Doing business deals in Indonesia has a different feel than in the West. In principle it is the same fundamental things you are doing: Selling or buying services or products, making contracts or any other sort of normal transaction.
In the West you have rules and regulations that are written down and you can go to court if those rules are broken by any of the parts – in Indonesia you have assumed ethics and traditions and you have to know these in order to be successful. Of course, there are written rules, lawyers and courtrooms etc. that deals with gigantic business transactions – but in the day to day trades you are pretty much on your own.
One of the things you will feel right from the start conducting business in Indonesia is the nagging feeling like you are:
- Paying more than you should for an article or a service
- There is a hidden agenda – and you will probably be hit with this later
- Or some other disturbing idea
In other words, as a businessman you start developing this paranoia real quickly – and for good reason. Here people always has an alternative agenda and for good reason.
Family ties here are much stronger than in the West (and comparing to Scandinavia is almost impossible) and that means that anybody you deal with always needs to do somebody in the family a favor.
Some uncle that has a shop that sells what you need and he should make some money, some nephew in an official office and he should make some money, some niece working as a lawyer and she should make some money – the list goes on, and usually you will never figure the relationships out.
Another funny feeling is that the people that probably are cheating you are smiling at the same time, and you actually feel like a personnel friend of these people – you probably are to some level, but you are NOT family unless you marry yourself into a family.
It is not due to bad will or anything else, but blood is thicker than water and families here actually do spent a lot of day to day time together and who would want to be the bad guy at all family dinners.
