Finding and checking suppliers
Where meaning gets lost.
Indonesian export offices generally work in English and the people making the goods generally do not. A great deal goes wrong in the gap. Numbers, drawings and physical samples cross a language boundary intact. Adjectives, implications and politeness do not.
Where the gap actually is.
Not usually between you and the person you email. The export manager at an Indonesian company often has good English and understands the trade. The gap is between that person and the workshop, where instructions arrive translated, summarised and prioritised by somebody else.
That is why a specification full of nuance performs worse than a short one full of numbers. What reaches the floor is the operational core of what you wrote, and everything else is a paragraph somebody skimmed.
It is also why the same misunderstanding can survive three friendly emails. Both parties are being clear in their own terms and neither is checking the same thing.
What crosses intact.
Numbers with units. Drawings with dimensions. Photographs of a defect rather than a description of it. A physical sample sealed at both ends. Any of these can be checked by somebody who reads no English at all.
What does not cross: approximately, similar to, standard, high quality, as discussed, and the entire category of things implied rather than stated. Also, and this is less obvious, negative instructions. Do not use this glue is weaker than use this glue, because a negative survives translation badly.
Practical habits that work.
Confirm every call in writing, in short sentences, and ask for acknowledgement of the specific points rather than a general yes. This feels excessive for the first three orders and prevents the fourth from going wrong.
Ask questions that cannot be answered with yes. What moisture content will the goods be at loading is a question. Will the goods be properly dried is an invitation to agree.
Where the value justifies it, have somebody who speaks Indonesian ask the same question on the floor that you asked in the office. The answers are occasionally different, and the difference is the information.
Questions buyers ask.
Is politeness a problem?
Directness is calibrated differently in different business cultures, and a soft no can read as a yes to somebody expecting a hard no. The fix is not to demand bluntness. It is to ask questions with specific answers and to confirm in writing, which works regardless of how either side prefers to talk.
Should I learn Indonesian?
A few words are appreciated and will not change a commercial outcome. What changes outcomes is having somebody who can ask a technical question on the factory floor, which is a different capability from conversational language and is what an agent or an interpreter provides.
How do I know a specification was understood?
Ask them to send back what they will do, in their own words, before production. A restatement that matches means it landed. A restatement that drifts is the cheapest possible warning, and it costs one email.
Read next.
Writing a specification suppliers can price
The document that decides what arrives. What belongs in it, what has to be measurable, and the words that cause disputes.
Negotiating without breaking the order
Six moves and four traps, about business mechanics rather than national character. What to fix before you discuss price.
What to look at on a factory visit
A day at a producer answers questions no document can. What to look for and the three things that tell you most.
Planning a sourcing trip
The country is enormous and production is scattered. How to plan a trip worth the flights.
When a supplier goes quiet
Silence usually means something specific. What it normally is and what to do in order.
Getting a change made
Asking produces agreement and not always change. How to make a modification stick.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.