MODEL OF SERVICE EXCELLENCE

Mumbai’s Dabbawalas
Indian Ethos and Business Ethics

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies

Division C - PGDM 09

Submitted by Group 6:
K Bhavya (C024)
Pagadala Tarun Tej (C038)
Rishab Gaur (C046)
Sharath Kumar M (C051)
Sindhu Kruthi Pagadala (C058)
Surya Mandapati (C062)
 Learnings of Ethics, Values and Governance from Dabbawallas of Mumbai

In July 2005, Mumbai was battered by unusually heavy monsoon rains. In just 12 hours, more than 25
inches deluged India’s business capital. That, combined with record high tides, wreaked widespread
havoc, bringing the city to a virtual standstill. As the water rose waist-high in many areas, people found
themselves stranded at railway stations, in trains, and on roads and sidewalks. Nevertheless, on the
second day of the flooding, even before the city had limped back to life, there were many of
Mumbai’s Dabbawallas, who deliver meals prepared in customers’ homes to their offices and then
return the empty dabbas (metal lunchboxes) the same day were back on the job, wading through the
water. They quickly became a symbol of gritty resilience.

A Dabbawalla is someone who carries a Dabba, an aluminum cylindrical tin, containing home cooked
food. The Dabbawallas organization started with a hundred men who lunched the delivering service in
the years 1890, a period when Bombay saw an influx of people from various communities and regions of
India migrating to the city. This service not only managed to survive, competing with canteens and fast-
food centers, but has also been extended to other cities on India. Today there are 5,000 Dabbawallas in
Mumbai, delivering lunch to 200,000 people every day (400,000 transactions every day). At an average
of 200 rupees per lunch box per month, they have a turnover of 500 million rupees per year, despite
relatively low in-kind investments in manpower and costs of transports. The efficient sustainable service
is a job daily done without any use of technology and with almost no errors. The Dabbawallas service
was registered as a commercial Association in 1968 (Mumbai Tiffin Box Supplier's Association). The
Dabbawallas Foundation take cares of the employees by providing medical cover and security conditions
for its employees.

Several academic institutions routinely invite the Bombay Dabbawallas representatives to make formal
presentations in their campus to complement and enhance their academic content of their respective
programs. Often, senior management meetings find it useful to have a presentation on Dabbawallas to
illustrate the applicability of six sigma in Indian context and inspire managers to adopt and practice
world class systems. The fame of the Dabbawallas is not just restricted to this, the popular business
press has been publishing material on them from time to time. The Forbes journal had an article on
Dabbawallas. Recently the Alliance Air Official Inflight Magazine had an article on Dabbawallas. Top
ranking management schools have documented Dabbawallas as case material for teaching purposes.
Prince Charles of United Kingdom, as a mark of appreciation visited the Bombay Dabbawallas work
location during his visit to Bombay in 2003.

How can a poorly educated, decentralized workforce performs so coherently in an environment that can
charitably be described as unpredictable and challenging? The answers hold lessons not only for
companies seeking to expand in emerging markets but also for all developed-economy enterprises
whose ranks are dominated by unexceptional talent. Even firms that can afford to hire stars typically
depend on a cast of average people to support them. The Dabbawallas success is proof that with the
right system in place, ordinary workers can achieve extraordinary results.

Management - Self-Organized Democracy

The Dabbawallas essentially manage themselves with respect to hiring, logistics, customer acquisition
and retention, and conflict resolution. This helps them operate efficiently and keep costs low and the
quality of service high. All workers contribute to a charitable trust that provides insurance and
occasional financial aid—for example, when a worker needs to replace a bicycle that’s been stolen or is
broken beyond repair.

Each dabbawalla is an entrepreneur who is responsible for negotiating prices with his own customers.
However, governing committees set guidelines for prices, which take into account factors such as the
distance between a customer’s residence and office and the distance between that office and the
closest railway station. Because dabbawallas own their relationships with customers and tend to work in
the same location for years, those relationships are generally long-term, trusting ones. The dabbawallas
within a group don’t have a monopoly over any particular area; they’re encouraged to seek out new
customers, even in a building that is served by a colleague. However, once the relationship is
established, no other dabbawala is permitted to go after the same customer and “steal” him. The
dabbawallas take advantage of their more-relaxed afternoon schedule to interact with customers to
share information about upcoming changes, collect monthly fees, and discuss any issues.

