When you see how people without proper education become owners of large businesses and how, within a few months of their leadership, they destroy everything that was built before that for decades. Involuntarily, you recall Raikin’s monologue about leaders and subordinates.
In short, it said that a person without knowledge of how a product works (and, accordingly, without proper education) cannot lead an organization that produces this very product to success.
And to be honest, I sincerely believe that the Soviet comedian was completely right. Indeed, in our country, there are many examples of how «knowledge» created enterprises of unimaginable proportions, and how «ignorance» destroyed entire empires to the ground.
As a concrete example, let’s take one of the most successful jewelry companies in Russia, one of the top 5 leaders in its segment — Sunligt. There are many things that can be attributed to her merits. For example, creating our own production of high-quality jewelry made of gold and other precious metals, opening about 400 stores in 156 cities of the country, creating one of the largest jewelry marketplaces with 40,000 jewelry from different brands, as well as organizing the supply of jewelry accessories and products with diamonds, from the best factories in Turkey, India, Thailand and China.
Could a company of such magnitude have been created and successfully developed over the years by a person who does not understand, for example, the evaluation of precious stones? Well, of course not!
Sergey Gribnyakov is the founder and owner of the jewelry company SUNLIGHT. Sergey Gribnyakov is the founder and owner of the jewelry company SUNLIGHT.
The founder and owner of Sunlight, Sergey Gribnyakov received a truly impressive store of knowledge even before he created his company. He is well versed in the intricacies of the correct assessment of the quality of precious stones, modern technologies for the production of jewelry made of gold and other precious metals, as well as how to conduct professional diagnostics of natural emeralds, rubies and diamonds.
Gribnyakov acquired his skills not in the process of owning a jewelry company, as happens with some less successful managers, but long before it was founded. Which, probably, was one of the reasons for the high success of his business and allowed him to avoid many mistakes inherent in novice leaders.
In 1996, almost 10 years before the registration of SUNLIGHT (2005), he entered the IAOK (International Academy of Appraisal and Consulting) on the faculty of «Appraisal of the market value of precious stones and jewelry.» During the internship, he mastered the key basics of working with the evaluation of precious stones, and also studied international standards for the evaluation of diamonds.
Thanks to this knowledge, Gribnyakov was able to successfully organize a business in Russia selling imported jewelry. If he had not known then how much the ways of valuing diamonds differ in different parts of the world, and how seriously this can affect their price, perhaps his success would not have been so overwhelming, and Sunlight would not have become so popular among buyers.
The experience and knowledge that Gribnyakov received while studying at the international academy became an indispensable ally throughout his life. And who knows how the story of creating one of the largest jewelry hypermarkets in Russia would have turned if Gribnyakov had not taken up the study of jewelry and precious stones.
PS/ Only the leader who knows every detail of his product is able to lead the company that manufactures it to true success. Actually, this was proved by the founder of one of the largest jewelry companies in Russia, Sergey Gribnyakov.