People of Samsonite - 5Qs with Nikhil Gupte

Nikhil Gupte is our Marketing Director of American Tourister, Kamiliant and High Sierra (APAC & Middle East), based in Singapore.

Nikhil shares about his journey at Samsonite APAC & Middle East , peppered with personal reflections on his career and leadership, why he loves the culture here, and a certain memory involving Cristiano Ronaldo. Read on for more!

Tell us more about your current role.

Hey, I’m Nikhil! At Samsonite, I oversee various functions - from brand management, product architecture to marketing campaigns - to ensure the three key brands under my portfolio, American Tourister, Kamiliant and High Sierra, mark a stellar end-to-end consumer experience and performance in the markets we operate in. As part of the process, I frequently ask myself and my teams this important question, “What next?”. This challenges us to think of innovative ways to improve the growth and profitability of the brands under our care.

You’ve experienced different roles across multiple markets with Samsonite. Tell us more about your career journey.

It’s been an interesting journey since I joined in 2006. The leadership team at the time had a strong vision of transforming Samsonite into an international travel lifestyle brand. Taking the lead from markets like Italy, where non-luggage items like footwear and apparel had a significant contribution to business, the company was keen to start expanding the same organizational structure and category profiling into Asia. India and Korea were the first markets to take a leap in this direction. That’s when I joined our India operations to help expand our presence in footwear. Back then, footwear became a thriving category and we built up the business to a sizable 10% of sales contributions in most of the local retail stores.

Then, in 2007, the global financial crisis happened. The organization pivoted to focus on growing the reach of Samsonite and American Tourister brands beyond the metropolitan cities like Bombay, Bangalore and Delhi, stretching to smaller upcountry towns instead. With this, I was tasked with sales and distribution for American Tourister, developing products that would appeal to this segment. Going beyond travel, we pioneered and introduced backpacks for occasions like going back to school. After 3 years in distribution, I progressed into a broader marketing role for American Tourister, overseeing India and by extension, the Middle East markets. This involved sourcing materials in China, designing campaigns and sustaining the brand’s reputation and profile. Before long, I moved into a regional role in Hong Kong with Kamiliant added as part of my portfolio too.

Soon after, the world got swiftly pulled into lockdown. This necessitated restructuring, and High Sierra got added to my roster as I made the move to Singapore as part of the APAC & Middle East leadership team. The biggest shift for me has been reframing my mindset between roles - in sales, we had to be more aggressive about numbers and targets, while in marketing we had to create future-focused plans with at least three-year goals in place. Now at the regional level, my challenge is to find new ways to facilitate and synergize teams to work together towards a common goal.

Many are surprised when I say I’ve been with Samsonite for 17 years now, but the opportunities and growth afforded to me have made it nothing short of an exciting time.

You’ve been with the company for more than 17 years. What about its culture motivates you at work each day?

Fun fact - my tenure is actually considered average! I know of many others at Samsonite who’ve been here for more than 20 years, so the company must be doing something right.

The biggest thing I appreciate about the culture at Samsonite is its readiness to invest in its people. We are encouraged to push the boundaries, beyond the routine of the day-to-day. They appreciate hearing new perspectives and are open to supporting ideas that challenge the norm. That’s what helps our people to learn and grow, and eventually makes Samsonite a more progressive brand.

As a decentralized and diversely staffed organization, this also lends the company a unique and deep local understanding that really enriches an international brand like ours.

How would you describe your personal leadership style today?

Being at Samsonite for such a long time, I think its open-mindedness and innovation has really rubbed off on me. My personal belief is that every team member has a valuable voice. They must be empowered with the freedom and liberty to take the initiative to trial, explore and harness their creativity and critical thinking. I always tell my team, “Try it! What will happen if it goes wrong? What if it goes right?” With this mindset, the sky’s the limit.

What is the most memorable American Tourister campaign you’ve worked on?

Actually, I have two in mind! As an avid supporter of the World Cup, I was psyched to work with Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018 as our ambassador for the “Bring Back More” campaign during the event season. We hoped our campaign could ride on the World Cup fever and momentum of supporters all around the world.?

Aside from his talent for scoring goals, Cristiano’s passion for travel, fun-loving personality and fashion sense made him the perfect person for us to work with. But the thing I’m most proud of was getting him excited about endorsing a bold yellow-colored luggage. It was pretty much a first for American Tourister to move away from muted colors.

My other favorite campaign was the launch of our new Rollio collection this year - an equally bold travel statement that really pushes the boundaries of luggage design. I love its unconventional cylindrical silhouette, which brings to life our spirit of fun and adventure at American Tourister. We even had a spectacular whimsical pop-up store in Seoul filled with a colossal structure of the Rollio Spinner and specially-designed crew uniforms that immersed all visitors in a world of fantasy!