Never under pay the translator!-and other lessons for negotiation in Asia

Our beleaguered and beloved Commander in Chief of Verbal Blunder was once again the subject of controversy ahead of the APEC summit last week in Sydney. A rather testy exchange ensued when his Excellency G. W. Bush was pressed by President Roh of South Korea to explain again his position on ending the Korean War. The official reason for their public display of disharmony was later chalked up to bad translation. That would mean that the state department of the world’s largest economy and its counterpart from the world’s 12th largest, with months to prepare for this summit, flat out blew it. For those of you who have absolutely no idea (or perhaps, interest) of how that could have happened, the answer is it probably DID NOT happen, but it was a wonderful excuse that allowed both leaders to save face. Regardless of the actual correctness or lack of correctness of the translation, this incident does highlight how important translation, not only of words but also ideas, is to the success of negotiations between parties with different culture, values and languages.

Without question, we are well into an era of rising Asian influence, particularly in business and world affairs, and we need to face the fact that our future success may well be determined by how well we can bridge the cultural and language differences this presents. Having spent over a decade negotiating my way through business and life in the Middle Kingdom, I learned a great deal about how little I understood my Asian counterparts, be they Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese or Korean. While I was by some measures successful, I also learned to be modest enough not to claim expert status; however some of the lessons I learned I believe are worth sharing.

Here is my “top 11”, and although there are many other lists of this nature, perhaps far better and more comprehensive than mine, I think you will find mine valuable in its candor, as well as my emphasis on “don’t” rather than “do”.

1. Don’t ever believe what you see or hear. This is “the” cardinal rule of doing business in most of Asia. Why? Most westerners are so eager to find the mother lode, be it a reliable low-cost supplier, an efficient channel to the market, an original Ming dynasty antique or an “insider” with power to name a few, that they leave common sense in the overhead bin on departure. There are hundreds of brick and mortar buildings born from a can of paint, and Kim Jong Il is one helluva golfer! Yes your competitor’s price is lower, but that was from a decade ago and the freight was not included.

2. Don’t EVER take yes for an answer. Yes means maybe or perhaps even no, but seldom means yes. Maybe means yes, no or maybe, just maybe. There is really no no, but you will soon learn which yes or maybe means no. The concept of courtesy you are familiar with does not extend to negative answers, the other party’s does. Admittedly, it does feel a whole lot better to hear maybe rather than no.

3. Don’t be in such a hurry. Your perception of time was shaped by “The One-Minute Manager” and 60-second sound bites, and the other party’s biggest advantage is knowing the return date on your ticket, which you so generously offer up in the opening round. Think millenniums, generations and how auspicious is this month anyway?

4. Don’t ever get too full of yourself. Sure, that police escort from the airport was cool and that was probably the first (and maybe last time) in your life a mayor met you on the tarmac, but get a grip. The “mayor” is one of a dozen or so vice mayors whose principal job is just that and the police escort was less for you than for him. Yes, you were on television at 1am this morning, and no, the translation did not have any resemblance to what you actually said. By the way, that cousin of Chairman Mao you had lunch with is a bit more distant than you might have been led to believe.

5. Don’t underpay your translator. It is wonderful you have installed Babelfish on your laptop, not to mention you have spent hours honing your Vietnamese with that honey you met at the bar, but the truth of the matter is, unless this is your native language you will be hopelessly clueless in most negotiations. A loyal and dependable native speaker is worth his or her weight in gold when it comes time to finalize the deal if you have any hope of keeping your shirt. Your “no” can easily become “yes”, and those meeting notes you just signed can and will be used against you when your company’s trademark suddenly appears on a new line of condoms.

6. Don’t ever believe anyone across the table from you has the authority to decide anything other than where to go for lunch. The real decision maker is busy on far more important matters than yours and will be briefed on your discussions later, maybe. Your chances of this happening are far higher if you heeded lesson 3 by the way.

7. Don’t ignore or anger that grumpy old man at the end of the table who seems to always be sleeping. I know the books you read and the experts you talked to all emphasized the importance of protocol and that the person directly across from you was likely your equal, and he probably is, but that grumpy old man was sent by the chairman to keep an eye on your equal.

8. Don’t try too hard to prove you deserved your MBA. Your frequent use of ROCE, ROI, EBITDA, LBO, opportunity cost, linear regression modeling, NPV, DCF and functional matrix worked pretty good on your resume but the multi-taskers you are facing now march to a different drum altogether. You will be wise to keep terms simple and easy to understand. This also greatly reduces the chance that your own shallow knowledge is exposed under intense efforts to explain what your version of DCF really means.

9. Don’t be offended when your host suggests a visit to the barbershop after a particularly tough and long round of talks. No, he is not mocking your latest take on the mullet; in fact, it is not very likely the barbershop he has in mind even cuts hair. Assuming you are a male, there are known weaknesses that are universal and this one can be particularly difficult to defend (wink, wink!). If so, politely decline. This also applies to the “Curious incident of the knock on the door in the middle of the night” as well as various adventures at Karaoke.

10. Don’t call your boss and gleefully announce that the contract will be signed “tomorrow”. Matter of fact; don’t even spend much time writing the contract. First, tomorrow has different meanings (see Lesson 2) and second, those words on paper are just a record of a particular moment in time of a young, but promising, relationship. The legal department may not completely understand that either.

11. Don’t ask too many questions about the origin or species of what lies on your plate. Try it first and then ask question later. You will be surprised how many ways you can cook a grasshopper and your gastronomical adventures will dominate the next cocktail party back home. Bon Appetit!