Grant Cheng, ING-Finex CEO of the Year awardee for 2022 —Contributed photo
Finance is full or ironies. But perhaps none more so than the fact that the most valuable commodity in our profession is unquantifiable—and that is the value of trust. It is the bedrock on which our financial institutions, monetary and currency systems are built. It can’t be bought, it’s not fungible, it can only be earned.
Allow me to share my guiding principles as chief financial officer (CFO) to earning this trust—through repeated example, sustained competence and excellence, and committed effort. Put simply, we build trust through our actions. We have to work for it.
By repeated example, I mean upholding our ethics and integrity. As financial professionals, we earn trust through our lived values and our virtues, through your public and private character.
I remember a lesson I heard earlier in my career—am I someone that people can entrust their money with? This is why I am at home with Cebu Landmasters, knowing that our company and the family’s values and ethics are consonant with my own. When it comes to character, you cannot separate the personal from the professional. And the standard I strive to instill in Cebu Landmasters Inc. is that of a fiduciary.
By sustained competence and excellence, I mean having the skillset and discipline to perform your work well. It is mastering your fundamentals in accounting, honing your instincts in financial analysis, being knowledgeable with myriad regulations and laws, being fluent in capital markets and the investment industry, understanding how budgets and financial models are crafted, maintained and more importantly what insights and strategies to take from them, and being on top of your data and information systems and processes.
Finance is not a detached endeavor. It is interwoven and an essential part of growing and governing any business. Being a good manager necessitates being a good finance person. And excelling in finance means you have a thorough and comprehensive grasp of your business.
Finally, committed effort. You have to work for it, put in the hours, give the work the respect and commitment needed to produce an excellent outcome. Nothing is ever automatic, and the hours and effort you put into your work, or lack thereof, will show in the final product. Embrace the details and dive into the most basic of processes, so that you are invested not only in the outcome but the institution and its processes.
I hope these values that I share can resonate with my fellow finance practitioners. That it can be relatable to more businesses and entrepreneurs all over the nation for businesses of any size, at any stage in their life. —contributed INQ
This is a shortened version of the acceptance speech of Grant Cheng, CFO of property developer Cebu Landmasters Inc. Cheng is this year’s recipient of the ING-Finex CFO of the Year award, the longest-running search that honors the country’s most outstanding finance chiefs. He is also the youngest awardee at 41 and the first recipient from a nonconglomerate organization.