Charged up: Redefining and spearheading ‘watt’s’ next for SMPC

The ‘man’s world reverie’ equated to the energy sector is eroding, but Maria Cristina Consunji-Gotianun, President and COO of Semirara Mining and Power Corporation (SMPC) is adding a formidable femme force to that shifting narrative.

Gotianun has successfully conquered the corporate C-suites in the Philippine energy sector, and she is now in the roll of the high-powered “goddesses of megawatts and gigawatts” in the business.

Decisive strength

Gotianun brought in feminine touch into SMPC when she took the helm in 2019. It was a sudden change of command following the demise of then SMPC President and COO Victor Consunji.

SMPC, under the Consunji-led conglomerate, has a stake in power generation and also owns and operates the country’s biggest coal mine. It supplies part of the country’s fuel needs for electricity production and allotting the balance for exports.

For certain, Gotianun’s rise to the top was not a token appointment because she was already Executive Vice President and had always been a key executive in the Consunji group’s energy business for roughly two decades. She also worked previously at DMCI Construction, another core business of the conglomerate.

“It was daunting for me because it’s a male-dominated industry and on top of that, the activities are engineering-based. But I’ve been with Semirara for more than 20 years, so the transition was not as difficult – I’ve known the people in the organization and the culture, so it was seamless,” she narrated.

She credits her late brother, Victor Consunji, as “my mentor, because he was very much involved with community development – that’s what I learned from him, to know the players; the stakeholders in the community and the concerns that we put in community development.”

To date, she’s been spicing up corporate strategies with: greater sensitivity in dealing with stakeholders especially in addressing the needs or even grumbles of host communities, customers and business partners; sustainable planning and adaptability to changes to ensure SMPC’s resiliency even when leadership is already passed on to their heirs; and innovative approaches to business operations and embracing broader inclusivity in the organization.

The gender gauntlet has not exactly intimated her, although she qualified she’s aware of the fact that she has to prove her worth twice as much versus male counterparts.

“Being in a male-dominated industry, there are a lot of barriers but I treated them as challenges, so I had to work more – twice as much to get half as far. When you look at the barriers as challenges, consequently, you would just fare better. Every barrier is a challenge, so it’s a learning experience actually for me – to navigate the organization through its people,” she enthused.

In her view, most male corporate leaders are more of  “decisive-authoritarian” while female bosses have softer sides but with decisive strength. “Women are decisive after consulting people – more collaborative and more of getting consensus of the group before proceeding with any action,” she said.

Turning adversities into advantage

Gotianun was just warming up in her post when SMPC had to deal with two toughest challenges – a major seepage at the Semirara mine in October 2020; which was worsened by the extreme blow of a global pandemic.

“It was the worst seepage problem we had at the site, and we could have lost the mine,” she stressed. The gravity of the situation perturbed the entire SMPC organization; and there was very minimal margin of error they can commit in resolving that dilemma.

“It was a tough journey of 6-7 months for the entire company solving that seepage problem. We have consulted experts, unfortunately, they were not able to offer us concrete solution so we had to work by trial and error. Then suddenly, it just clicked one day and we were able to manage the seepage gradually,” she narrated.

Solution to that menacing quandary somehow came at an opportune time for SMPC because by early 2022, as an aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine war, coal prices surged to historic peaks of more than $400 per metric ton. That in turn whipped up record-high income for the company reaching P39.9 billion in 2022.

Circling back to that twin predicament of seepage and Covid-19, Gotianun asserted that evoking dominance isn’t always the secret formula to fixing a sweeping drawback, instead that lies on the “soft strength of a leader” and empathy to rally the entire team to work collaboratively in removing knots across rough terrains and adverse conditions business operations.

“You need to have high emotional quotient and high adversity quotient, because you’ll be facing many odds all the time in solving a major problem,” she noted.

Digitization + energy transition

While SMPC has always been the country’s ally toward energy security goals and nation building, as upended by P49.4 billion royalties remitted to the government, Gotianun is also up to speed on the transformations reshaping the energy sector, not just with renewable energy installations but with digitization across the spectrum of business operations.

Her son Chris, who joined us in the sit-down interview and now the Vice President for Business Development at SMPC, chimed in that their generation will be doing “cleansing process” from the fossil fuel-underpinned business started by their elders; hence, he is now the one leading the RE investment pathway for the Consunji group – including blueprinted solar and wind farm projects.

Gotianun stated “we will have higher ESG investments…we entered into a joint venture with Marubeni and what we’ll do is reforestation – how to mitigate carbon emissions. That’s what we can do right now. And, we’re also investing on renewable energy in Semirara island, to save on fossil fuels.” She added that “we have our next generation leaders; our business development to explore the way forward.”

Nevertheless, she was straightforward in asserting that when it comes to corporate promotions, it always warrants meritocracy at the Consunji group. This implies that if family members working in the company won’t step up, the professional-hires can surpass them in rank.

The future somehow beckons on her, as she realizes how innovation and digitization have been shifting the tides for business processes as well as the overall productivity of the workforce, hence, that is a sphere where she’s also intensely supporting their teams to delve on, especially the millennials and Gen Z leagues in their organization.

“We embarked on this digitization – and I was so surprised, because after a couple of weeks when I was challenging the team – especially the younger ones, the more they were actively doing it because it was their interest; they got very interested. In fact, they’re the ones pulling things off, so that’s a very nice experience. You don’t need to crack the whip anymore because their interest makes them highly productive,” she said.

Gotianun emphasized that with data-driven decisions, primarily on their enterprise resource planning (ERP) strategy, what used to be done in one day could now be completed within 10 minutes.

Sky-high feats to humble knees

Her daily grind may often involve electrifying structures, boardroom battles or corporate engagements, but what is little known about this CEO is how she would start her day in silence and solitude.

“I really find my anchor in a daily prayer for life. That’s what keeps me going,” she enthused, narrating that the journey started after attending an adult catechism activity at Ateneo many years back.

“Every day is a blessing, so I always ask Him that when I discharge my duties, it is according to His will — that it is to the benefit of the people more than myself – because there’s always a consequence to everything that we do,” she professed.

Beyond her day-to-day petition for divine intervention, part of her routine is also with the treadmill because her physical well-being is equally important, keeping in mind her dual role in the corporate world and in tending to the needs of her family.

Gotianun said she’s extremely grateful that at this point in her life, her grown up children can already fully understand when her work would snatch her attention even after office hours or on weekends.

Suffice it to say that she’s one lady executive who’s always been armed with tenacity and draped with resilience – one who is not just navigating the corporate world, but transforming it to become resilient and sustainable for future generations. And, when strewn with tough challenges, she just gets even tougher! — Myrna M. Velasco