Gold evangelist spreads the word
Uta Harnischfeger
Last Updated: April 30. 2009 11:52PM UAE / April 30. 2009 7:52PM GMT
Aram Shishmanian, the chief executive of the World Gold Council,
believes gold will retain its allure. Jonathan Player for The National
Aram Shishmanian understands the connections that bind people to
gold. For 35 years, he has worn a matte gold watch, a graduation
present from his father.
That sentiment, and a 33-year career as a consultant and business
philanthropist, has helped him run the World Gold Council (WGC) in an
age when the metal’s appeal is under pressure from a growing array of
consumer attractions such as mobile phones and designer handbags.
In recent years, gold has lost `some of its aspirational character’,
Mr Shishmanian says. He points out that many young consumers in major
emerging economies such as China and India are more interested in
western-style luxury goods than beautifully crafted gold
jewellery. `Heavily exposed to the media, they aspire for western
consumer and luxury goods as part of a stereotyped western lifestyle.’
Since about 50 per cent of these consumers are under 20, the WGC needs
to reposition its gold products towards the youth market. `Today gold
is competing head on with high-branded products from the mobile phone
to the Louis Vuitton handbag,’ Mr Shishmanian says. `We must ask
ourselves the question: what does it take to reignite that passion and
aspirational demand for gold?’
He already has a model for his rebranding plan. `Diamonds have done a
fantastic job in creating demand,’ he says, somewhat grudgingly. But
then, Mr Shishmanian, 57, has never been frightened of change. Before
moving to the WGC, he spent 27 years at the accounting firm Accenture,
moving up the ladder every few years. Eventually, he launched and
later headed the finance division. `[I] never once sat in a corner
office,’ he says.
Five months ago, he began his stint as a gold evangelist, after
accepting an offer from Gregory Wilkins, the WGC chairman, to lead the
council.
At the time, he was holding an average of five non-executive
directorships at FTSE 100 firms, after retiring from Accenture five
years earlier. The board positions ranged from a start-up insurer to
biotech companies and a carpet manufacturer. Then came the phone call
from Mr Wilkins and he moved into the gold business.
Since then, Mr Shishmanian has become a passionate student of the
traditions of the world’s largest gold consumers – India, China and
the Middle East. In these regions, gold serves as a key component of a
woman’s wealth, through a marriage dowry.
`In the West, gold is easily linked to conspicuous consumption,’ he
says.
`But I love the way it is ingrained in, for example, India. When you
have a good harvest, you buy gold. Gold is an investment, a wealth
creation and a protection.’ During the recent economic boom, luxury
goods became `affordable’ and reached a broader market, challenging
gold’s supremacy in India and China. Simple gold jewellery became a
relic to some customers.
But the global downturn has reignited interest in the metal because of
its reputation as a haven, boosting gold’s price earlier this year to
just below a peak of US$1,032 an ounce in March 2008. `Now, they are
rediscovering it as a means to preserve wealth,’ Mr Shishmanian says.
Even so, once the economy improves, he wonders whether gold will
retain its allure to future customers. He believes it will. After all,
his first challenge when he took over the WGC was to convert his wife
to gold. She was, he says, `a diamond and platinum lady’.
Following an invitation to his first official WGC event in Italy, he
realised his wife had to wear gold. To encourage her interest in the
precious metal, he took her to a renowned Italian jewellery
designer. `She caught the gold bug and looks gorgeous in it,’ he says.
Just like the product he promotes, Mr Shishmanian has a colourful
past. Born in Iran in 1951, he went to what he says was `boarding
school in London’ – when he was only nine months old. His parents
travelled the globe as textile merchants and felt they could not take
him along every time they moved. But when he reached his teens, he
joined his parents in Iran and Kuwait, where the family lived for
extended periods. So, while he says he feels close to his Armenian
heritage, Mr Shishmanian describes himself as a mixture of cultures
and attitudes, born out of living on four different
continents. `Emotionally, I feel like an Armenian… in terms of my
thinking, I am English because of my education, and culturally I feel
very open because I have lived outside of the UK half of my life.’
It was a visit to his family in Iran that eventually shaped his life
and career after accompanying a family friend, a consultant, to a
client meeting. During the course of the discussions, he was impressed
with how the company acted on his friend’s advice. At that point, Mr
Shishmanian decided to study economics at City University in London,
receiving an MBA from its Cass Business School. He joined Arthur
Andersen, as Accenture was then called, in 1976.
During his time there he developed an interest in philanthropy. It was
initially sparked when he accompanied another family friend to his
work at the UN office in Tehran. Mr Shishmanian says he then decided
to do `some good in life’. But it was not until many years later, in
1988, when a devastating earthquake struck Armenia, that he `made good
on that vow’.
Using marketing skills honed during decades of closing business deals,
he raised `unbelievable sums’ for hospitals and schools for an
Armenian charity. `That made me believe that you can make a difference
through the action you can take.’
He later served on the board of the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity
for many years and visited projects in Vietnam as a Save the Children
goodwill ambassador. `I will definitely take on more charity work,
when I am an old man,’ he says with a smile.