Country boy makes good, helps Jollibee conquer new markets

THERE was once a talented young orphan from Sariaya, Quezon, who wanted to become an architect or a journalist but was forced to give up his dream and take a different route due to financial difficulties.

He had no idea then that the road he chose to travel on would lead him to become a well-respected financial executive who has helped transform a Philippine fast-food icon into a global brand.

That, in a nutshell, is the story of Ysmael Baysa, chief finance officer (CFO) of homegrown Jollibee Foods Corp. and honored as “CFO of the Year” during the ING-Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines CFO Awards for 2010.

When he was a young student, Baysa was always at the top of his class and his dream was to take up Architecture or Journalism.

But having lost his mother when he was four, and his father when he was 14, the resources shared by 11 siblings were thin.

Baysa, who was raised by his older siblings, thus thought that it was more “practical” to take up Accounting instead, and at the Luzonian University because going to Manila to study was out of the question.

After graduating in 1976, a cousin who worked as the chief accountant of a small real estate firm in Quezon City offered him a job in the same company as a bookkeeper.

“The following day, I went to Manila with a small luggage [containing] the only belongings I had in the world,” Baysa said, “My job was to record receipts of cash and payment receivables. There were no computers then, so it was all manual. I still remember how the ledger looked like.”

He was the first among his siblings to work in the city.

“For most people, this would seem a boring job. But I was fascinated about perfecting it and making it so nice—not just the addition, but the handwriting. I wanted to make it look good,” he said.

After eight months, his cousin quit his job to take up his MBA and recommended Baysa to take his place. At just 20, he thus became the chief accountant of Citizens Development Inc.

But after three years there, he wanted to start building a career with a bigger company.

“I applied at banks and a manufacturing company. I submitted my applications and every single one was rejected,” Baysa said, noting that it was hard to compete with applicants who graduated from top universities in Metro Manila.

“One day, I saw a job advertisement at Procter and Gamble and they were in need of a purchasing manager. I just applied by letter and I wasn’t expecting much because it’s the cream of the crop when it comes to companies at that time, at least for new graduates. Anyway, I got a letter two weeks later saying that the job has already been occupied,” he said.

But the same letter promised to notify him if there would be another opening.

After about two months, P&G sent a telegram asking him to go to its office on Ayala Avenue for an interview for a prospective job in internal audit.

After a series of interviews, he was finally offered a job. Baysa said that was “very unusual” given his background.

“Everyone else was from Ateneo, La Salle and UP. I was the only one from the province among what you would call the development managers. That’s how I started,” he said.

He ended up working at P&G for 23 years, making the rounds of the different units and even accepting assignments abroad.

He worked in the United States, was an associate director in Asia Pacific based in Hong Kong and then finance director based in Singapore and Malaysia.

After four years in Singapore, he went back to the Philippines in 1996 as head of finance of P&G Philippines. At that time, P&G Philippines was the biggest subsidiary of P&G in Asia.

He worked as finance director from 1996 to 2001 and then joined Union Bank as comptroller until 2003.

Asked what were his key takeaways from working in small and large companies, Baysa said: “Even when I was just starting with P&G, I knew all along that at some point, I will leave the multinational work I was doing. I think there was probably a nationalistic or patriotic motivation.”

He considered joining a Philippine bank and a Filipino food company a part of his repatriation process.

Baysa decided specifically to join Jollibee because he thought his job there was more of a match to his skill set developed at P&G, which was likewise into consumer goods.

It has since been an “exhilarating” journey.

“In this job, you have to be a significant contributor because the job is critical,” he said.

Baysa joined Jollibee in 2003 and a year after, the fast-food firm—then already the dominant player in the local market—crafted a new vision of becoming the largest Asian restaurant company.

This has now been achieved through a mix of organic growth and a series of acquisitions.

Between 2004 and 2005, Jollibee acquired a number of local brands like Chowking, Red Ribbon and Mang Inasal and likewise gobbled up overseas brands, mostly in mainland China.

With Baysa in charge of the coffers, such expansion was done without putting the balance sheet at risk.

“We achieved our vision at an exhilarating speed. The great thing is we did the acquisitions without incurring much debt—many of these acquisitions were paid in cash. Practically, all of these acquisitions are hard in value. At the same time, we have a stronger financial accounting administration,” Baysa said.

Jollibee is now a leading quick service restaurant (QSR) in Asia.

As of end-June, JFC operated 2,374 restaurant outlets in the Philippines under various brands: Jollibee (880), Chowking (422), Greenwich (219), Red Ribbon (349), Mang Inasal (459) and Burger King (45). It had 627 stores overseas including the brands acquired in China: Yonghe King (314 stores), Hong Zhuang Yuan (44) and San Pin Wang (56). JFC also has a 50-percent interest in joint ventures for the following stores: Highlands Coffee (Vietnam, Philippines) with 81 stores, Pho 24 (Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Korea) with 38, and 12 Sabu (China) with 20.

Asked what he would like to leave as his legacy, Baysa: “I think I would like to help bring Jollibee closer to the next level of its vision.”

The ambition is to be among the world’s top five QSRs in terms of market capitalization. This means quadrupling its market cap, which stood at around $4.6 billion as of end-June.

So while it had beaten the world’s leading fastfood chain McDonald’s in the local market, this homegrown Filipino brand hopes to compete with its peers at the global level.

Globally, McDonald’s is still the world’s largest QSR, followed by Starbucks, KFC (Yum! Brands), Chipotle Mexican Grill, Restaurant Brands International (operator of Burger King and Tim Hortons), Wheat Bread, Darden Restaurants, Domino’s, Dunkin Donuts and Panera Bread.

To date, there are not too many outbound-looking Filipino corporations. Most still prefer to stick to serving the domestic market because of the inevitable difficulties that go with venturing overseas.

Baysa said one of the biggest challenges faced by Jollibee, given its multiple acquisitions and entry into new overseas markets, was managing multiple startup businesses.

“So imagine, for example in China, while they were acquisitions, they were also a start-up for us because we have to rebuild and redesign the organization. How would you manage so many businesses of multiple startups? How do you allocate resources, especially organizational resources, to these many startups? Obviously you don’t have scale. So what’s your strategy for them? And one of the financial strategies that we have embarked on is to limit or manage the losses,” Baysa said.

YSMAEL Baysa

Jollibee’s offshore expansion strategy had been to follow where the overseas Filipinos are.

But in recent years, the company has started acquiring local chains catering to domestic markets instead of pushing its own brands like in mainland China.

Helping steer Jollibee toward its next growth path necessarily requires a good part of Baysa’s time, but he makes sure to set aside precious hours for himself, his family and community.

Outside of his day job, Baysa plays basketball and runs the basketball program of his community at Loyola Grand Villas. He has been doing this for 10 years and the court has even been named after him.

On Sundays, he and wife Emma serve as lectors during mass at Sta. Maria della Strada.

He also makes it a point to go back to his roots. He keeps a house in Quezon and goes home eight times a year. He also helps in the maintenance of the church in his hometown.

Quezon, in turn, awarded him the “Quezon Medalya ng Karangalan,” which is given to its outstanding citizens.

Finally, Baysa is a loving father of two.

Son Daniel is a second year student at the Ateneo de Manila University taking up Applied Mathematics while daughter Mariel is taking up Fashion Design at SoFA Design Institute.

Does he see himself spending more years in Jollibee?

“I don’t think about it. In a way, you can say I did not plan my career; I wanted to be an architect. I think [I will stay] as long as I will be contributing something significantly,” Baysa said.