Leadership teams crucial to business growth

Amid a scramble from several major institutions to acquire extra scale in terms of distribution, retaining and acquiring key leadership personnel is also crucial to business development, according to BT's general manager of advice Mark Spiers.

BT recently announced the appointments of key DKN and Lonsdale executives Phil Butterworth, Mario Modica, Kon Costas and Andrew Rutter to lead a new business unit, following the acquisition of the DKN Group by IOOF. Spiers said BT was looking to build an A grade team and was prepared to invest in the best people in the market, bar none.

"It comes back to that old adage; people don't leave organisations, usually they leave leaders," he said. "If you find talented leaders, usually you find talented direct reports under them; like breeds like. We're prepared to invest in the best people in the market," Spier said.

Matrix Planning Solutions managing director Rick Di Cristoforo said that if an institution viewed a potential group as having value from a distribution point of view, then "you would think the skills around managing and handling distribution challenges and the way you put groups together would have to have some value as well".

Institutions would have to look at the teams in terms of the group's overall infrastructure and ask how that infrastructure was put together. As for whether the right leadership teams could help attract quality financial advisers to a group, Di Cristoforo said it was more likely that a poor reputation would act as a negative screen.

If people have a reputation for not necessarily focusing on a financial adviser's needs they will find themselves in a difficult position trying to put a group together, he said.

If a leader had a reputation for being wonderful in terms of building a team, in terms of distribution or of delivering financial advice, then an adviser may look at that. But a more sensitive issue would be if they had heard of that person doing the wrong thing - which could cause financial advisers to steer clear, he said.

Di Cristoforo would not be drawn on his future in the event that Matrix acquires an institutional backer, and added that his current focus was on the Matrix financial advisers.

Spiers said wealth management is all about people and knowledge. "Those two assets are absolutely critical success factors for any wealth management business. Everyone should be close to their people and know who their talent is; and have strong development, engagement and leadership plans in place to attract clients, to retain talent and grow talent," he said.