Dealing with the question of how negotiation in Indonesia really works - an issue that International business players might have to (or want to) know.

1. Seoul, 08th October 2012
Indonesian Negotiation Styles
A tale of patience & perseverance
“
The Muslim and Western worlds – they seem
to work quite well. But you do need the
patience to understand the people, and
understand them well.
”
(UK Trade & Investment 2010: 12)
By:
Nabil Ishak [2012008359]
Exchange student

2. “What makes you say that?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBHMfk_bsx0&feature=channel&list=UL
Although there is no language difficulty
 something has already gone wrong!!!
“He didn’t particularly care how hard he had to push to get it?”
 What was the feeling???
“Very annoying, under pressure, and strong feeling that his
agenda was important and mine wasn’t.”
Cultural competence in negotiations!!!

3. Interpersonal Focus
“Visit regularly. And thereby build up relationships. Really, those
two are key.”
(UK Trade & Investment 2010: 11)
• Networking  investing in relationships,
demonstrating loyalty and trustworthiness
• General relationship building  patience and
perseverance (a long standing obligation between
the sides are based upon respect and trust)
• This means that negotiations are slow and
frustrating (for the Westerners)
How should we behave???

4. Personal demeanour
• Indirect Manner  Indonesians are non-confrontational. It is
rare for them to overtly disagree, although this is beginning to
change in some extent -> pay attention on their body languages
Indonesians rarely say ‘no’, employing the word belum which
means ‘not yet’  less blunt finality
• Indonesians appreciate tact, no shows of temper or frustration,
demonstrate respect and humility
• They will do anything to ‘save face’  telling others what they
want to hear rather than dealing with immediate issues
• Indonesian society is very status conscious  address the
counterparts with their proper titles
• Placing a great emphasis on age and respect

5. Decision-making
• Don’t make concessions quickly, but be
ready
• Decision-making is done by senior decisionmaker (high PDI)
• Indonesians will strive to gain complete
agreement without hurting anyone’s feeling
 to preserve group harmony and consensus
(compromise)
• Indonesians believe that fate or bad luck
makes certain things happen or not happen
 message the original agreement into
something that more realistic, given
whatever new circumstances and constraints

6. Thank you
Terima Kasih
End