BENNO LEESER: "RUNNING A FAMILY BUSINESS IS A JOY"

What was your dream before?

"With the Champions League on Coolsingel. I played soccer myself. On my desk is an eleven-game photo of AFC's A1. In that year we won three times against Ajax. In total I played 93 matches in the first team of AFC. I had to rely mainly on my commitment and leadership qualities - I was often captain. FC Amsterdam once showed interest in me, but in the end I didn't become a professional footballer."

When did you know you wanted to follow in your grandfather's footsteps?

"At the very last minute. I was going to be an assistant buyer at the Bijenkorf. There I had to sign for a period of at least five years, because my father had a fashion store and was therefore competitive. Five years I thought was way too long. During that period, my parents got divorced and I wanted nothing to do with my father's second wife - she was not my dream example. So working in my father's business was not an obvious choice. At that time my grandfather said, 'I have no succession.' He only had a daughter; she was a lawyer and later became vice president of the Amsterdam court. She did join GASSAN as a commissioner since 1959, but succeeding her father was not the intention. I told my grandfather that I wanted to try it for a year, but to be able to say goodbye without family drama if I didn't like it. And now, 47 years later, here we are."

Did you ever visit your grandfather in the grinding shop when you were young?

"Yes, but rather to bribe money so I could take the train to Feyenoord on Sundays. When I was with him, he liked to share his life lessons with me. For example, he said that it was better to fly first class, because then you would be in contact with the right people. And that it was better to stay in the good hotels, because there were potential clients there. I also remember some of his expressions, such as: 'A cow that gives a lot of milk but kicks the bucket with its hind legs isn't much use.' In other words, it doesn't get anywhere if you sell a lot and don't bring in the money. My grandfather was a fantastic salesman. He liked it best when he bought something wrong and still managed to resell it favorably. Now all that used to be easier. In the late 1970s we did a lot of wholesale with France. We were really still selling a lot of diamonds then. Later, with the advent of automation, orders became much more precise so there was no stock left over."

What do you have in common with your grandfather?

"I too am a real salesman. Only he was more of a soloist and I think much more from the organization."

When did your mother tell you about the family's wartime past?

"My daughter and my brother talk to my mother about that more than I do. Elaborate war stories are not for me. I don't want to hear those. I kind of shove that away, out of self-protection."

In 1973 you started in the business, then still on Nieuwe Achtergracht. What did your work consist of?

"I did all kinds of things. I worked with the procurer on the cash desk, where, among other things, the daily revenues were administered. With diamond buyer Simon Kroonenberg, I went to Antwerp and Tel Aviv to buy in. Sometimes I was in the office sorting diamonds. And with the financial director I made the budgets, which turned out to be reasonably correct after six months. My grandfather did not understand much about that, because he was not someone of budgets, he was more the man of adventure."

On July 4, 1983, your grandfather died. What was it like to lose him?

"In terms of health, he was in bad shape. He had become a heart patient at a fairly young age and later became a kidney patient. For the last year and a half of his life, he had to be dialyzed twice a week. That was debilitating for him. So it wasn't completely unexpected."

Were you ready to run the company, along with your brother Guy?

"On my desk is a picture of Mr. Delsing, the then director of the Dutch Credit Bank. In 1973 he had become commissioner of the company to mentor me. My grandfather had very wisely said, 'I'm too chauvinistic to judge my grandson.' That's why he wanted to leave that to an outsider. Yes, when are you ready? That's hard to say. But Mr. Delsing felt I was ready. And I myself also really felt the urge to continue the business. My brother joined the company in 1980; he had done Columbia University. My grandfather initiated that we get an office in New York, GASSAN USA. He set that up with Fred Gehring, the later boss of Tommy Hilfiger."

How did things continue with GASSAN USA?

"Until 2011, Guy ran that office. Only he had no family in the business and I did. So at some point it made sense to buy him out, because it made it easier for me to arrange the succession. The funny thing is that by now his son does work in the diamond business. We still have an office address in the USA, so we still do some things together."

The year you took over the company, you married Kitty Weers. How would you qualify her role within GASSAN?

"Very essential. I was always taught that behind a man is a woman, and that is certainly the case with me. Kitty and I are really a twosome. Before we were married, she had worked for quite a while with the procurator with whom I had started. From working on the greenhouse, she shifted more to helping customers. She is also much more patient with customers than I am. Eventually Kitty became the one responsible for everything to do with the look of the business, from the window displays to the magazine."

What do you like best about entrepreneurship?

"Of course it's nice to be successful, then everything goes easier. The crazy thing is that in bad times we often work even better, because in good times you run the risk that
you get a little nonchalant. In the corona time, we said from day one: we will stay open and make sure we are even more positive about it than we normally already are. In May we communicated the worst-case scenarios to banks and ourselves, and we started working from there. We all do that together and we are succeeding well. That's because a certain strategy has been put in place, that's the beauty of entrepreneurship."

We discussed the highs, there have also been lows. Does the experience you had then help you in the situation today?

"With the diamond robbery in 2001, we knew where we stood; SARS was trickier because we didn't know where it ended. That's also the biggest problem now: when will it get back to normal? Nobody knows. But as a leader, it does make you more professional."

During the first wave, you talked about an 80 or even
90 percent. What are those numbers like now?

"Singapore is still at minus 90; Schiphol in terms of passengers had climbed to minus 65 in July-August, but slipped back to minus 81 last week (mid-October; ed.). We are at minus 40 to 45 percent revenue at Schiphol. So comparatively speaking, we are doing very well. Visitors at the plant are down 93 percent. If we sold quite well on a Saturday and I drive away in the afternoon and see an empty parking lot, my heart cries."

What sells "pretty well" in this day and age?

"We've been very active in the Dutch market for years, and it's selling well there at the moment. People don't travel, spend little, have money to spare... To make life a little more fun, they then buy something beautiful. We turn that moment into an experience."

75 years of GASSAN. What does that do to you?

"Wonderful milestone. Of course unfortunate that we were not able to keep most of the festivities going. But it is what it is. In such a year I look back of course, but more importantly I think: What is it going to be?"

So, what's it going to be?

"Worse than a minus 93 percent visitation rate could not happen. Would Schiphol go back to minus 90 again? I'm really hopeful that something will happen again."

You turned 65 last summer. What do you still want?

"As a joke, I sometimes say: eventually I want GASSAN to be bigger than Cartier," he said.

Is that possible?

"No. But you must have something to wish for."