When someone wants to join a local dabbawala group, the group will assess whether there’s enough
demand to add another person. New hires are trained on the job by the group. They learn to assist in all
activities. After a probation period of six months, they can buy into the business with a sum equal to 10
times their expected monthly income. So, for example, if a new hire expects to make 7,000 rupees
(about $126) a month at a particular unit, then he would need 70,000 rupees to become an equity
partner who would share in the profits.

Workers with more than 10 years of experience serve as supervisors, or muqaddams. Every group has
one or more muqaddams, who supervise the coding, sorting, and loading and unloading of dabbas and
are responsible for resolving disputes, overseeing collections, and troubleshooting. They also pick up
and deliver dabbas themselves. Members elect representatives from among the muqaddams to serve
on two managing committees that meet monthly to tackle operational and organizational issues as well
as problems that cannot be resolved at the local level.

Simple Codes
The coding system contains just enough information for people to know where to deliver the dabbas,
but it doesn’t allow for full addresses. The dabbawallas, who run the same route for years, don’t need all
those details, and inserting them would clutter the lid, slow the sorting process, and possibly lead to
errors.

The Journey of a Dabba

From the customer’s house to his office, the dabba will be handle by at least three different delivery
men and up to twelve men, depending on which place it has been picked up and to which part of the
city it has to be dropped. A dabbawala has only one area of collecting and one of delivery. He has to
collect around 30 dabbas. He will start around 9 am and will need a little bit more than one hour to do
the collecting before going to the station where he gathers with the other dabbawallas of this area. Of
course, all the dabbas he picks up won’t go to the same delivery area. At the departure station, the
dabbas will thus be shared out according to the next destination of each other. The dabbawallas use the
train network that is roughly formed of two parallel lines-oriented North-South whose terminals are
Victoria Terminal and Churchgate. The two lines are connected at Dadar, a common station that allows a
change of direction (Ponnuswamy, 1991:93). The train network is indeed relatively simple and that is
why dabbawallas can operate in this city and no other. Moreover, the direction is almost always the
same for the dabbas to be delivered: North-South in the morning, South-North in the afternoon. Let’s
take an example by following the journey of a dabba. The dabba of Mr. Lal has been picked up by
Chandra, the dabbawala of this city area (a part of Andheri, a suburb located on the Western line,
northward). Chandra’s delivery area is located near Victoria Terminal (VT), but Mr. Lal works in Nariman
Point whose closest station is Churchgate, southward. So, Chandra will take care of his dabba up to
Santa Cruz, a station on the same train line, where he makes a stop to gather a few dabbas to be
delivered around VT and drops the dabbas to be delivered at the other terminal. Mr. Lal’s dabba is then
taken care of by a second dabbawala whose delivery area is still not Nariman Point but who is going
further on the right train line. At Dadar Station, this second dabbawala makes another stop and
exchange tiffin with other dabbawallas. A third deliveryman is now in charge of Mr. Lal’s dabba, this one
is going up to Churchgate. Churchgate is the station for the biggest office area of Mumbai, it is thus
divided in many different sectors to which different dabbawallas are devoted: once again, Mr. Lal’s
dabba will go to another dabbawala whose delivery sector includes the office of Mr. Lal. In that case,
four men have been necessary to drop the tiffin at the right place. It will be the same for the return of
the empty dabbas after lunchtime: the same dabbawala who delivered at the offices of a specific area
will collect them again, reach the closest station and the same sharing out will start again till the
dabbawala of the residence area has gathered his 30 customers’ lot in order to begin his home to home
delivery.

