Antwerp diamond companies participated in their very first ‘Antwerp Diamond Academy’ on May 6, 2012, in Stadsschouwburg, Antwerp. The focus of this Academy was ‘Innovation’. Sir Richard Branson attended the event as its Guest of Honour and unfolded much of his experience and guidance to the participants during an interactive panel discussion. His talk delivered some key business approaches including:
- Luck and one’s gut feeling account for 50-50 percent in success , business acumen comes automatically . So follow your gut feeling.
- Delegate responsibilities to others in the organization and free yourself to do something else.
-Give a bigger than expected promotion to the staff which will influence the staff to perform better.
-Manpower is the key, keep good people with you and give them what they deserve.
-Your staff spends most of their life in office so the office environment should be very encouraging and pleasant. Sir Branson also stated that he loved to ‘do things which change people's life and that's how it converts in a successful business model’.
The event was segmented into various workshops in different halls including - social media , IT solutions , optimizing time , e-business etc.
All the fee towards Sir Branson from this event will be forwarded to Virgin Unite, a charitable arm of the Virgin Group. During the event, Sir Branson also launched the electronic trading platform – Diamdex.
Varda Shine, CEO of Diamond Trading Company (DTC) was also present at the event.
The AWDC noted that the ‘Antwerp Diamond Academy’ will be organized on a regular basis to provide Antwerp diamond companies with practical information to help boost their business.