Business executives across Asia are preparing to shift the burden of escalating supply chain costs and inflation directly onto consumers, as corporate leaders gathered at the annual Converge Live event in Singapore last week revealed a strategic pivot toward what one jewelry executive called passing costs "ultimately" to shoppers.
Thomas Knudsen, managing director for Asia of jewelry giant Pandora, said "Ultimately, it will all be passed to the consumer," as he described a shift from "just in time" inventory management to "just in case" stockpiling. The acknowledgment came as more than 30 CEOs, business executives and industry leaders told CNBC that war, inflation, AI and supply chain shocks are now part of the baseline operating reality rather than exceptional events.
Workers and Consumers Bear the Burden
The human cost of supply chain disruptions is already severe. 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."
Stanley Szeto, chairman of apparel manufacturer Lever Style, said, "We produce garments … and to the extent that shipping is disrupted, then the cost goes up," adding, "Material prices have been going up … so … it's very inflationary." He said Lever Style has sharply increased the use of air freight despite higher costs compared with sea transport, prioritizing speed and flexibility.
Middle-Class Shoppers Squeezed
Executives serving mass-market consumers said demand has not cracked, but behavior is changing in ways that reveal growing economic pressure on households. 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.
Planning Becomes Impossible
Across banking, energy, shipping, technology and manufacturing, executives said uncertainty is now structural rather than episodic. Szeto 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."
DBS CEO Tan Su Shan said, "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."
Patuwo said, "There's enough history in Indonesia of shocks, and we have learned now how to adapt and overcome."
Why This Matters:
The explicit corporate strategy of passing costs to consumers comes at a moment when middle-income households across Asia are already making painful trade-offs, sacrificing product variety and speed for lower prices. With tens of thousands of maritime workers stranded and supply chain costs projected to remain "higher for longer," the burden of global disruptions is being distributed downward rather than absorbed by corporations or addressed through coordinated policy responses. Government subsidies and remittances are currently cushioning the impact for lower-income consumers, but the erosion of middle-class purchasing power signals a structural shift that could deepen inequality. The abandonment of long-term corporate planning reflects an operating environment in which workers, consumers and families are expected to bear the costs of perpetual crisis without the institutional buffers that regulated markets and social safety nets are designed to provide.