The Journey of a Dabbawalla

To make it clear, let’s follow now the journey of a dabbawala. He will start his day by walking from home
to home to gather his bunch of tiffins that he carries on his head in a large wooden box. He will then
meet at the station the other dabbawallas of this area and proceed, on the platforms, to the first
exchange of dabbas according to their respective destinations. From his 30 collected dabbas, no more
than three to four are following his full journey. From the inscription on the top of the dabbas, he knows
which ones are not going the same way than he goes but he has to memories in which station on the
path and to which person he must drop them. This exchange may take place anywhere on the train line:
in different stations where he stops to drop and pick up dabbas and even in the train. It is imperative to
be very punctual: a delay of one dabbawala may retard an important number of workers, as the stops in
the stations are not the same for all of them in order to limit the gathering size. It is therefore essential
to catch every day the very same train and to reach as soon as possible the right place on the platform
since every minute is counted. Picking up two dabbas here, dropping three or four of them there while
picking up two others one station further and so on, till one reaches the terminus of the journey seems,
at first, very complicated. But it has to be remembered that a dabbawala makes the same work every
day, often having the same customers since a very long time; it ends up to be a sort of mechanical task
as underlined the dabbawallas: “If we had new customers every day, it will be difficult to manage, but
since there is only one dabbawala for a collecting area and since this one interacts every day with the
same co-workers, it soon becomes an habit. You know by heart where you have to stop and which
dabbas you have to pick up or to drop, no need to think about it”. Arriving at his terminal station, the
dabbawala gathers with other co-workers: delivery areas being most of the time situated in places with
a very high rate of offices’ occupancy, the delivery area has to be divided in small sectors for each
dabbawala (In Churchgate, these are hundreds of dabbawallas who met in front of the station, more or
less tolerated by the crowd of employees coming out of the suburb trains). So, once again, the
dabbawallas collected on the way are shared out according to the different office areas. With this
ultimate freight the dabbawala reaches the office building and drops each dabba to a precise place
decided by the customer (it can be near the elevators, in a dining room when available, at the door of a
meeting room, etc., but rarely directly to the hand of the customer). Having completing their delivery
service, the dabbawallas meet again to take their own lunch together, behind a parking lot, in a deserted
courtyard... It is worth noticing that they don’t have a real meal for themselves but just bring from home
a very light collation packed in a piece of fabric or in a small metal box: it can be a simple snack or a little
bit of curry already mixed with rice. After one hour of rest, they start again their tour: inversing the
morning gestures. By 5 pm, their duty is over.

Rigorous adherence to processes and standards

This minimizes variations that might throw a wrench into the works. The dabbas, for instance, are all
roughly the same size and cylindrical shape. To encourage customers to conform, containers incur an
additional fee when, say, they are so large that they require special handling. Unusual containers that
interfere with the delivery operation are simply not accepted. This uniformity allows the dabbas to be
packed quickly onto crates, which are also a standard size so that they can be efficiently loaded onto
trains.

The dabbawallas strictly observe certain rules. For instance, they don’t eat until they have completed all
their deliveries. Workers are fined or fired for repeated mistakes and negligence. Customers are also
expected to abide by the process. Those who are repeatedly late in having their dabbas ready for pickup
and don’t respond to warnings are dropped. The system empowers frontline workers to take action—
just as Toyota does in its manufacturing plants, where workers who spot problems can pull an “andon
cord” to halt a production line so that they can be addressed immediately.

Of course, no process is bulletproof. Dealing with customers who are a few minutes late preparing their
dabbas is one thing; handling a citywide disruption like a major traffic jam or a torrential monsoon is an
entirely different matter.

Emotional bonds and a shared identity

Dabbawallas, who range in age from 18 to 65, tend to remain in their groups for their entire working
lives. (There is no mandatory retirement age.) As a result, members of each team care deeply for one
another. In one group that I observed, an elderly worker who was no longer able to carry large loads of
dabbas helped in other ways and was paid the same salary as everybody else.

New workers are typically friends or relatives of existing members, and though Mumbai is a melting pot
of religions, ethnicities, and dialects, most dabbawallas have the same culture, language, values, work
ethic, diet, and religious beliefs. Many come from the region around the city of Pune and can trace their
roots back to warriors who fought in the 17th century for Chhatrapati Shivaji, the founder of the
Maratha Empire in western India.

