Martha Sazon, president and chief executive of GCash, the leading mobile wallet company in the country, was named “CEO of the Year” at the prestigious IDC Future Enterprise Awards – Philippines. Sazon was recognized for leading GCash’s exponential growth and making Filipinos’ lives better through the mobile wallet app’s digital financial products and services.
Aside from Sazon winning the “CEO of the Year,” GCash was also recognized as the “Best in Future of Customers and Consumers” for championing financial solutions to improve Filipinos’ lives and achieve financial inclusion for all through its “Go Cashless with GCash” campaign.
The IDC Future Enterprise Awards recognizes outstanding organizations that have made breakthroughs in business in a digital transformation framework and had a successful implementation of digital initiatives that address new customer requirements, development of new capabilities, deployment of new critical infrastructure, and pursuit of new industry.
“I’m truly honored to receive this award from IDC, and. I share this honor with the hardworking GCash team, who have been working tirelessly to help achieve our vision of financial inclusion for all. At GCash, we work to build a future of agility and collaboration with our customers. We innovate and develop new products and services, guided by their needs and our purpose, which is making Filipinos' everyday lives better,” said Sazon.
Prior to leading GCash, Sazon was a senior vice president at Globe as head of the broadband business where she pioneered customizable plans in postpaid, introduced tech solutions for micro, small and medium enterprises and created a new industry category in prepaid via the highly successful Globe Home Prepaid Wifi.
During the earliest and most uncertain stage of the pandemic in June 2020, Sazon was appointed as the president and CEO of GCash. Unfazed by the difficult circumstances of the ongoing pandemic, she saw the opportunity to serve Filipinos. Two of three had no access to bank accounts or other financial services.
“It has been challenging but also fulfilling since we have been able to help a lot of people at this time,” said Sazon.
Under Sazon’s leadership, it did not take long for GCash to grow and enable financial access to millions of Filipinos. GCash was also able to grow its subscribers from 33 million in 2020 to over 51 million by the end-October 2021, equivalent to more than 40 percent of the Filipino population having a GCash account.
“Now, we have more than doubled our user base with active users logging more than twice a day. This means a great deal to us because it shows our app is now a part of our users' daily lives,” said Sazon.
Sazon led GCash to ensure that it would be able to respond with the customers’ evolving needs in line with the company’s rapid growth. In order to meet the customers’ needs, GCash improved its overall service quality and customer experience and shifted to a cloud platform to be more cost-effective.
The leading mobile wallet company also developed services with a strong focus on customers’ needs. With GCash, customers are able to “Send Money,” “Bank Transfer,” and “Pay Bills” safely and conveniently.
GCash was also able to address the other needs of customers with GInsure for insurance for as low as P39, GCredit for a pre-approved credit line to pay for bills or QR transactions, GInvest to easily invest in a market fund, and GLife to buy essentials, food, gadgets, and more.
During a time when the pandemic affected Filipino livelihood and the economy, GCash provided businesses, especially MSMEs, with a safe, contactless way to accept payment for their goods through the use of QR codes and a P2P platform. Jeepney and tricycle drivers and fishermen also use GCash to accept payment. With this, customers are also given the convenience and safety of paying for essential services and products.
Tapped by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, GCash supported the government's Social Amelioration Program in distributing P16 billion to more than 2 million Filipino families and the nation’s frontliners through the app. At least P40 million in donations for COVID-19 and typhoon relief were also distributed to various non-government organizations in the country via GCash.
