I sweat the small stuff, to be frank. That's one of the things that I do. Like, if there's something little, I always think something little can turn into something big.
A time that I failed at something, the first thing that pops into my mind is actually the 2008 Olympics. I wasn't there for a silver medal, so that really felt like a huge failure for me. And what I learned from that was...
Hi, I'm Sally Patton, editor of Boss from the Australian Financial Review, and welcome to 15 Minutes with the Boss, a podcast about success and failure and everything in between. And along the way, we're aiming to get some great advice from our leaders. My guest today is Grant Hackett, Olympic swimming champion and chief executive of Generation Development Group. Hi Grant, how are you?
Very well, thanks, Sal. How are you?
I'm very well, and thank you so much for coming into our beautiful Melbourne studio.
My pleasure. Happy to be here.
Now, Grant, as I said, you're the chief executive of Generation Development Group, which is listed on the stock exchange and which sells specialist financial products largely for retirees, but you are also an asset manager and a financial research house. You have been CEO of Generation for just over six years. The company is valued at $1.6 billion, which is a fair sum, but you are probably better known as one of the best distance swimmers in Olympic history. You won the men's 1500 metres freestyle at both the 2000 Games in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Do you still swim a lot?
No, I don't actually. I was scared of the bathtub after I retired, so I took a bit of time out. I think if I had a little bit more time outside of work and family, I probably would do a little bit of swimming, but to keep fit generally, I've got a gym at home, so I jump in there. And I've also got, you know, a rowing machine that I'll jump on or go for a run, but not too much swimming these days.
Oh, interesting. Okay. Well, maybe we'll get a bit more to your morning routine very shortly. We've only got 15 minutes. The clock starts now. My first question is about your morning routine. What time do you get up? What does it look like? What happens?
Pretty basic, to be honest. So, my wife and I generally were up at 5:50 a.m. That's normally when the alarm goes off, unless I've got an early morning flight, which in that case it'll go off before five. Got a gym at home. I'll generally work out for about 40 minutes. I probably do that about five out of seven days a week. Go up, have a shower, get ready for work, and then go downstairs, have breakfast with the kids. So I try and see the kids as much as I can in the morning because generally the two young ones are asleep by the time I get home from work. I generally get in the office around sort of between eight and 8:20. Coffee, I generally have that when I get to work. So I like to have breakfast at home, no coffee then, and then I'll have one when I get to work. That just means it'll last a little bit longer, I think.
And what do you have for breakfast?
At the moment I'm having porridge with honey and fruit, or generally I'll have eggs. So a lot of the time when I was swimming I used to have seven eggs, but I'd have seven whites and two yolks. So I still like my eggs, but generally only three or four. Only three or four. Okay. But it's a lot less than what I used to have. But I still work out quite a bit, so I like to make sure that I'm getting a healthy dose of protein.
Actually, that's interesting. So are you very conscious about eating lots of protein?
I am. So I weigh probably about 106, 107 kilos. So I'm 6'6" and I work out quite a bit. I eat quite a bit of food. When I was swimming, I was having nine full meals a day. That's how much I was eating. So you'd almost get sick of eating by the end of it because you're just burning so many calories. Nine full meals. Yeah. So it takes a bit of adjustment afterwards because your metabolism, you're exercising all the time, just to get back into some healthy routines. I generally try and exclude, you know, too many carbs from my diet. I try and have things like brown rice or sweet potato. So again, similar to what I was doing throughout my sporting career. Also make sure white sugar, I always find white sugar, if I have too much of it, it actually runs me down. So I'm pretty conscious of what I put into it to make sure that I feel good. And obviously having a busy lifestyle with work and family, and you're always on the run, like you never really get too much downtime. So to look after yourself is super important.
Yeah. No, absolutely. So Grant, my next question is about a pivotal moment in your career. Was there a project that you worked on, or a promotion that you were given, or a job that you got that changed the trajectory of what you were doing?
Probably a critical moment in my career was really the opportunity in the business that I'm in right now. So back in 2017, I got the opportunity to run the sales team. My boss was the executive chairman of the group, a guy named Rob Kum, who's, you know, very well known in financial services. And he basically said to me, look, he said, 'Look, over the next 12 months, if you do a good job with sales and you lead the team the right way, we'll give you an opportunity to be CEO of the business.' So, fortunately, you know, sales was up 72%. It was a record year. The financial growth of the business and profile of the business, you know, was quite material because it was just a break-even business at that time. So, you know, to start really moving into the black and positive territory was really good, and that was obviously underpinned by sales, which drove the revenue and obviously the financial result of the business. So, for me, that was probably a critical moment in my career.
So, how did you initially get into the finance industry, having had an illustrious career as a swimmer?
Funnily enough, I always loved finance. So, I was trading shares at a very young age. You know, any money I was making out of swimming, I was investing. And even five years out from when I knew I would retire in my swimming career after Beijing in 2008, I was studying commerce law. I was also, I sat down with Rob at the time and also Tim Bishop from Macquarie Bank. And, you know, they gave me some guidance and a pathway to be able to have my first opportunity, which was at Westpac. And from there, yeah, I just, I've always loved it. I've always been interested in it. And the more my sort of career evolves and the more opportunities that I get to do new things, I think for me, I've just, yeah, I've certainly had no regrets. And a part of me, and I think most people would be shocked in me saying this, I actually enjoy this career more than my sporting career.
I just, I love business. I love the opportunity to create something, grow something, work with brilliant people, be still in a very competitive environment. And the other big challenge, which I feel quite proud of at a personal level, is it's difficult to make that transition after sport, particularly when everyone recognises you as that athlete, and they still do today, even though I've been doing, you know, this job and being in financial services and business longer than what I was in swimming. So for me to be able to make that transition, you know, I did my MBA afterwards and, you know, various other studies, and then be able to build on my career here and certainly have a shot at something else. So I think for me, I'm immensely proud of being able to do that.
Interesting. Okay. My next question is, what is the best piece of career advice you've ever been given?
Funnily enough, I remember talking to David Gyngell, of course, who oversaw Channel Nine for a very long time. And, you know, I was trying to, I was getting a lot of opportunities early in my career when it came to business, and him actually telling me to slow down a little bit. You know, I was moving from, you know, one senior role into another senior role and got quite a few opportunities. And I just remember him telling me, you know, 'You don't have to be CEO tomorrow.' And, you know, 'You want to make sure you've got the experience, the expertise behind you before you get into a role like that.' And he said, 'There's time.' And I really did take that on board. And I think for me, I was probably trying to rush through my career early because I felt like because of sport, I lost a lot of time. And it was really good advice because you actually don't want to get into a position where you're incompetent, where you actually don't know what to do. You don't know the levers to pull, what you've got to drive, how to bring people along in that journey. So it was a great piece of advice because as a person who can be too ambitious, too competitive, driven too much, sometimes to slow down and actually recognise that there is a process that you have to enjoy was a really important part of getting to probably where I am today.
