By Melissa Luz T. Lopez, Senior Reporter
FORESIGHT, or the lack thereof, could spell a huge difference for businesses in charting the way forward. More than crunching numbers, this finance chief lets the figures talk back.
For Sherisa P. Nuesa, a seasoned corporate planner and chief financial officer (CFO) of various Ayala Group of companies, it all boils down to going beyond numbers and digging deep – and she literally did so in charting Manila Water Co., Inc.’s turnaround and its well-received initial public offering (IPO) in 2005.
Ms. Nuesa brought the old state-run firm back in the black by opting to take on a complete pipe replacement process in its service zones to plug leaks and losses, which has fetched international awards for the utility provider.
The then-CFO also paved the way for Manila Water’s public listing – the first after the Asian Financial Crisis – which went 15 times oversubscribed in the global market. Following the successful IPO, Ms. Nuesa was named the ING-FINEX CFO of the Year in 2008.
She attributes her success to her dedication to look beyond numbers, guided by her degree in commerce from the Far Eastern University (where she finished summa cum laude) and post-graduate programs from the Ateneo Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School and Stanford University.
“The formula on a personal level is really just work, work, work – working harder to understand and penetrating deep the drivers of the business,” Ms. Nuesa said in a recent interview with BusinessWorld.
“Anticipate what could happen and what could go wrong … If you know that you can manage the risk, you will be bolder.”
Ms. Nuesa said having deep insight into industries coupled with sharp instincts would push any leader to be more prepared and forward-looking, and would allow them to make bold but calculated business decisions despite challenges that lie ahead.
Her dedication is such that she often gets tagged as OC (obsessive-compulsive) given her attention to detail – may it be mapping out a company’s future strategy, mentoring teams at work, or just preparing lunch days ahead of an hour-long press chat.
Ms. Nuesa takes pride in being an aggressive risk-taker, prodding the IPOs of Ayala Land, Inc.; Cebu Holdings, Inc.; Cebu Property Ventures and Development Corp.; the Integrated Micro-Electronics, Inc.; and even the Gaisano family’s Metro Retail Stores Group, Inc. – all of which saw wide successes.
Despite the painstaking process, going public would help a company “mature faster,” she believes.
Currently, Ms. Nuesa wears multiple hats across industries as president of the Ayala-led ALFM Mutual Funds, and as a board director for Far Eastern University, her alma mater; pharmacy chain Generika Group; the Cebu-based Vicsal Development Corp.; and the Integrity Initiative Inc., to name a few.
Some sacrifices do come alongside a full-fledged CFO career, Ms. Nuesa said, but nothing unbearable for a business executive and homemaker.
Ms. Nuesa, who is the only female CFO on the list of the ING-FINEX winners so far, said she has never viewed gender as a force in the boardroom.
“It’s not really about gender. You have to think there is equality, that you are as good… It has to be merit,” Ms. Nuesa said, adding that women are very much capable of being competent finance managers.
“If someone who is brighter than I can understand it in an hour, I devote two hours and we’ll be equal. It’s the hard work that’s the equalizer.”
ING-FINEX has opened this year’s search for the country’s outstanding CFO, with nominations to be accepted until Aug. 31.
