Business leaders at the annual Converge Live event in Singapore last week described a new operating reality where war, inflation, AI and supply chain shocks are no longer treated as exceptions but as the baseline. The people making the decisions at the top are calling it uncertainty; the people below them are the ones who will absorb the costs, with executives openly saying the bill will be passed on.
Who Pays for the “New Reality”
DBS CEO Tan Su Shan told the gathering, "If you are a manager, manage for maximum flexibility. Because guess what, you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow," adding, "Stress test, stress test, stress test, so be ready for the worst case scenario." That is the language of management under pressure: not stability for workers or consumers, but maximum flexibility for the apparatus that extracts value from them.
Stanley Szeto, chairman of apparel manufacturer Lever Style, said, "Long-term planning is becoming more and more difficult." Another executive said, "We kind of threw our three-year and five-year plan out the window." Thomas Knudsen, managing director for Asia of jewelry giant Pandora, said, "It's no longer 'just in time', it's 'just in case'," and added, "The agility of adaptation is key." He also said, "Ultimately, it will all be passed to the consumer."
That last line is the cleanest summary of the hierarchy on display: executives adapt, supply chains wobble, and ordinary people pay.
Supply Chains, Shipping, and the Human Cost
Captain Rajalingam Subramaniam, CEO of shipping services firm Fleet Management Limited, said more than "2,000 vessels in the Persian Gulf [are] stuck," with "nearly between 20,000 to 30,000 mariners" affected. He warned, "It is going to be higher for longer in terms of supply chain cost." The language is corporate, but the reality is material: thousands of vessels stalled and tens of thousands of mariners caught in the mess.
Szeto said, "We produce garments … and to the extent that shipping is disrupted, then the cost goes up," and added, "Material prices have been going up … so … it's very inflationary." Lever Style has sharply increased the use of air freight despite higher costs compared with sea transport, choosing speed and flexibility over cheaper shipping. The burden of that choice does not stay in the boardroom; it gets pushed down the chain.
What the Market Calls Resilience
Executives serving mass-market consumers said demand has not cracked, but behavior is changing. Hans Patuwo, CEO of Indonesia-based superapp GoTo, said affluent shoppers remain resilient, lower-income consumers are helped by government support, and the middle segment is shifting. "Now they are willing to sacrifice assortment. They are willing to sacrifice speed for cheap," he said.
Martha Sazon, CEO of GCash operator Mynt, said consumers in the Philippines are "really being very selective" about their purchases, with government subsidies and overseas remittances helping cushion the blow. Asked to rate the ASEAN consumer's resilience, Sazon put it at seven out of 10. Patuwo said, "There's enough history in Indonesia of shocks, and we have learned now how to adapt and overcome."
What gets called resilience here is really adaptation under pressure. The executives describe a system where shocks are normal, planning is disposable, and the public is expected to absorb the fallout through higher costs, reduced choice, and selective consumption. The bosses call it flexibility. Everyone else gets the consequences.