Build It. They'll Come. Global Surf Industries: Mark Kelly shakes up surfing’s cottage industry, & builds a global surfboard business. Then turns his skills to building a ruthlessly successful grassroots political campaign!
Mark Kelly only learned to surf on a board at the age of 30, but that cemented his lifelong love of the ocean, first sparked when his dad took him scuba diving as a teen. Kelly came to adore surfing and its calming connection with the sea and nature. Having learned the international sales, marketing and distribution ropes working as a senior exec with massive global brands Adidas and Bausch + Lomb, Mark Kelly took the leap to start his own surfboard and stand-up paddle board business. Always with an eye on disrupting the somewhat haphazard cottage industry of supplying surfboards in Australia, he set his sights on 3 essentials to give him an edge – thinking globally; going after the mass market of beginner surfers rather than world champs; and offering retailers certainty of supply and consistently good quality brand boards to offer customers. 2 decades ago, Global Surf Industries was born and has since become a major supplier of boards in some 74 countries around the world. All done from his base in Manly Beach, Sydney. Somewhere along the way, Mark Kelly became a political activist too, without really meaning to. In 2018 he began what started as a meme really, a small local grassroots campaign with the catchy title “Vote Tony Out”. The “Tony” being former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and the campaign’s aim was to vote Tony Abbott out as the federal Member for the seat of Warringah. Gutsy? Yes. Provocative? Yes. Successful? Yes. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
In Part 1 of our chat, this week, Mark talks of his business do’s and don’ts; how to deal with the often huge challenges of growing internationally; COVID’s substantial highs for his business, but the lows too, with subsequent supply chain problems facing all industries. In Part 2 next week, find out how exactly Mark built a successful political campaign, from scratch!
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