Brand21 CEO Alvin Soh says given that Malaysia is still recovering from the pandemic, the rise in prices will affect the entrepreneurs, forcing them to juggle with both business and household commitments.
“In Malaysia, with businesses still recovering after going through such a challenging period, any further increase of pricing/costs in daily necessities will definitely affect us because of business and household commitments,” he says.
He says businesses will soon face ‘rental inflation’ too but this is not the main issue which is compounded by the rise in operational costs that needs to be taken into consideration. This accelerates the burden for entrepreneurs.
“In business, we are concerned about higher operating expenditures caused by inflation although rental being the main pain-point is not always directly affected; but other elements of operational costs will indeed put an even higher burden on us and we won’t be able to transfer such costs to the clients,” Alvin says.
According to a microLEAP Business Advisor and a businessman himself, Mohd Ridzuan Abdul Rahman, there is a huge gap in the supply chain that is causing inflationary pressures.
“The medium-sized entrepreneurs are also victims of inflation and they will suffer more if the consumer price index keeps on rising. Not only will it deplete sales, but it will also cause a bigger gap between the production chain and the supply chain,” he says.
A supply chain is made up of all the companies and individuals involved in the production of a product, from raw materials to finished goods such as farming, refining, design, manufacturing, packaging, and transportation are all examples of supply chain activities.
A company’s value chain is the process by which it adds value to its raw materials turned into products that are eventually sold to consumers. The supply chain encompasses all of the steps involved in getting a product to a customer.
For him, the bigger question is the price difference between the production line and the supply chain, if the price seems uncontrolled and that could become a crisis in the long run.
“If the authorities do not act, we’re going to face a disaster next year. Currently, we have a very big gap in our Supply Chain,” he said.
