Grant Hackett comeback soars as business tops market sector
Lessons learnt in the Olympic swimming pool have helped finance boss Grant Hackett defy the COVID-19 pandemic slump and guide his company to new highs, Annette Sharp reveals.
Business
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Grant Hackett believes his Olympic discipline and the trials of the past have been instrumental in helping him propel the finance company he now helms to the top of the investment sector despite recessive market conditions.
Last month Generation Life, which is managed by Hackett, recorded $90 million in sales inflows — a company record that reflects a 42 per cent increase on the previous corresponding period for the investment company that manages $1.3 billion in funds belonging to mum and dad investors.
“We are extremely proud to record an all-time company record of $90 million for quarterly inflows demonstrating the increasing support for Investment Bonds and the innovative solutions we provide,” Hackett said in a statement to the market this month.
“Our business responded proactively and professionally to the rapid change in operating conditions due to COVID-19 to ensure we maintained exceptional support to our Financial Advisers and investors.”
This is great news for Hackett who is 100 per cent committed to the greatest comeback of his life, one that has seen him return to the world of high finance as he rebuilds his life and makes wedding plans with fiancee Sharlene Fletcher.
Despite fears the business, Generation Life, to which he was appointed CEO in January, would take a hit during the pandemic, Hackett said that following some frantic and serious contingency planning in March when COVID-19 struck, his business — selling tax effective savings plans — is booming.
“The worst week (we faced) happened in early March … when markets were contracting at such a rapid rate,” Hackett said. “There was probably a week there where we had to move effectively. I had to just keep challenging my team — asking them what are the unknowns. You have to be agile — and you have to over-communicate to your people during testing times.”
But working 16-hour days — and with new baby Eddie, now six months, at home — Hackett did it while also remaining committed to a disciplined personal health routine (up at 5.50am to work out in a home gym and using a Fitbit to walk or run 70km a week) — something he said helps him manage the stresses of the past.
He oversees a team of 70 at Generation Life’s Melbourne CBD office.
“There have been a lot of stressful moments. It’s been an interesting time. Panic set in so quickly …(but) I knew we had a very robust business, (and had) a strong balance sheet,” he said. “Fortunately, it’s never as bad as you think and there are a lot of sophisticated investors who capture opportunity in volatile market conditions.”
Hackett, who began studying business in tandem with his Olympic career and still holds the world 800m short course world record in freestyle, maintains his career in finance and specifically estate planning has been a natural fit.
“I am one of those people that do like to plan and goal set. I kind of like to think ahead and reverse engineer everything. I will have a goal and work out what steps I need to achieve to get there.”
For the Generation Group executive chairman who recruited Hackett to Generation Life, Rob Coombe, who was recently appointed chairman of MLC Wealth, a division of NAB, Hackett’s new success is personally very satisfying.
Under Hackett Generation Life had gone from fifth to second in its sector for funds under management and is now bringing in more new business, said Coombe, than competitors including Australian Unity Group, Zurich, Centuria Capital and Commonwealth/Colonial Group.
Coombe, who from 2008 was Hackett’s boss at Westpac, added while he has always been impressed with Hackett’s professionalism and talent in the workplace, it remains Hackett’s emotional intelligence that impresses him most.
“Of course people know him and have a view of him because of who he is but he has a great way of disarming people, making them comfortable, getting them on board with concepts. He’s a very good influencer but does it in a way that is not kind of pushing people but understanding where they’re coming from to come on the journey.
“The IQ/EQ combination is pretty rare and generally, from what I’ve seen in the past, those individuals have great leadership potential.”