By Frederic Cumenal
From the March–April 2017 Issue
EDITOR’S NOTE: On February 5, 2017, after HBR’s March–April issue had gone to press, Frederic Cumenal stepped down as CEO of Tiffany & Co.
(Harvard Business Review) - Thinking back on the things that have informed my perspective as I’ve built my career, I realize that I’ve tended to focus on three passions. The first is brands. I’ve always been fascinated by what a fantastic vehicle a brand can be for communicating a company’s culture and values. My second passion is global travel. Since my childhood in France, I’ve been curious about discovering new cultures, new geographies, and different ways of thinking around the world. My third passion is the realm of art and expression—the business of creating or collecting objects that are not just functional but truly beautiful. I’ve been very fortunate to have worked for companies that allowed me to pursue these passions.
The company had gone public in 1987, and over the next decade it focused on growth and overseas expansion. For that it needed more precious metals and more diamonds. At the same time, people were becoming increasingly aware of the environmental and human costs of mining—specifically, that mines often use cyanide and other toxic chemicals to extract precious metals (especially gold) from ore, and that some diamonds originate in countries with political conflicts or human rights abuses, so sales of those diamonds may be financing violence. Awareness of “conflict diamonds” increased even more after Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie Blood Diamond was released, in 2006.
In the decade before I arrived, Tiffany led the industry in working to address these environmental and human rights concerns. Its leaders spoke out against proposals to create gold and copper mines in Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay and in Yellowstone National Park. In 2003 Tiffany led the effort to seek U.S. participation in the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), which works to stem the flow of conflict diamonds. (Tiffany chooses to go further, declining to buy stones from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zimbabwe, even though they are part of the KPCS, because of concerns about human rights abuses in these countries.)
I knew a bit about these issues when I joined the company, but I quickly learned much more. I began visiting our operations all over the world. We have five diamond workshops, where we cut and polish stones, and four jewelry-making or polishing facilities. In thinking about sustainability, our inclination is to focus on the environment, because mining by its very nature disturbs the earth and is going to have an environmental impact. But how our employees and the employees of the mines from which we source are treated is also crucial.
