JB: How do you make a company as big as Stuller more market-responsive?
DC: It’s not easy. First, you have to maintain the processes and systems used to build the company and get the order out every time with the right service level. Those are vital. However, you also have to build new systems based on what your customers are asking for. You can’t do this with everything and sometimes it doesn’t go as smooth as you want it to, but I would say we’re faster today at responding than we were three or four years ago. We also have a lot of things in motion now to improve speed. The work we just did for Canada is a great example. We could ship to the old service centre and out to the customer, or we could open the pipeline to ship straight to the retailer.
JB: If you were going to design your own store, what would it look like?
MS: I’ve never thought about this before as my entire DNA is manufacturing and wholesaling to a retail store, but I think it would be about 1500 to 1800 sf, big enough to show strength, but small enough to truly manage it. I would want it to only offer jewellery—I wouldn’t want to sell china, silverware, or even watches. I would want to be perceived as the expert in my field of fine jewellery. I would make it a destination store, an entertaining space. It would have to be comfortable and allow the customer to feel good. It couldn’t be sterile. Instead, it would have to be professional and warm. I would want people to come to my store often, ideally every month, but certainly five or six times a year, and I would want them to come to design jewellery for the future. I would want people to be able to see a library of what they’ve created and what they would like. There’s a real balance required in designing a store. You have to be shoulder to shoulder with your customer, working with them side by side, instead of across the counter. Selling jewellery is a very personalized business. You want to go to your jeweller because they know everything about you and they remind you not to forget an occasion, which is why keeping customer information is extraordinarily important. You need to relate yourself to your client as a professional and as their advisor.
JB: What keeps you up at night?
MS: Everything. I’ve always heard that if you’re a workaholic, you work because you fear. If you’re an entrepreneur, you do it because it’s exciting and fun. I say I’m a combination of both. I love entrepreneurship and I love capitalism. I worry about my employees, the economy, our industry. As a company, we’re very strong with a lot of majors and chains, but we are passionate about independent jewellers because they helped bring us to where we are today, so I always worry about our customers. I worry about people moving away from buying jewellery and purchasing other luxury items, particularly electronics because they are so market-driven. We don’t have that in the jewellery industry and it’s something we need to work on.
