People of Samsonite - Coffee Chat with Colin Chui

Colin Chui is our Senior General Counsel, Asia.

A seasoned lawyer who has worked for several large consumer brands, he oversees all aspects of legal affairs at Samsonite APAC and Middle East. Read more below ↓

Walk us through your typical day at work.

Coffee first, always. I like to start my mornings with a relaxing cup of coffee from the ground floor of our office building in Hong Kong. Most of our team loves coffee too, so I’ll pick up their orders to go when I can.

I head up the legal team in Asia, and our team members are split across Hong Kong and Singapore. Across the region, I also work closely with other legal colleagues who focus on specific markets like China, India, and the Middle East region. A lot goes on every day, so I like to get my inbox organized, prioritize three things to focus on, delegate what is necessary, and then make time to check in on my team members.

Lunch is one of my favorite times of the day because I get to have informal catch-ups with colleagues - where we chat about almost anything, from new and existing projects, challenges at work, our families, and how our weekends went. These are very helpful for me to maintain good relationships with my colleagues - and I think a lot of our team’s success is based on this mutual trust that we’ve built. The rest of the work day is spent going through my work assignments of course (which I’m not allowed to disclose, unfortunately!).

What was one pivotal career highlight you experienced at Samsonite?

A pivotal moment I recall was Samsonite’s acquisition of TUMI in the second half of 2016. That was when I first joined the company. It was a huge project that led to even more new projects thereafter. Back then, TUMI used to run global sales through local distribution channels. Part of my first assignment was to facilitate negotiations with distributors across many markets, so we could “take back” TUMI’s retail operations. I was kept busy but in a good way.

I learned so much about negotiations and dispute management. This was a huge growth and learning opportunity for me because I’ve never had to manage such large-scale projects like that. Ultimately, our efforts paid off and we had successes in each of these markets that we took over.

At what point did you realize you wanted to pursue law as a career?

Fun fact: I first started out studying computer science. I gave myself one to two years to try it out, but it didn’t speak to me. So, I turned to mathematics as my major. I was always quite the numbers guy at school… and so I thought the most logical job was to become an accountant. As it turns out - based on what the career advisory office told me back in university - you don’t need to study accounting to be an accountant! So, I stuck to the plan, graduated and tried to get a job at an accounting firm but turned out to be in vain realizing Hong Kong is a very competitive market, where a lack of accounting background would put me in a disadvantageous position to others who have one. To work in accounting, I had to get myself enrolled in accreditation programs with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). It started getting tough juggling part-time studies, which then led me to explore other industries such as insurance and tourism. Funnily enough, law had never been a part of my life up till this point.

One day, a cousin of mine introduced me to the idea of working at a law firm. For a guy with no legal background back then, I thought it was a pretty cool profession where I’d get to carry a briefcase, just like those legal dramas on TV. So, I said let’s give it a shot. The only thing that gave me an upper hand in the Hong Kong legal industry - which was still under colonial rule at the time - was my proficiency in speaking English, having been raised in the UK.

After starting at the law firm, getting exposed to first-hand knowledge of the law, and attending court hearings, trials, and appeals, I knew I wanted to become a qualified lawyer. I enrolled to study law at Hong Kong University, and the rest is history.

This is not your first in-house role. Along your journey, did you imagine you'd be working for a luggage brand someday? 

Personally, I have more of an interest in working for reputable consumer brands, not just luggage brands specifically. Throughout my career, I worked for different consumer goods brands because being associated with one seems more tangible to me, unlike being in the service industry. If you have a good and useful product, it’s easy for it to take off and find success. All you need to do is to get your marketing, communications, and packaging right, and the product is capable of selling well.

There’s also the fact that Samsonite is such an innovative, global leader in superior travel bags, luggage and accessories - and the world’s largest travel retail company. It was a no-brainer coming here. I got to hone my leadership skills by being part of the senior management team and looking more strategically at how to better the business, which is a different ball game from being a private practice lawyer in my early days.

You’ve been with Samsonite for about eight years now. What are you most passionate about at work?

Everybody's passionate here. Everyone wants to bring something exciting to the table and excel in terms of customer experience or better product offerings. I like how the company is always looking for ways to innovate and improve. 

As an in-house legal team, we’re very much integrated into the business and part of decision-making across different departments. We don’t really know what’s going to happen tomorrow, which makes coming to work so interesting every day. I might come in one day and receive a completely new brief that’s very different from the last. We had so many good projects here: Chris Pratt for TUMI’s APAC campaign, which saw great success during the two-year collaboration; Cristiano Ronaldo for American Tourister’s global campaign leading up to and beyond the 2018 FIFA World Cup; TUMI as one of the sponsors for “The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition” - just to name a few. 

It’s never boring at Samsonite because there’s always something happening. We have great design, marketing, communications, and e-commerce teams - everybody's amazing here. We’re a company that brings excellent people together, doing what we all collectively believe to be the right thing (the way we achieve our success is as important as the success itself!) and that's why it’s so easy for me to tell you why I am so passionate here. There’s not a lot more that needs to be said. Simply because everybody is passionate, and may I also add that everyone is very compassionate towards each other as well! It’s just the way of the culture here.

How would you describe your leadership style? What is the best part about the team you work with?

I would think I’m quite a hands-off and trusting leader. I trust that my team will escalate when they’re faced with challenges, so I don't need to handhold them. If I don’t trust them, it means I’d always have to look over their shoulders to see if they're doing the right thing, which is unpleasant. I'm someone who sees value in encouraging and motivating others, and I want to instill confidence in my team, so they’re empowered to step up. My motto is to not be afraid of making mistakes because you learn from mistakes.

The good thing is, my team members are all qualified lawyers who are very independent and professional. They are very emotionally mature, which helps them reach successful resolutions to problems. I can always bounce ideas and thoughts off my legal colleagues, and most times, we reach a consensus. We’re pretty much on the same wavelength, which is great. All of us are synchronized and respect each other.

[Bonus question!] Outside of work, what’s something you’re really into now?

I’m into dragon boating as a sport. I enjoy it because of the teamwork required - just like at work. When you dragon boat, you always have to follow the beat of the person or drummer at the front regardless so that the whole team is completely synchronized, which is the key of winning/success. As a team member, you learn to not challenge the person leading in front of you or ask why things are turning out in a certain way (sometimes can be affected by weather or the strong tides in the moment, just like unexpected conditions in business/markets), once a team decision has been made and everyone is in execution mode. If one paddle is up, we go up together. If one paddle is down, we go down together. Trust me, there’s always a temptation to correct others when you think something they’re doing is not right. But paddling fast by yourself isn’t going to make your boat go faster. It’s about synchronization and pulling through the water together at the same speed, at the same time. I think this is very aligned with my leadership style and how I guide my team at work.

Other times, I do outdoor running. I have a lifelong goal of running one marathon a year. It helps me keep my health in check and be more disciplined. I’ve done a marathon in Japan before and it was such a wholesome experience. They’ve got a friendly and cheery crowd. If you run near the locals’ homes, people come out, cheer you on, and offer you food. I definitely want to travel more for marathons. Everyone should try it once!

With my family, I would do Muay Thai (Thai boxing) with my wife and Wing Chun (a form of Chinese martial arts) with my daughter. Family is very important to me, so I will always try to spend a lot of quality time with them whenever I can. This is why I’m not a professional marathoner, because I’d have to fly frequently to run marathons away from home and spend a lot of time training. Personally, this time is better spent with my wife, daughter and my team.