Ysmael Baysa: A CFO in the midst of change

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine business landscape is experiencing rapid change in both risks and opportunities.

Globalization opens up the country for international challengers while consumer sentiments are ever shifting.

Ysmael V. Baysa, chief finance officer (CFO) of the country’s largest quick restaurant chain Jollibee Foods Corp., is in the midst of it all. As one of the top executives of the country’s biggest fastfood chain, his skills are crucial in keeping the company competitive.

But Baysa is not your typical CFO concerned only with number crunching and analysis. The award winning CFO keeps himself busy reaching out to communities as an active official in the Jollibee Foods’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs.

More than three decades since securing his bachelor’s degree, Baysa has climbed the corporate ladder of numerous companies, holding different senior management tasks particularly involving finance.

As one of the country’s top CFOs, Baysa is more than qualified to share his insights on rapid changes both in the business of running a company and in the advocacy of bringing positive change to communities and stakeholders.

“It’s very exciting because you are not just thinking of today but what the company will need in the future,” Baysa said of his day-to-day tasks looking and making sense of figures.

Prior to becoming a seasoned and well-recognized CFO, Baysa’s raw skills were honed in the Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation (formerly Luzonian University Foundation) where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (Accountancy) in 1976. Straight from the university, he jumped into the corporate sector as the chief accountant of Citizens Development Inc.

Then came the opportunity to climb further and learn more. In 1978, Baysa joined multinational firm Procter & Gamble, handling numerous and increasingly crucial financial-related tasks for the consumer goods giant’s offices in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Ohio, Singapore and Malaysia.

Fast forward to 2003 and Baysa took on the challenge of becoming one of the steering minds behind Jollibee Foods, with responsibilities in corporate finance, corporate planning, risk and tax management, comptrollership, investor relations and legal division.

But the changing global business landscape brought new challenges that kept the CFO on his toes. Specifically, the global financial crisis of 2008 triggered major shifts in the role of CFOs.

“For one, our financial concepts, the concepts we use for analyzing things, valuation and probabilities are under question,” Baysa said.

“There are now doubts because of what happened. The rate of failures and risk are turning out to be much higher than what the models quantify,” Baysa said.

Instead of being intimidated, the CFO took advantage of the opportunity to learn and step up.

“It’s very exciting because this is a time of great learning,” Baysa said. “A lot of people are looking for solutions and you hope to participate in arriving at solutions.”

Amid the changes, Baysa said he held on to timeless principles of prudence and integrity. Continuous research and understanding of what’s happening around also guided his judgment.

The well-respected CFO took the initiative to level up from number crunching to total information analysis for Jollibee Foods.

 For instance, Baysa said the fastfood giant started gathering essential information while formulating a research model that allowed the in-depth understanding of individual branches’ probability of success.

Jollibee Foods now also has a market research tool that analyzes market share data and shifting patterns in individual stores.

“I think the best CFOs will get these kinds of responsibilities because the CFO is in a unique position to look at both inside and outside the company,” Baysa said.

His efforts were soon recognized as Baysa was named the ING-Financial Executives’ Institute of the Philippines (ING-FINEX) CFO of the Year in 2010. And just a few months ago, Baysa received the Quezon Medalya ng Karangalan for Business Management. It is the most prestigious award given to a son of the Quezon province.

The results also showed up in the financial statements. Strong sales in existing stores and new branches globally boosted the net income of the fastfood giant to P2.1 billion in the first half, up 32.7 percent from P1.58 billion last year. First semester systemwide sales rose 12.1 percent to P49.9 billion from P44.5 billion a year ago.

To date, Jollibee Foods operates the largest fastfood service network in the Philippines with 2,102 branches composed of 791 Jollibee branches, 388 Chowking, 198 Greenwich, 234 Red Ribbon, 461 Mang Inasal and 30 Burger King. The company, which also has 569 international stores in operation, aims to be the largest homegrown quick service restaurant chain in Asia by 2020.

But aside from keeping stockholders jolly with soaring stock prices and improving profitability of Jollibee Foods, Baysa devotes his time in giving back to communities using his financial skills.

“First of all, a corporation is not just for profit. It serves a public purpose and has to be a good and responsible citizen,” said Baysa, who helps Jollibee Foods identify beneficiaries for its CSR projects.

“One of the biggest contributions of CFOs in CSR projects is to ensure that the social responsibility model is financially sustainable,” Baysa said. Hence, Jollibee Foods uses its strength in the food business to reach out and give back to communities.

The fastfood giant is the company behind the Busog, Lusog, Talino school feeding program. It is also involved in a farmer entrepreneur program wherein Jollibee Foods helps growers in provinces like Nueva Ecija, Quezon, Pangasinan and Bukidnon in finding buyers in the form of supermarkets and food manufacturing companies.

“Today, JFC donates 1.5 percent of its net income to the Jollibee Foundation every year,” Baysa said.

Jollibee Foundation applies the same level of professionalism implemented in Jollibee Foods, Baysa said, adding that the CSR arm has ample tools to measure the productivity and effectivity of its projects.

“The role is to ensure that resources are deployed in a most effective way to the right projects,” Baysa said of his CFO tasks both for CSR projects of Jollibee Foundation and capital spending for Jollibee Foods.

ING and FINEX are again on the lookout for the country’s outstanding CFOs. The ING-FINEX CFO of the Year awards is a continuing program of honoring the best CFOs who made a mark not only in their companies and industries but also in their respective communities.