While on the job, the dabbawallas wear the same style of clothes and white Gandhi caps, making them
easy to identify. They are largely uneducated: Only 15% have attended junior high school. A handful are
women, who typically perform administrative functions or special services (such as pickup or delivery at
irregular times) that command a higher fee. Undoubtedly, their strong ties contribute to the
dabbawallas’ extraordinary track record. Research by scholars such as Amy Edmondson and Richard
Hackman of Harvard has shown that familiarity, bonds, and psychological safety lead to lower error
rates.

The dabbawallas’ homogeneity also plays a part. In an era when many companies strive for diversity in
their workforce, its downside—less alignment—often is ignored. There are advantages to uniformity: It
creates a strong identity and sets boundaries that are necessary in a highly variable environment. That
said, the rules cannot be so rigid that they don’t allow for flexible responses to problems that occur
every day. It is all about balance.

A simple mission
Of course, corporations typically have much more heterogeneous workforces. But they can learn from
the dabbawallas’ devotion to their simple mission: Delivering food on time, every time. For the
dabbawallas, that task is akin to delivering medicine to the sick, and serving food is like serving God.
That explains their extreme dedication to their jobs during the floods of July 2005. In addition to unifying
the workforce, a straightforward mission can be connected to concrete goals that workers can be
measured against on a daily basis, making it much more powerful than abstract, lofty objectives like
“spread excellence everywhere” and “always delight the customer.”

A Self-Reinforcing System
The individual pillars help explain certain aspects of the success of the dabbawallas. But to truly
understand how they do what they do, you must look at the whole and consider the ways in which the
pillars reinforce one another. Take the coding system. It is simple and visual, which allows a semiliterate
workforce to sort dabbas quickly. That allows the use of a hub-and-spoke organization in which railway
stations serve as hubs and the need for centralized management is minimal. This is an important lesson
for executives who mistakenly think they can alter just one pillar without taking into account the impact
on the other three. The dabbawallas show that with the right system, an organization doesn’t need
extraordinary talent to achieve extraordinary performance.

Consider what happened when companies like Microsoft and Hindustan Unilever were interested in
having advertising materials and product samples delivered along with the dabbas. After conducting trial
experiments, the dabbawallas found that the extra time required to affix flyers or samples to the dabbas
was too big a disruption to their system, and the projects were tabled.

Over the years, the dabbawallas have received plenty of recommendations for increasing their revenues
or improving their operations. But the suggestions are usually rejected after careful scrutiny reveals
their impact. “Some business school students suggested we use motorcycles instead of bicycles,” recalls
Raghunath Medge, the head of a dabbawallas governing committee. “But then our people would have
to learn how to use them, get driver’s licenses, deal with the Regional Transport Office [the department
of motor vehicles], and costs would increase for the customer.”

That’s not to say that the dabbawallas oppose change. They acknowledge they must adapt to major
trends sweeping India, such as the exploding numbers of women entering the workforce. This shift will
put a big crimp in their operations because in India preparing lunches and packing them in dabbas has
traditionally been a woman’s domain. Consequently, the dabbawallas have started to collaborate with
small companies and canteens that provide freshly prepared meals. At the same time, they have
rebuffed any proposals for backward integration—for example, setting up their own kitchens. The
reason is simple: They won’t allow themselves to be distracted from their core mission of delivering
dabbas on time.

But getting organization, management, process, and culture aligned and self-reinforcing is one thing;
maintaining that harmony is another. Dell, in its heyday, had an exceptionally well-tuned operational
model, but then the market changed, and the company has yet to fully recover. The dabbawallas, too,
are facing challenges as their market undergoes a transformation. But with judicious adjustments to
their four pillars, they may continue to achieve amazing results. And that’s a lesson manager of all
enterprises should take to heart.

