JB Insights
I believe in crafting pieces that not only showcase aesthetic beauty but also carry meaningful stories and emotions – By Sankesh Surana
Sankesh Surana, Co-Founder & Head of Design-Sankesh Surana, is a visionary. The brand Sankesh Surana is renowned for its exceptional craftsmanship and innovative designs. As the co-founder of the Sankesh Surana atelier, Sankesh Surana is not only an award-winning jewellery designer but also an artist, lifestyle designer, jewellery and educator.
Sankesh Surana speaks to JEWELBUZZ on his design philosophy, inspiration, learnings from life….and more.
Take us through your journey into jewellery designing: your inspiration, your beginnings, and your evolution into a renowned designer.
My journey into jewellery designing began with a love for creativity and expression. I started my career by selling gemstones, and thanks to the keen interest I had in jewellery, I gradually started crafting jewellery, making custom-made products for my clients based on their life stories, and so on. Eventually, I expanded into designing luxury lifestyle products like scarves, crockery, and perfumes. After designing for renowned manufacturers, corporate brands, elite clients, and collaborations with other designers, my sister, Preethi Chopda, and I opened our flagship retail store in Jayanagar, Bangalore, in the year 2022, after catering to our clients for over 8 years. Alongside, I also founded an art school to share my passion and experiences with aspiring designers. It’s been a fulfilling journey of exploring creativity and learning numerous new and exciting things.
What is your design philosophy?
My designs revolve around personal expression and personal connection. I believe in crafting pieces that not only showcase aesthetic beauty but also carry meaningful stories and emotions. Whether it is jewellery or lifestyle products, I strive to infuse each creation with artistic elements and attention to detail. I draw inspiration from nature, culture and individual stories, incorporating them into my designs, I also enjoy the revival of patterns and techniques of the past, blending them with jewellery to make it suited for the contemporary world.
As an entrepreneur, what are the lessons you have learnt in establishing a business, strategy for growth, brand positioning etc. How does one balance creativity with commercial viability and fluctuating consumer preferences?
As an entrepreneur, I’ve learned invaluable lessons in establishing and growing a business. One of the most crucial aspects is continuous adaptation to market trends and consumer preferences and delivering products that our clients are highly satisfied with, consumer satisfaction is the backbone of any business, our clients love being a part of our process and love adding their personal touch to their products, they then stand as our biggest brand ambassadors, promoting and growing our business.
Finding the right balance between creativity and commercial viability is essential. While creativity fuels innovation and sets us apart from competitors, we must also ensure that our products resonate with our target audience and meet their needs. Here, the biggest advantage we have is that being a designer gives us a lot of flexibility, and adjusting to customer preferences is much easier.
Your comments on the current jewellery designing segment in India? What is the standing and brand positioning of India’s jewellery designers on the global stage?
The current jewellery designing segment in India is blooming now more than ever. Consumers want to stand out from the crowd and own something that is more personalized, which has increased the need for good jewellery designers globally. India’s jewellery designers have carved a niche for themselves by offering a diverse range of designs to cater to a global clientele. Today, Indian jewellery designers are renowned for their intricate designs, rich cultural inspirations, and mastery of techniques passed down through generations. Other industries, especially the fashion and entertainment industry, and their portrayal of Indian jewellery, have further increased the demand for Indian jewellery on a global scale.
What’s your message for aspiring, as well as practicing, jewellery designers?
Based on my own experiences, my message for aspiring designers is to stay curious, keep learning, and try new things. Don’t stop learning; it helps you develop expertise and find your own style. Stay updated on industry changes. Growth may take time, so be patient and persistent. Everyone’s journey is unique, but learning from successes and setbacks is key to personal and professional growth. And above all, always stay true to your artistic vision and let it shine through in your work. We all share a common love for all things bling, and there is a huge opportunity for all of us. We can all grow and succeed if we embrace our innate creativity and learn and deliver consistently.
JB Insights
From Customer Intelligence To Autonomous Growth Intelligence: Deepansh Bhargava Senior Vice President & Head Marketing at VBJ
From Customer Intelligence To AI-powered Growth Decisions, The Next-Gen CDP Is Built To Create Measurable Incremental Value.
For the last 6 years, Customer Data Platforms have transformed how brands understand their customers. They have brought fragmented data together, created unified customer profiles, enabled segmentation and made personalisation more intelligent. But the next evolution of CDPs will not be defined by how much customer data they can organise. It will be defined by how intelligently AI can convert that data into consumer value and incremental business outcomes.
The shift is from Customer Intelligence to Growth Intelligence.
Businesses today know more about their existing customers than ever before their purchase history, frequency, preferences, lifetime value and likelihood of buying again. Yet the larger opportunity lies in moving beyond what customers did to understanding what they need next, where their behaviour is changing and where the next phase of growth will come from. This also requires a sharper focus on incrementality.
Revenue, ROAS, conversions and engagement tell us what happened. But they do not always tell us how much of that outcome was created because of an intervention and how much would have happened anyway.
That difference is the Delta. AI can help take CDPs beyond systems of customer intelligence and turn them into systems of consumer and commercial decision intelligence. Instead of simply identifying customers with a high propensity to purchase, an intelligent growth system could identify intent, unmet needs and moments that matter then evaluate opportunities across acquisition, retention, frequency, basket size, category penetration, pricing, media, events and geography to identify where the highest incremental growth opportunity lies.
Growth intelligence should also help businesses identify where growth is likely to disappear. Early signals from customer behaviour, categories, geographies or spending patterns could reveal risks long before they become visible in the P&L. AI could identify the source of the risk, estimate its potential commercial impact and recommend interventions to change the trajectory. This is where the future becomes particularly interesting.
AI should not just predict customers. It should increasingly help predict the business.
The next generation of AI agents could continuously monitor customer behaviour, sales, categories, inventory, geographies, media and store performance. They could identify anomalies, form hypotheses, estimate commercial impact, recommend interventions, test them and measure the incremental outcome.
The role of the marketer would evolve from simply managing campaigns to managing the intelligence, strategy and guardrails around a more autonomous growth system.
This evolution can be built around three principles: Anticipate, Act and Account.
1. Anticipate where consumer needs and growth will emerge and where they may disappear.
2. Act by identifying and eventually executing the most relevant intervention for the consumer and the business.
3. Account for whether that intervention genuinely created incremental value.
The CDP of the future, therefore, should move beyond being a platform that simply manages customer data. It should become a Growth Decision Platform one that helps businesses understand consumers better, identify opportunities, detect risks, recommend actions, measure incrementality and continuously learn from every intervention. The ultimate measure of such a platform should not be the volume of data it manages.
It should be much simpler:
Show me the Delta you create.
Because ultimately, consumer centricity is not the opposite of growth. It is where sustainable growth begins.
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JewelBuzz is Asia’s First Digital Jewellery Media & India’s No.1 B2B Jewellery Magazine, published by AM Media House. Since 2016, we’ve been the trusted source for jewellery news, market trends, trade insights, exhibitions, podcasts, and brand stories, connecting jewellers, retailers, and industry professionals worldwide.