In 2017 I moved to Hong Kong to lead adidas's global custom performance product business. I inherited a team across five countries, a creation model that had stopped delivering, and a business in decline. Over four years I turned it into one of the highest-performing categories in the company.
Rebuilding the Creation Model
Custom product is the most consumer-direct creation model in apparel. Every piece exists because someone asked for it. I rebuilt the end-to-end creation model to honor that promise, redesigning how we planned and delivered so that personalization was something we could actually guarantee at scale across 26 global markets.
TWO WEEKS IN
Two weeks into the role the Japan market escalated to COO level. I traced the problem back to its root, took public accountability for our team's role in it, and built the case for the time and resources to fix it properly.
What followed was a complete restructure of what we offered, and how we worked. Japan went from our most fractured relationship to the one where I became their sole requested point of contact. The business went from chronic failure to eighteen consecutive months of consistent delivery through COVID disruptions.
BUILDING THE TEAM
The commercial transformation was downstream of a human one. I built a team that trusted each other across languages, time zones, and very different working styles. I coached people who wouldn't speak in group settings into the ones driving the agenda. I advocated publicly for team members being blamed for failures that weren't theirs. When people felt safe, the ideas came. When the ideas came, the product got better.
FORGING LASTING CONNECTIONS
The relationships built in Hong Kong outlasted my time in the role. Team members I developed are now in global leadership positions. Some of them I still talk to regularly. That is the outcome I am most proud of.
What Growth Actually Looks Like
The business moved from decline to consistent growth and from executive abandonment to company-wide investment. The results were downstream of something harder to measure. When delivery is consistent, trust comes back. When the team feels safe, the ideas flow. I learned more about leadership in Hong Kong than anywhere else.
