How Important is Punctuality to Business?

Foz do Iguacu, Brazil.  I have been spending the last two and a half hours waiting for the bus heading across the border to Argentina.  The customers waiting at the bus stand are getting rumpled by the minute, as buses bound for other destinations pass through one by one.  Finally, the right bus arrives, but the customers are not relieved.  The bus opens, and the long luxury bus is crammed full to the aisles with passengers that the bus probably spent way too much time collecting elsewhere.

The reality is, according to the bus schedule, the Argentina bound buses are supposed to show up every 30 minutes, allowing a comfortable ride across the border for all.  But clearly the schedule is ignored for the sake of collecting as many passengers as possible.  Frustrating as it is, the phenomenon is way too common in different parts of South America.  In Uyuni, Bolivia, for instance, the tours to the famed Salt Flats did not leave until all vehicles are filled with customers from a dozen different tour agencies.

Interestingly, South Americans have stereotypes about who on the continent is less punctual.  The Chileans blame the Peruvians, who blame the Colombians, and apparently, the Bolivians are the whipping boy for all other nationalities.  But in the end, all countries suffer from some degree of delay in something.  People learn to live with it, budgeting their schedules to account for the delays that are bound to happen.  And for me, having lived in Africa, the slight delays of South America is not at all irritating.

Indeed, even with the delays, life goes on as usual.  The delays at the immigration lines and tours have not stopped international tourists from coming, and even after experiencing delays firsthand, international tourists still highly recommend their friends and family members back home to go to different South American countries for travel.  Clearly, the delays of everyday life in South America has not affected business to the degree that most travelers see it as anything more than a minor nuisance.

Moreover, to combat the prevalence of delays, South Americans have learned to skip over certain procedures that would lead to delays in the first place.  At the borders of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina, for example, lining up at the immigration offices to get stamps on passports have mostly become optional.  People from all three countries simply walk over to other countries without notifying anyone, saving time for them and for the immigration officers.

The result is that, in exchange for having no delays, there are no checks on what are moved across the border, leading to smuggling of contraband, people, and possibly drugs.  Cynics would say the smuggling is good for business too, just not in a formally recorded way.  The smuggling has certainly been good in particular to the Paraguayan side of the border, where the city of Ciudad del Este is home to shopping mall after shopping mall where Brazilians and Argentines show up to buy branded goods cheaply.

Foreigners not from the three bordering countries have learned to participate in this free-for-all as well.  In Ciudad del Este, Chinese, Indian, and Arab malls and shop fronts are just as likely to be found as those operated by locals from the three bordering countries, also benefiting from the de facto lack of import and export tariffs, and themselves adding to the bustle of what is named the "Supermarket of South America." Business is bustling, and the bandaid solution to the bureaucratic delay is the ultimate culprit.

So is lack of Punctuality bad for business?  It really depends on how that lack of Punctuality is dealt with by the people and the authorities.  For those that are creative about working around it, the lack of Punctuality may in itself create new business opportunities that were stifled initially.  Yet, the South America experience also proves that, as far as international tourists are concerned, a little delay will not take away from the hell of the time they are having on the continent.