Varkari Sampradaya: Faith and Work – The Guiding Principle of the Mumbai Dabbawalas
“They may be old or great, rich or poor, but they’re all human beings. We have compassion for all human
beings, we regard them with love. We distribute food to everyone we meet. We must help everyone. We
protect our neighbors. If you have much, then give to the poor. God also gave life to the poor. Do not set
them aside. God will give them something good. Everyone has feelings in their minds. Everyone should
earn together and share. Eat together, putting things together, living together.”
— Raghunath Medge, President Mumbai Dabbawala Association
The tiffin delivery network is not only supported by a complex logistics system (which has been
discussed in previous sections), but also by a special moral code. This code is the expression of the
interrelationship between a specific manifestation of the Hindu faith—which can be traced back to the
Varkari Sampradaya sect—and India’s unique cultural philosophy. This sect places food at the center of
its philosophy, considering it to be a metaphor for life and its primary, material impulses and spiritual
aspirations.
Another aspect of dabbawalas’ work that seems to be in line with the Varkari Sampradaya worship ethic
is a belief that the human being is a go-between with God. There is a perception that food delivery
constitutes an act of religious devotion that reveals the absence of discrimination toward others. Just as
the Varkari Sampradaya devotees consider life to be a pilgrimage, the dabbawalas are constantly on the
move for their work and for their faith.

The dabbawala experience can thus also serve as a lens to focus our understanding of the deep
emotional and spiritual dimensions that contribute to the city’s culture and heritage, one that can be
shared by all that have chosen to live in it. A subtle combination of tastes that is also capable of
interacting in surprising ways with the encouragement provided by a global economy of which the city
of Mumbai is itself a result. As a case study, the dabbawalla system shows how a form of specialized,
culturally-embedded service economy, can empower itself by accessing the wealth of history and
tradition of its territory, and can subsequently develop a strong competitive
advantage. The dabbawalas achieve this commercial success without moving away from the
heterogeneity of their own cultural roots. Indeed, they succeed by making the intricate system not a
factor of chaos but a dynamic form of order.

If there is one weakness to the dabbawala system, it is its inability to adapt and change in a city that is
evolving rapidly. The case study by Harvard noted that over the past 40 years, the number of vehicles in
Mumbai had grown from 61,000 vehicles in 1950 to over 1.02 million in 2008. The worsening traffic has
made travelling by bicycle and transporting goods by handcart increasingly difficult and dangerous. The
increase in traffic also resulted in more road repairs, forcing the dabbawalas to detour — and running or
pedalling faster to cope. The tight schedule the dabbawalas operate on also allows for little variation.
The organization is also unable to expand out of Mumbai as no other city in India has as comprehensive
a railway system.

Most of the dabbawalla workers are illiterate and the last major upgrade the 125-year-old organisation
made to its delivery chain was the bicycle. Yet the Mumbai dabbawalas deliver and return 130,000
dabbas, or tiffins, every day. They have a Six Sigma rating of 99.999999, which means less than one out
of every six million deliveries goes amiss.
A cooperative of 5,000 members, the dabbawalas of Mumbai collect the filled dabbas from homes all
across Mumbai and deliver them to the requisite offices by lunchtime, which is 12.30pm, traversing the
length of Mumbai via the train system. At 2pm they retrieve the now-empty dabbas and return them to
their originating households, completing an estimated 260,000 transactions in a city of 10.5 million
people, accurately and on time. It turns out that much of their success can be attributed to their human
resource system — the way they hire, develop, manage and reward people. It’s an organization built
around people, not around technology. Technology is a wonderful thing but, sometimes, we might
wonder if we overcomplicate things.

It is important for us to remember that they (The Dabbawallas) are basically a people business and
should not let bureaucracy make them difficult to deal with in any way. They are a clear indication of the
fact that, if you take care of our people (employees), they will drive the service, drive growth and benefit
the customers. And as the Dabbawallas believed right from the inception of the concept, ‘Work as
worship’ to the dabbawalas. They view their work as worship. They are grateful to have work, and to
serve others by delivering food is to serve God. It’s their legendary dedication, which pushes them to
dash through the streets of Mumbai laden with tiffin carriers in all manner of weather, stems from
devotion.