Insurance executive Gary Owens enjoys using the element of surprise. And, indeed, his move to head up IFG's mortgage intermediary-dominated Ireland division two years ago - at a time when the housing market was beginning to tumble - did the trick.
The Irish arm stood out as a particularly weak spot last year. Profits fell 54pc as mortgage broking and title insurance transactions plunged. The performance looked all the more disappointing as the larger international trustee and fund administration and UK pension trustee businesses stormed ahead.
However, marathon-running Owens never kept his eyes off where he wanted to position the division in the long run.
Transaction-based fees served IFG well in the boom years. "But we now need to focus on building up a business with recurring revenues bringing it more into line with the rest of the group," said Owens. "This was something I decided within four to five months of joining."
Network
Brokers across the group's 436-strong network have been moving increasingly into broader financial services, such as life insurance and income protection. But Owens' real drive is to turn IFG Ireland into a one-stop shop for pensions.
Late last year, IFG acquired two companies - Pensco, a pensions administration and consultancy service, and corporate pensions business Nameridge for a total cost of €11.7m. This month, it rebranded the lot under the IFG banner.
"The trend, for some time, has been for companies to move from defined benefit (where pensions are based on final salary) to defined contribution schemes (based on investment performance).
This transfers the responsibility from employer to employee - but people aren't getting the tools," said Owens.
He believes that IFG's cutting-edge technology platform will be key to success as a whole generation has to change its way of thinking when it comes to providing for retirement.
IFG's easy-to-navigate website for members of its 350 corporate schemes, including Paddy Power and O2 Ireland, comes courtesy of its Pensco acquisition. (The system is also being adapted for self-administered pension holders.)
Philosophy
The group's simple philosophy is for clients to get the investment mix right between the asset classes - including equities, bonds, property, etc - rather than worry about which fund manager to use.
Daily fund price updates, state-of-the-art pension forecasts and a page for members to play around with various scenarios to improve their pension outlook (not advised when you've got the Monday blues) are all standard.
Many pension holders may prefer the head-in-the-sand approach to providing for retirement, especially given the dismal performance of equities and property investments over the past few years. "But this doesn't make the problem go away," said Owens.
While companies have been extricating themselves from a looming pension crisis by closing off defined benefit (DB) schemes, Owens says the onus is still on employers and pension trustees to properly educate members about their defined contribution (DC) arrangements.
Just as many group DB funds have become severely under-funded in recent times, Owens said: "Inevitably, it's going to come to a stage when people with DC pensions will have to start putting more money in -in a serious way."
Ongoing investment in the pensions business and the collapse of the mortgage market will leave the IFG Ireland business "marginally loss-making in the first half of the year", the group said in a recent trading update. It expects to break even at operating level in the second half.
Mortgage
"We estimate that the mortgage market will fall to about €6bn this year from €22bn in 2008 and €37bn in 2007," said Owens. IFG's broker network typically accounts for about 8pc of the mortgage flow in the country.
"We're seeing a conversion rate of about 20pc (from application to drawdown) this year, compared to 70pc last year. We're getting a lot of applicants, but it's extremely difficult to get them over the line," said Owens.
He says there are two reasons for the decline. "The customer is more cautious and waiting for house valuations to fall even further. And secondly, the criteria are very difficult to get through."
He said that Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland, which have agreed to hike their mortgage capacity for first-time buyers by 30pc as part of €3.5bn State recapitalisation of each, now account for over 50pc of new home loans.
This compares to a combined share of about 13pc of mortgage flow at the peak of the housing boom when foreign banks were competing aggressively for market share.
"There is a perception out there that the consumer is cautious -but some (players) are virtually out of the market at the moment," he said.
Owens' arrival at IFG in Booterstown, Co Dublin, followed a short stint in 2007 where he was hired by Friends First to head up its brokerage arm, Liberty Asset Management.
The gig was seen by industry observers as a grooming exercise for Owens (50) to eventually succeed Adrian Hegarty (61) as chief executive of Friends First.
Observers
Industry observers wondered how Owens, who had previously been the high-profile managing director of Hibernian General Insurance, would slot into the IFG stable under Mark Bourke, who was less than a year in the top job and was in the middle of reshaping the group's strategic direction.
"Mark is the main reason I came here. Plus, IFG is a plc and I loved my time when Hibernian was a plc," he said. "You get to have a lot of control over strategy and executing it. You get to see real results and there's a real buzz from demonstrating them to markets and investors. I've been given a great chance to develop a sustainable business in Ireland."
Director
Owens, who joined Hibernian's life business as a sales director in 1994, was named managing director of the general insurance wing in 1999, just weeks after the group was acquired by UK insurer CGU.
A year later CGU merged with Norwich Union to create CGNU, later renamed Aviva.
He hit the headlines and caused an uproar among other insurers in mid-2003 as Hibernian broke ranks with the rest of the industry to offer motor premium discounts to drivers with no penalty points.
He resigned unexpectedly a month later going on to establish technology solutions firm Rainmaker Business Catalysts with Cityjet founder Pat Byrne and Brendan Fuller.
It was around this time that Owens was also brought in by Athletics Ireland to help overhaul the direction in which it was headed. He went on to serve a two-year term as chairman of the body.
People around the executive see him as more of a strategy guy than micro-manager. "I'm very good at switching off," he said.
To do just that, Owens enjoys hiking, a round of golf (he's a member at Foxrock and the K-Club, playing off 12) and, of course, the odd marathon.
He is also involved with the Irish Sports Council, where he sat on a steering committee last year to review the outcome of Ireland's efforts at the Beijing Olympics.
The review found that Ireland which brought home just three medals from China "exceeded" targets set after the Athens games.
IFG's investors, including 6pc shareholder British activist private equity fund Promethean, will probably be looking for a more inspiring delivery from Owens' plan for the Ireland division.