Entrepreneur of the Month : Ms Linda Lau (Feb 2020)

What are the challenges?  
都有哪些挑戰？

First and foremost the iconically traffic jam, which has been a problem for both its citizens and corporates.  Most of our staff are working in the factory area, while our marketing and engineering teams need to visit our clients and suppliers regularly. If the traffic is smooth, they can visit up to three or more companies a day, but when they hit the notorious “macet”, Indonesian language for traffic jam, they would be lucky to visit more than one customer a day. Fortunately, this deterioration of efficiency is partially compensated by the various electronic communication methods.

Secondly, the average cost of raw material is higher than that of China. Only a few of our raw materials are locally produced while others need to be imported from the US, Germany,  Korea, Thailand and Malaysia with higher prices compared to China.

​Thirdly, perhaps the most crucial one is the cultural gap between our Hong Kong and mainland Chinese managerial team with their Indonesian colleagues. Neither parties are communicating with their mother tongue but in English, that adds a layer of difficulty in exchanging ideas effectively. On top of that, the expectation of what pace work should be carried out is different.

That said, personally I see it as a blessing to be able to work between Hong Kong, Mainland China and Indonesia because I get to experience and understand both the advantages and disadvantages of these areas.  Challenges are often subjective, and it takes time and effort to overcome these differences and arrive at a solution. At least I find it interesting to confront these challenges in operating our business in Indonesia.

首先，也是最重要的就是交通擁堵，這對公民企業都是一個問題。

我們的大部分員工都在工廠工作，而我們的行銷和工程團隊需要定期拜訪我們的客戶和供應商。如果交通順暢，他們一天最多可以訪問三家或更多的公司，但當他們碰到臭名昭著的“macet“（印尼語：塞車）時，他們會”幸運“的每天訪問一個以上的客戶。幸運的是，各種電子通信方法部分彌補了低效的效率。

其次，原材料的平均成本高於中國。我們只有少數原材料是本地生產的，而其他原材料則需要從美國、德國、韓國、泰國和馬來西亞進口，價格比中國高。

第三，也許最關鍵的是香港和中國管理團隊與印尼同事之間的文化鴻溝。雙方都不是用母語來交流，而是用英語交流，這增加了有效交流思想的難度。除此之外，人們對應該以何種速度開展工作的預期也有所不同。

也就是說，我個人認為，能夠在香港、中國大陸和印尼之間工作是一種幸事，因為我能夠體驗和瞭解這些地區的優勢和劣勢。挑戰往往是主觀的，克服這些差異並達成解決方案需要時間和努力。至少我覺得在印尼經營我們的業務時面對這些挑戰很有意思。