Grab Indonesia CEO: Business World Moves in Increasingly Complex Landscape

CEO Grab Indonesia Neneng Goenadi has stated that the business world is moving in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing landscape as it enters the second half of 2026.

“For business actors, the challenges no longer come from just one direction. Geopolitical uncertainty, of course, changes in energy prices, then pressures on the supply chain, as well as the acceleration of technology and AI (Artificial Intelligence) integration, to increasingly selective consumer behaviour, all of this affects the way companies make decisions,” she said at the Grab Business Forum 2026 agenda in Jakarta on Tuesday.

At the regional level, she continued, the World Bank estimates growth in the East Asia and Pacific region will slow to 4.2 percent from the previous year’s 5 percent. This indicates that the business world is facing very broad economic dynamics, and it has a very real impact on business leaders.

Looking at the PwC Global CEO Survey 2026 report, only 21 percent of CEOs in Asia Pacific felt confident about growth prospects over the next 12 months, down from 34 percent last year.

In such a situation, company leaders need to think more sharply and more disciplined about how to grow. “Whatever happens, we still have to grow,” said Neneng.

Her party believes that growth opportunities are still wide open, but the room to grow in the old way is increasingly narrow. Therefore, these opportunities need to be pursued in a more disciplined way by choosing priorities more sharply, executing faster, and ensuring that every initiative has a real impact.

For Grab, she said, scale smarter means growing with clearer choices, choosing areas that truly create value, then allocating resources more precisely, and ensuring that growth does not add complexity that will actually slow down the business.

In addition, the company also applies execute faster, which means translating strategy into daily execution through technology integration (including AI and automation) to support productivity, visibility, better control, and faster, data-driven decision-making.

“Technology is not just present as innovation on paper, but must also help the team work more productively, help companies manage costs more clearly and efficiently, and help consumers experience more consistent service. Consumers now have very high expectations,” she said.