“A career in life insurance is like a mission, providing opportunities to help people be financially prepared for unexpected events, or to assist them in achieving their financial goals/aspirations,” says Mona Lisa B. de la Cruz, Insular Life President and Chief Operating Officer, who has been in the company for 36 years.
Armed with a Master’s Degree in Mathematics, Major in Actuarial Science, from the University of Michigan, she started her career as a Technical Assistant in Insular Life, took the series of actuarial exams to earn a professional designation as Fellow of the Actuarial Society of the Philippines, and Associate of the Society of Actuaries, USA.
Not too many men in the Philippines take the exams to become licensed actuariesaccording to de la Cruz. Perhaps, it is because men in general hate written and long examinations. Then maybe it’s safe to say that actuarial science is an industry for women.
An Actuary is a business professional who compiles and analyzes statistics and uses them to calculate insurance risks and premiums. De la Cruz was the Chief Actuary of Insular Life for many years, concurrent with being the Head of Administrative Operations. In 2011, she was appointed to sit in the Board of Insular Life as Executive Trustee. Then, in 2015, and she was appointed President and Chief Operating Officer of the largest Filipino life insurance company.
As a female executive of an iconic institution that has been led by men all these years how has de la Cruz able to handle it?
She said she did not feel that she had challenges on account of her being a female executive. “As long as I passed the exams, earned my professional designations, did my job well, worked as a member of the Insular Life team, then I did not think it mattered whether I was male or female.”
But as president in charge of the daily operations of the company, she admitted to wearing many hats. So as a female career executive, who has also raised a family of three… and a husband who was in the military, de la Cruz said she was able to cope with the multiple tasks and roles that come with her position.
“I would say, I am analytical by nature. But over the years of being exposed to operations and managing people, I learned the importance of relationships, and role modeling. Thus, my management approach is a mix of analytical and relational. I am also what you can regard as a consensus leader in the sense that I listen to people who offer solutions, whether they be traditional, maverick, and even intuitive—I try to follow a process. And then try to find a “win-win” solution as much as practicable.”
Over the years, de la Cruz has been inspiring young executives, both male and female, to reach the top of their chosen field. And she has been friendly and tough at the same time.
“To remain relevant, I needed to be evolving and adapting to the changing times. The changing business environment requires innovative ways of managing and leading people. And with every bigger responsibility thrown my way, I needed to elevate my understanding of the business in its totality. Thus, I became accustomed to self-check. I would periodically check on my level of commitment to my role in the Company, and to look for solutions on how to help my counterparts to remain true to theirs, without risking the long-term viability and stability of the company,” she said.
She enumerated her guideposts, which are the same advice she would like to share to young aspiring executives: Be clear about your aspirations and your values; understand your present capabilities, opportunities and threats, and then create the road map to achieve your aspirations; work hard, keep on learning, adapt to the changing times; and progress without compromising values.
Like her, de la Cruz believes Filipinas have done well and have been recognized in the Philippines and in other parts of the world. She boasts of her company for having no barrier to gender equality. Though she said opportunities to rise in the corporate ladder is not dependent on gender, but on capability. “As of the latest count, 54 percent of our executives are female. If you look at the entire employee force regardless of rank, 62% are females,” she said.
And her vision for the company? “Insular Life is a heritage brand, an iconic brand having served the country for 106 years. We want for the company to have widest reach geographically (whether in or outside the Philippines, physical or digital) and across generations—in terms of providing the benefits of life insurance to as many customers as we can reach.
As such she keeps abreast of changes in business environment, keeps on learning, identifies people and talent/knowledge, skills and expertise. For example, she said, Insular has already adopted an enterprise-wide comprehensive technology platform that streamlined its core insurance operations.
“We are the only life insurance company in the Philippines that has a full automatic underwriting at point of sale. Just this month we launched our e-Commerce platform with the introduction of a new product which can be purchased online. But the changes do not stop there. Very soon we will be embarking on our road map to our digital transformation.”
Outside of Insular Life, Lisa has also served as President and most recently, a member of the board of Governors for the Actuarial Society of the Philippines. She has raised three (3) similarly bright children, Oblation scholars with the University of the Philippines, with her husband, a retired Major General for the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
She is also a fellow of the Actuarial Association of the Philippines, Associate of the Society of Actuaries, U.S.A. and a Member of the International Actuarial Association. She is a member of the Management Association of the Philippines and the Makati Business Club.
For all the tasks given her, de la Cruz remains jovial. And her guiding principle in life is “always be grateful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)”