“Great market and great opportunity but not for free!“… Coffee with Ivano Micheletti

Indian government is protectionist…

 “Wonderful”

“Bureaucracy” and “culturally different working climate”

And here comes an interaction extraordinaire…I take great pleasure in introducing and interviewing Ivano Micheletti, a man I am proud to have been associated with and a figure who can at best be described as legendary in the field of gold jewellery-well known in Italy and in India in circles where gold is the object of attention through all the working hours.

Ivano is an Indophile and how he became one is the stuff that books are made of! When he came to India the first time in the summer of 1996, the word “India” was synonymous in his mind with Sadhus in dreadlocks and poverty in general. In a span of a few days, by the time he returned to Italy, his brain was an explosion of myriad colours, images, contradictory facts, beauty, culture, business all rolled into a molten mosaic called India.

Then began his journey of unravelling the mystery of India. He read widely…the heaving book shelves in his home in the city of Arezzo are a testament to his undying devotion to piecing together the intricacies of an ancient culture which he found so appealing that his visits to India and the length of his stays there kept increasing exponentially with time finally culminating in the setting up of a company in Mumbai with a coterie of Italian firms. Dreams are spun of such material and so are companies. I was fortunate to be a board member of that company which had begun as an idea that Ivano and I jointly hatched over endless glasses of wine over several evenings in India and in Italy. The idea was taken forward to finally give birth to a unique structure. It was a bold step, a bold experiment and a leap of faith of a handful of Italian men in the Indian market.

Ivano´s working life spanned years in UNOAERRE, the largest jewellery producing company in the world followed by more years as director of the largest Italian jewellery consortium which boasted of 240 member companies. Now, Ivano prefers to dabble in the business world at leisure, when he wishes to, as an independent luxury consultant.

“Wonderful” is how he still describes India and her people. His fascination for this country has not waned even after the many roadblocks he and the company he co-founded, faced. “Bureaucracy” and “culturally different working climate” are what were challenges which he says are easier faced in India with right Indian professionals by your side.

While speaking with Ivano after so many years, I recounted the memory of a presentation I made in Florence (Italy) 22 years ago when the media took me to task while trying to understand how the largest gold consuming country in the world could also be a place of extreme poverty…these two images were difficult to marry in their minds and came alive for some Italian entrepreneurs when we stayed in the lap of luxury in Leela Kempinski, Mumbai for some days next to the biggest slum there. The contrast hit some so hard that they never came back to India…except Ivano and his coterie.

After his visits and experiences, his impression of India has not changed much… he maintains that for Europeans to do business in India, the greatest barrier is the import duty applied on products. The only way to avoid it is to set up a production unit on the country, taking advantage of the superior technology and combining it with designs from Italy perhaps. (This should make the Modi government happy for their make in India campaign!)

Ivano firmly believes that as a long term perspective, European companies cannot avoid  exploring the Indian market. It is also a question, of course, to select the right product and the right time.

In his parting words “Indian economy potentially offers great opportunities to foreign companies at one basic condition: that their purpose is not to go there with the idea to just squeeze a lemon…. meaning you must give something interesting in order to have returns. And this requires patience and time. It is also very important to count on right professional local support”

Goodbye Ivano..till we meet again ! (this time in India I hope)