Hana Maria P.

Reyes ABM 201

Mr. Ysmael V. Baysa is CFO, Compliance Officer & VP-Corporate Finance at Jollibee Foods
Corp. He is on the Board of Directors at Guangxi San Pin Wang Food & Beverage Management Co., Ltd.
and Happy Bee Foods Processing (Anhui) Co., Ltd. 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. He is 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 indepth 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 uezon Medalya
ng Karangalan for Business Management. It is the most prestigious award given to a son of the uezon 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, uezon, 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.
 Recently, he was awarded as the CFO of the year awards since 2006, in an “annual rite of recognition by the Philippine
financial services industry vested among the most outstanding of its practitioners.” His story inspired me how to be more
passionate with my dreams. Upon reading his story, I was reminded to be not afraid to make tough decisions. In his life, I love it
how he managed things, how he became a risk-taker and all. The passion and the perseverance he have taught or inspired me to
strive more upon reaching my dreams. In life, we have so many choices to make and to ponder on. It takes a lot of courage and
guts to make tough decisions in life, and yet through his story and achievements I was enlightened. If we are not making hard
choices, we are actually not making a strategic choice. It’s always very, very difficult to decide what we are going to do, and what
we are not going to do. Mr. Baysa believed in “80/20 principle”: you get 80 percent of the results from only 20 percent of the
causes or you get 80 percent of the revenues from only 20 percent of your products. Adhering to this notion it will help us manage
complex decisions and arrive at better decisions faster. And with that, this principle is also what I am holding up to. He changed my
mindset in life. His story became my example on how to be a successful in life someday.

Sources: https://www.marketscreener.com/business-leaders/Ysmael-Villoso-Baysa-08DDX7-E/biography/
https://businessmirror.com.ph/2017/07/11/search-for-the-countrys-top-cfo-gets-tougher-amid-volatile-times/