Dabawalas

Got so excited after finishing the book "Dabawalas" by Shrinivas Pandit, can't wait to share my experiences from the book.

Though dabawalas are not new to me, as my native is Mumbai, I had also met couple of them and discussed their working style. The narration and the way the book is compiled,  needs a big appreciation to the author. 

Raghu and Ganga hold key positions at the Nutan dabawalas association, Mumbai comprising of 5000 employees with a turnover of Rs. 500 million. Their work culture and methodology puts most of the corporate best-practices or jargon to think/wonder. Their meticulous work starts daily by 8:30 and ends by 17:30 (picking up boxes of home cooked food and returning the empty boxes). During this cycle they are experts in time management, customer satisfaction, logistics, supply chain and best servicemen without even knowing the terms. God fearing people and they are good examples for "work is worship".

Their organizational chart is simple without chaos, they handle 200,000 tiffin boxes on a daily basis and their error rate is 1 in 16 million transactions (my eyes just popped out), am sure not even the best super computers could achieve this target. The association is 115 years old and are serving customers for 3 decades. No wonder they have been invited by premier institutions in India and across the globe. Sir Richard Branson had once traveled with dabawalas, Prince of Wales have invited them for his wedding.  

Dabawalas are an existing and proven model for millions of start-up companies and existing ones who get stuck at some point and needs to be bailed out. Their importance to intricacies, trivial issues, and values keep them growing stronger and stronger. . . 

Once again my heartiest thanks to the author, and of course to Raghu and Ganga. . .