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Family Feud: Two Cousins Run an Iconic Jewelry Business While Competing Against Each Other

Published

8 years ago

February 12, 2016

INSTORE Staff

It’s a complicated relationship.

Cousins Sid and Samir Kasliwal are the heirs to the Gem Palace, “India’s most glamorous jewelry business” that was started by their fathers and today has boutiques around the world, as New York Magazine writes. But despite being blood-related business partners, their working relationship is a complicated one that a longtime friend of the Kasliwal family described to NYM as “a movie, a soap opera, Bollywood.”

The article says each cousin has his own ideas about how to run the Gem Palace and “seem barely on speaking terms,” but that’s just one layer of their complex working dynamic. They also run competing jewelry shops in New York that were opened outside of the Gem Palace business. This prompts industry observers to wonder: Can the two co-owners successfully carry on their fathers’ legacies in spite of their dysfunctional relationship?

When There’s No Succession Plan, Call Wilkerson

Bob Wesley, owner of Robert C. Wesley Jewelers in Scottsdale, Ariz., was a third-generation jeweler. When it was time to enjoy life on the other side of the counter, he weighed his options. His lease was nearing renewal time and with no succession plan, he decided it was time to call Wilkerson. There was plenty of inventory to sell and at first, says Wesley, he thought he might try to manage a sale himself. But he’s glad he didn’t. “There’s no way I could have done this as well as Wilkerson,” he says. Wilkerson took responsibility for the entire event, with every detail — from advertising to accounting — done, dusted and managed by the Wilkerson team. “It’s the complete package,” he says of the Wilkerson method of helping jewelers to easily go on to the next phase of their lives. “There’s no way any retailer can duplicate what they’ve done.”