The Business Show Asia 2026

Most growing businesses run into trouble at the same moment: when they decide to expand. A second outlet. A new market. A bigger operation. The business has been working. Revenue is up, the team is holding together, customers are coming back. So the next move feels obvious. But expansion doesn't just add complexity. It amplifies whatever was already unstable. Supplier dependencies that were manageable with one location become critical with two. Decisions that used to reach 1 person now reach nobody dearly. Teams
that were stretched start to break.

Andrew Varona has spent 20+ years watching this pattem play out, at multinationals like Unilever and at the SMEs he works with today as a Fractional Chief Supply Chain Officer across Singapore and Southeast Asia. He's currently running the same check on himself, bringing a bespoke apparel business from the Philippines into Singapore. The businesses that scale without falling apart aren't the ones with the best strategy. They're the ones that checked their operations honestly before they committed.

This session is that check. In 25 minutes, Andrew walks you through the questions every founder and business leader should be asking before they pull the trigger on the next big move. The session covers the hidden risks that typically go unexamined, why most expansion problems were visible well before the expansion started, and what "ready" actually looks like in practice for an SME-scale business.

You won't leave with a framework. You1l leave with a short, honest list of things to look at in your own business this week, and a clearer sense of whether you're ready to move or whether there's something worth fixing first. This session is for founders, operators, and leadership teams who are either planning to expand or can see an expansion
decision coming. No prior supply chain knowledge needed.