From Olympic Gold to ASX 200 - Grant Hackett, CEO Generation Development Group (ASX: GDG) [S9:E8]
episode
Scaling Up: Lessons From The World's Best CEOs and Founders
50 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 18 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Who is Grant Hackett and how did he transition from Olympic swimmer to CEO of Generation Development Group?
I'm Ed Cowan and this is Scaling Up.
Where I feel happy is where I feel like I've got a big goal and I'm going after it and it's hard and I'm pushing through it, I'm finding ways to to grow and be better. The satisfaction of getting to the other side of that beats anything that I've experienced in my life. So that kind of is where I like to live.
This podcast aims to educate and inspire by telling the stories of great growth companies as told by their CEOs and founders. TDM is an Australian-based investment firm that invests globally in fast-growing public and private companies. For more insights, visit our website, TDM GrowthPartners.com.
Today on Scaling Up, we're joined by someone who has climbed two very different mountains. Grant Hackett is a three-time Olympic gold medalist and undoubtedly one of the greatest distance swimmers of all time. But since stepping out of the pool more than 15 years ago, he's crafted a second chapter as an executive and now the CEO of Generation Development Group. A diversified financial services business that has grown 15-fold under his leadership to become an ASX 200 company. Investment bonds are a wealth management product many listeners may not know, but they're becoming an increasingly important tax-effective solution for an aging population in an ever-changing superannuation landscape. GDG is now the dominant market leader, and under Grant's leadership has strategically transformed from a niche investment bond player into a diversified wealth platform for advisors serving a market of about $1.5 trillion of private wealth.
It was fascinating to learn about an industry transformed so quickly over the last five years and how GDG has positioned itself to capture value in a space once. dominated by the big four banks. Grant, of course, is a unicorn leader. His experiences not just as an elite sports person, but one of Australia's greatest, give him a unique perspective on leadership, motivation, discipline, and resilience. He's definitely not someone you'd want to back against. And that mentality has flowed through into how GDG has intentionally scaled its culture as it's grown. This is both a personal and business story.
What are investment bonds and why are they becoming a key product for GDG’s wealth platform?
of reinvention, drive, strategy, and thoughtfulness. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Scaling Up, our last for this year, with Grant Hackett. Grant, welcome to Scaling Up. Now, before I started the research for this podcast, I must admit I wasn't all that familiar with investment bonds. But then I I went deep on Generation Development Group. And I think I've been your best business development manager since then, espousing them to anyone who will listen to me. But it's a fascinating product that Generation Life sells, just one division of Generation Development Group. Now, a mutual friend of ours described you as a triple threat in sales: technical, disciplined, personable. And this is how you first met.
That's not
Yeah,
uh that's how you made your mark of course at at G D G. So I thought I could learn a thing or two from you when it comes to to selling investment bonds. So I thought I'd start in a bit of a different place and and ask you to to maybe try and sell me an investment bond.
To put simply, an investment bond is just another investment structure, like superannuation, like a trust, like your own personal name, like a company. So it's just another structure that you invest through. But it's the most tax effective structure outside of superannuation. So if you're maxed out on super or you know, you're seeing preservation age or rules change in super all the time, people use this as alternative. And there's probably two other big benefits to an investment bond. The other one is you can set it up to have binding nominations. So not one of these have ever been overturned. So if you want to set it up for estate planning purposes and got a high conflict family or estate equalization or other permutations that a lot of wealthy people have, this is a great vehicle to be able to leave those funds through.
And then the third part is I go tax arbitrage, estate planning, also credit protection uh under the bankruptcy act.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who is Grant Hackett and how did he transition from Olympic swimmer to CEO of Generation Development Group?
0:04–2:30
2
What are investment bonds and why are they becoming a key product for GDG’s wealth platform?
2:30–4:25
3
How did Generation Development Group evolve from a niche bond player to an ASX 200 diversified wealth company?
4:25–7:04
4
What was the five‑year strategic plan Grant implemented when he became CEO and how did it drive 15‑fold growth?
7:04–9:38
5
Which leadership and cultural principles from elite sport does Grant apply to building GDG’s high‑performance team?
9:38–12:58
6
What habits or mind‑sets did Grant have to unlearn from swimming to succeed as a business leader?
12:58–16:23
7
How does GDG build trust quickly during acquisitions and integrate new businesses while preserving culture?
16:23–20:25
8
What are Grant’s key reflections on purpose, consistency, and the future direction of GDG?
20:25–50:20
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Scaling Up: Lessons From The World's Best CEOs and Founders
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