Waikato Business News July/August 2018

72 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS July/August 2018
CELF a ‘life changing’
move for boating boss
Tristram Marine and boating has always
been in Kingsley Fink’s blood, he was
brought up underneath the office desk
within the family-run business his parents
created 32 years ago.
As general manager,
Kingsley, 28, has been
working for Tristram
Marine for 11 years now, since
fresh out of high school.
Boating has always been in
the Fink family; his grandfather
Ray Fink started a timber boat
building company in Hamilton
60 years ago.
Kingsley’s dad Lance Fink
worked for Ray and enjoyed
every moment. However he
wanted to try something different.
Rather than building timber
boats, Lance wanted to build
boats out of fibreglass and
this is how he started Tristram
Marine, named after Kingsley’s
older brother – Tristram.
Kingsley is very proud of
how his parents created Tristram
Marine from the ground
up and as a family brought it
to the success the business is
today.
Kingsley’s passion for boating
and being out on the water
continues outside of work. He
recognised that their target market
is now offshore fishing and
family fishing, so he has been
getting into fishing as a hobby
to better understand his clients’
needs and the market.
He is also talking to others
who fish to find out what can
be improved on boats and what
would be helpful so that he can
inject new ideas from the feedback
into future designs to simplify
boating for families.
“Tristram Marine is an
exciting business to be involved
in because we’re playing with
toys each day and boating is in
my blood – I absolutely love
fishing, diving and wakeboarding,”
Kingsley said.
To complement his skills
and continue the growth and
success of the business, Kingsley
took part in a leadership
programme with Community
and Enterprise Leadership
Foundation’s (CELF) in 2017,
in conjunction with the Waikato
University.
The annual CELF Elevate
Programme connects and elevates
leaders from businesses
and community not-for-profit
organisations within Waikato
over a nine-month duration.
“CELF is a unique course,
I’ve never heard of anything
else like it,” Kingsley said.
“Upskilling leaders and bringing
people together to bounce
ideas off each other all at the
same time is very powerful.”
Tristram Marine general
manager Kingsley Fink.
“Bringing together a group
of people that is half business
sector and half community division
has aligned strong positive
values for the Waikato region.
Within the group we all have a
similar motive to succeed and
we learn from one another.”
He says the programme was
a life-changing experience for
the running of Tristram Marine
as well as his personal growth.
His highlight was what he
learnt from mentor Aiden Holliday
who spoke to the cohort.
“Aiden was a strong mentor
to have at the start of the course,
to really get us quite fired up,
and to understand that leadership
is contagious so why not
be positive all the time.
“When you have people
around you who see you being
positive, they naturally want to
be as well.”
Aiden helped him realise his
business purpose, but also what
he wants to leave behind as a
legacy - being a positive and
innovative person.
“It made me realise that
we’re not just boat builders
here at Tristram Marine, we
are memory creators because
our clients are taking our quality
products on to the water to
create better family memories,
family life, and fulfilment,”
Kingsley said.
He says Tristram Marine
is instrumental in providing
a product for their clients to
create quality memories while
enjoying New Zealand’s amazing
coastline.
Kingsley regularly hangs up
photos received from clients’
families out on the water enjoying
their Tristram products to
remind the team of their purpose
and why they need to continue
to believe in themselves
as memory creators.
The flow on effect from their
main purpose has also sparked
the individual teams within the
business to want to create their
own team purposes. Tristram’s
joining division came up with
‘joining families, joining Tristram’.
Kingsley says it all stems
from the CELF programme
which taught him that positive
leadership is contagious, but
negative leadership is as well.
He said the programme
also taught him that leaders
are goal setters, so he’s been
trying to work with his team to
understand what their goals are
within the business, because as
a leader he said he can’t steer
them down the right path if he
doesn’t know where they want
to head.
Kingsley reminds himself
and the team that no wind
favours anyone who has no destined
port, hence the need for
goal setting.
He looks forward to continuing
the friendships and connections
he has made within the
cohort. He said the businesses
and not-for-profit organisations
have learnt a lot from each other
when it comes to leadership
styles and he says the CELF
model is unique and clever
bringing both sectors together.
“If everyone had the opportunity
to be on the CELF programme,
it would be fascinating
to see what the world would
be capable of.”
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