Just as ordinary coal becomes priceless diamonds, Govind Dholakia , a seventh class drop-out, who did not even own a pair of slippers till his 14th birthday, has set up a 1,625 crore diamond manufacturing firm.

Govindbhai Dholakia, founder of Shree Ramkrishna Exports, a a 1625 crore diamond manufacturing firm, in Surat, starts his day by visiting the school he has built for girls. On the ground floor of the five-storeyed school, Govindbhai meets people for his support that is needed by the students, widows, the sick and disabled. Students, irrespective of their religious background are required to learn by heart a passage from their religious text and funds are disbursed in accordance with the number of passages learnt. “One MBBS student has learnt almost 2/3 of the Bhagwad Gita by heart and as a result we cover most of his medical fees,” Govindbhai informs me with a twinkle in his eye.

Why the learning and recitation you may ask? “The idea behind this exercise is that only if people want something bad enough will they make effort to gain it and once gained they know that they cannot take this help for granted as they have worked hard for it. Another benefit of this scheme is that people do not feel they are taking charity; rather there is the sense of having earned the help. People walk away with their self-esteem intact,” and then Govindbhai smiles.

A multi-storied hospital, a vocational training centre and a diagnostic centre are some of the initiatives taken by this philanthropic man. I ask him what is the motivation behind all this and he shrugs philosophically. “When you come from a background as humble as mine, you learn never to take things for granted,” he says before launching into how this boy from a small village in Gujarat came to own a 1625 crore turnover company.

Humble beginnings
Last month SRK Export commemorated the completion of 41 years in the business with the inauguration of a state-of-the-art 2, 50, 000 sq ft factory housing more than 4000 workers. But the beginning was very different. “When I came to Surat there were just 200 diamond workers here (now almost half a million). What we know as SRK Export today was started with just three people (the founding partners- Bhagwanbhai, Virji bhai and Govindbhai) and has now topped 5000 workers. Gold was Rs.160 per 10 gms at that time and we earned approximately Rs.103 rupees per month polishing diamonds. Compared to the Rs.22 that we earned per month back in the village, this was a princely sum.”

Govindbhai worked in the factory bruting (cutting and polishing) diamonds by hand initially; this was before the advent of mechanised machinery for bruting.

After being salaried employees for six years the three Bhagwanbhai, Virjibhai and Govindbhai decided strike out on their own. This involved taking rough from a middleman and being paid for the work (cutting and polishing the rough goods into finished diamonds ready to be set into jewellery). Consequently Bhagwanbhai managed to borrow diamond cutting tools from a defunct factory owner, Virjibhai continued at his regular job to support the venture and Govindbhai set up a small workspace for them.

The first packet of rough stones given to them was expected to yield around 28% of finished goods. When diamond rough is cut a lot of the material goes to waste- for instance if a large 50 carat rough is mined it will yield one large stone of 6-10 carats and two or three stones of 1-2 carat or smaller. How many good stones one can get out of a particular rough depends on the cutters planning and cutting skills- this is known as the ‘yield’.

To cut a long story short- Govindbhai managed to extract 34% out of the packet of rough much to the astonishment of the person who had commissioned the trio to cut his client’s stones. This incident set the friends thinking that if the middleman is making a profit out of extracting 28% from this rough why couldn’t we do better with our superior cutting skills that give us 34%?

So for the first time they set off to buy their own rough. In Surat’s Mahendrapura rough diamond market they approached dealers. The diamond manufacturing community has always been a close-knit one averse to outsiders and entrepreneurs. But there was something about the earnest young men that made a certain diamond dealer agreed to help them procure rough.

Soon Govindbhai found himself riding pillion on a battered bicycle on his way to buy his first packet of rough which he would try to sell after cutting and polishing. This was easier said than done. At that time they rough was Rs 91 per carat. Even this proved to be a daunting obstacle for the cash-strapped entrepreneurs. Finally though they did manage to scrape together the sum needed to buy 10 carats of rough. “We then started making weekly trips to Mumbai to sell the finished goods as they fetched slightly higher prices in than in Surat.”

Slowly but surely their clientele expanded and then there was no looking back as their business grew from strength to strength. “The diamond business is very different from any other business- it is not something that people with a capital can invest in and sit back and expect results.

This is a business that is more of a legacy. It is handed down from father to son, generation to generation,” he opines. The owners have be hands on with the running of the business. Govindbhai says that diamonds are god for him as nature takes almost 6 million years to form this remarkable material. “And nature is priceless, so are these gems from its bosom,” he concludes.

by sarah baksh