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SM's CFO makes every step count
Six times a day, Jose T. Sio makes 600 steps every time he
circles the OneE-comCenter wherehe holds office. From these rounds,
not only is he able to check on his staff, he also gets hisdaily
fix of energy from peering out on the glass windows.
Ten floors below, children on field trips are happily filing out
of buses to troop toSMMall ofAsia (MOA), one of the worlds biggest
shopping malls. They are joined by hundredsof visitors of trade
events, conventions and international exhibitions from thenearby
SMX Convention Center. Shuttle buses from Chateau Elyse and other
nearby SMproperty developments also regularly ply residents to MOA.
On Sundays, worshippers emergefrom the Shrine of Jesus, the Way,
the Truth and the Life, the ornately vaulted church besideManila
Bay that SM Investments Corporation (SMIC) built and donated to the
Church. By 2012,Sio expects more hustle and bustle around the
sprawling complex when the 16,000-seater Mallof Asia Arena
opens.All these are happening around the MOA Complex in Pasay City.
Elsewhere, the same flurry ofactivity can be seen in the retail,
commercial center, banking, property development, and hoteland
tourism industries considered the core businesses of the SM
Group.
Its all getting a bit hectic for Sio. Yet the Chief Finance
Officer (CFO) and executive vicepresident of SMIC, the publicly
listed holding company of the SM Group, does not show signs
ofslowing down, much like the family-owned conglomerate he has been
working for in the past 21years.
Consider it fate that the son of shoe sellers in Iloilo would
end up being the financial strategist ofa multibillion company that
started as a humble shoe store in 1948. After studying in aChinese
school, he became its only student to pass the Certified Public
Accountant examinationthat year. In Manila, he joined the
prestigious auditing firm SGV, which sent him on an MBAscholarship
to New York University and on assignments in Asia.
SGV at the time was expanding in Asian countries. My first
assignment was in Taiwan since Ihad the advantage of speaking
Chinese, he says. Back in those days, he was using an abacusto
compute and Taiwan did not have a single hotel for tourists. I
ended up sleeping on top oftables and bathed in the office toilet.
But we were paid the equivalent of our salary in USdollars, Sio
recalls.
When he became a senior partner at SGV, he was assigned to
Chinese clients, and amongthem was Henry Sy, Sr. One time he
invited me to his office and told me, You ask too manyquestions
about SM so why dont you just work here?
At the time, Sio was already handling the SM account for three
years. I saw the potential of SM
because of the growth of the consumer market in the country and
the companys potentialeconomic contribution, he explains.
When he took on the role of CFO, Sio became one of the first
non-family members to be namedto a key post at SM. Working in an
organization where the top honchos all have the same familynames
may have a bad and ugly side, but not for Sio. The Sy family is
very fair. We work likewe own the business and we are made to feel
we are part of the family, he says.
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Stewards of the family business also tend to take a long-term
view of the company for thebenefit of the next generation. In a
multinational company, you only look at the short term and ifyou
make a mistake, theyll just fire you. In a family business, you
look at the long term and sotrust becomes very critical, Sio
says.
Unlike other Filipino tycoons, Henry Sy, Sr. stays away from
politically and socially sensitive,
big-ticket ventures such as airlines, telecoms and utilities.
The SM founders dictum is that thecompany should get involved only
in businesses that it knows well. This means retail,commercial
center, banking, and real estate. The rest are more for portfolio
investments, headds. Knowing its core strengths allows the
conglomerate to ride the Philippines boom-bustcycles and
survive.
Proof is when SMIC debuted on the Philippine Stock Exchange in
2005. Back then, investorswere all on a wait-and-see mode as then
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo fought offimpeachment charges,
the stock market and the peso were on a downward spiral, and
newlypassed tax bills threatened corporate profits. Even as the
country continues to face thesechallenges, Sio says, We should not
lose track of our long-term goal, which is to expand so thatwhen
things stabilize, were ready.
This long-term view is also evident in Sios adherence to risk
management. He ensures that allSMs obligations are fully hedged
even if this entails additional cost. Our discipline is not
tospeculate, he says. This is why the group was left virtually
unscathed during the 1997 Asianfinancial crisis, which saw many
companies crumbling under the weight of unhedged dollardebts.
As the guardian of the companys finances and a strategic leader
two roles that requiredifferent skill sets Sio is able to see both
the forest and the trees. This uncanny ability hasearned him
several accolades here and abroad, among them the CFO Superstar in
Asia fromNew York-based publication Global Finance in 1997, the CFO
of the Year from Dutch bankinggiant ING Bank and the Financial
Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) in 2009, theCFO of
the Year for the Philippines from Hong Kong-based The Assetmagazine
in 2010, andone of the Best CFO at the Finance Asia Awards in
2011.
Asked what he plans to do when he retires, Sio says he does not
believe in retirement. Besides,he says the last time he tried his
hand at being an entrepreneur was when he set up a bakery inIloilo
and failed miserably. Kinain lang ng panadero ang mga bagong
tinapay kahit na sinabi konang yung mga luma na lang. Sakit lang ng
ulo kung pagagalitan ko,he says, laughing.
Instead of attaching his name to the best bread in town, Sio
wants to be remembered for beingpart of a team that made SM one of
the biggest in market capitalization which took othercompanies
generations to do. Just like counting his strides, this super CFO
makes sure every
little step counts in the companys growth.
At the end of the day, what is life anyway? Its a stage and we
each have to play our role to thebest of our abilities, says the
unassuming CFO.
