All retailers in the U.S. should call on the Russian producers (via JA?) to support the IDB and restore demand and consumer confidence in the U.S., the world’s largest market.

—Steve Gladstone on “International Diamond Board Postponed,” Dec. 31, 2009

I’ve been a retail jeweler for 25 years and have owned my own store for the last 15. When things were good I had thought I made the right decisions to delegate a lot of jobs. I got to the point where I expected everyone else to work and I would handle certain appointments, golf, take vacations, let others buy (within a budget) and manage the sales staff and office.… [W]hen things started going bad the past two years, it was really bad for my business. I learned real quick how out of touch I was and what a fool I had been for not keeping my finger on the pulse of everything. “We” bought from some really wrong vendors. Product was OK but service and follow-through was terrible. … I have shifted [employees’] focus from sales of pieces and percentages to profit dollars—which is what we take to the bank and pay their salaries and commissions with. It sounds simple, but trust me, getting them (and me) to think and act differently hasn’t been easy. But it has been worth it.

—Fab Four in Illinois on “More Than a Few Aspirin Needed For Industry Hangover,” A Different Facet, Aug. 4, 2009