30 CEOs and business leaders’ top concerns
Business leaders face a new operational reality: one in which war, inflation, artificial intelligence and supply chain shocks are no longer isolated events but part of the baseline.
CNBC spoke with more than 30 CEOs, business executives and industry leaders at the annual Converge Live event in Singapore last week.
Across sectors such as banking, energy, shipping, technology and manufacturing, a clear theme has emerged: Uncertainty is no longer cyclical. It is structural.
For DBS CEO Tan Su Shan, who runs Southeast Asia’s largest bank, the lesson is simple.
“If you’re a manager, manage maximum flexibility. Because guess what, you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” he said. “Stress test, stress test, stress test, so be prepared for the worst-case scenario.”
1. A world full of constant shocks
Executives said the pace of crises has accelerated, from pandemic to global pandemic. trade wars and now geopolitical conflicts.
“Long-term planning is becoming increasingly difficult,” said Stanley Szeto, president of apparel manufacturer Lever Style.
Companies are increasingly abandoning traditional planning cycles. “We kind of threw our three-year and five-year plans out the window,” another executive said.
Instead, leaders operate in a permanent state of contingency planning.
“It’s no longer ‘just in time’, it’s ‘just in case’,” said Thomas Knudsen, Asia general manager of jewelry giant Pandora.
This shift is being seen across all industries: Supply chains are being copied, inventory strategies are being rewritten, and logistics are being redirected, often at higher costs.
2. Supply chains are under pressure and costs are rising
Nowhere is this disruption more visible than in global trade.
“More than 2,000 ships in the Persian Gulf [are] Captain Rajalingam Subramaniam, chief executive of shipping services firm Fleet Management Limited, said “almost 20,000 to 30,000 seafarers” were affected.
“In terms of supply chain cost, it will be higher for longer,” he warned.
For manufacturers, this situation is already reflected in inflationary pressure.
“We produce clothing… and as shipping is disrupted, costs increase,” said Szeto of Lever Style. “Material prices are going up… so… it’s very inflationary.”
Companies are adapting, but often at a cost. Lever Style, for example, has sharply increased the use of air transportation, prioritizing speed and flexibility despite higher costs compared to sea transportation.
“Agility to adapt is very important,” Knudsen said.
Knudsen added that some executives have been upfront about where these costs will end up, saying, “Eventually, all of this will be passed on to the consumer.”
3. Inflation tests the consumer
Executives serving mass-market consumers said demand hasn’t broken down, but behavior has changed.
Hans Patuwo, CEO of Indonesia-based super app GoTo, said the country’s wealthy customers remain resilient, while low-income consumers are being helped by government support. However, the middle segment is changing.
“They are now ready to sacrifice variety. They are ready to sacrifice speed for the sake of cheap,” he said.
Martha Sazon, CEO of GCash operator Mynt, said consumers in the Philippines are “really, really selective” about buying, with government subsidies and overseas remittances helping to cushion the blow.
Asked to rate ASEAN consumer resilience, Sazon gave it a seven out of 10. Patuwo agreed: “Indonesia has enough history of shocks that we have now learned how to adapt and overcome.”
4. Artificial intelligence is an opportunity but also a threat
Many of the CEOs and executives CNBC spoke to said they are grappling with AI as a cost savings, growth driver, cybersecurity risk or existential threat to their business models.
In the software space, investors have warned that traditional SaaS models are under pressure as AI agents reshape the way companies buy and use software.
“The product is becoming less of a moat,” said Magnus Grimeland, founder and CEO of Antler, a global early-stage VC firm. “People who don’t have that mode of distribution and can’t reinvent themselves are going to have a really hard time.”
Daisy Cai, general partner at technology investment firm B Capital, said Software as a Service (SaaS) companies may increasingly have to charge by outcome rather than by user or “seat.” “Traditional SaaS is based on a per-seat model,” he said, but at agencies the software “isn’t charged per seat anymore.”
Still, other executives CNBC spoke to emphasized that AI isn’t just about layoffs, but also about implementing adequate security measures.
5. Cyber and trust keep CEOs afloat
Cybersecurity has emerged as one of the most pressing concerns, especially as artificial intelligence increases the speed and scale of attacks.
DBS’s Tan said the team worked “constantly as a red team” and took a paranoid approach to cyber risks.
He stated that in a world saturated with artificial intelligence, the biggest difference will be trust. “Everyone has access to AI, everyone has technology and everyone has access to great capabilities, and information is available everywhere,” he said.
“My cyber head says ‘the inside is the outside’. And don’t trust anything, don’t trust anyone,” he said.
Brendan Laws, COO of Blackpanda, an Asia-based cybersecurity firm, told a defense and cyber panel at Converge that the chain of cyberattacks is accelerating as tools become more widespread.
“Reactions are lagging a little bit behind the offense in general right now,” he said.
6. Energy security is back at the center
Shock in oil prices The developments triggered by the Iran war have also sharpened the debate on energy resilience and the transition to renewable resources.
TK Chiang, CEO of Hong Kong-based energy producer CLP, said the need to ensure energy security was accelerating investments in renewable energy, but argued that diversification, including gas, nuclear and carbon capture, remained important.
Assaad Razzouk, CEO of Gurin Energy, a Singapore-based renewable energy company, pushed back, saying renewable energy and storage had already won out globally over more traditional forms in terms of cost and scale.
“We have added enough renewable energy to meet 100% of all new electricity demand in 2025,” he said.
Both sides agree that energy demand, especially in AI and data centers, is rising sharply, making the challenge even more urgent.
7. The leadership playbook is changing
If there was one conclusion shared across sectors, it was that the world had not returned to pre-crisis norms.
Instead, companies are adapting to a new reality defined by volatility, fragmentation and rapid technological change. For leaders, this means it’s no longer just about weathering the next shock. It’s about convincing employees, customers and investors that they can still adapt when the next crisis comes.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put the biggest risk in a broader context: people losing faith in their ability to shape the future.
“What keeps me going is that a lot of people are convinced they don’t matter anymore,” he said.
