DABBAWALA CASE ANALYSIS

OB-II

SUBMITTED BY: GROUP 10 (BM-A)

BJ21028 Kritika Jalan

BJ21006 Aditi Kashyap
BJ21002 A Shriram
BJ21032 Mohit Munjal
BJ21033 Nikhil Gupta
BJ21026 Jishnu Purkayastha
BJ21181 Aryan Singh

SUBMITTED TO:

Prof. Shreyashi Chakraborty

1. What are the critical success factors of the business?

Dabbawala’s continued success and sustained excellence over the last so many years cannot be
attributed to any one major factor. From the case, we realized that their success is a result of a
combination of seemingly independent factors coming together to keep the system thriving for years.
One of the first major factors we observed is the organizational structure followed by the group. For a
company that employs ~5000 dabbawalas, it had a relatively flat hierarchy with the company deciding to
form multiple sub-groups of 20-25 members each. As mentioned in the case, this has helped in effectively
troubleshooting, resolving disputes, and overseeing coding, sorting, loading/unloading, collections, and
payments.
Another factor was the group’s recruitment strategy. The group’s policy of recruiting using their existing
network and the extended network of their family members solves the company’s problem of educating
the new joiners of the culture, language, food, and religious beliefs of the company. This also results in
excellent teamwork and helps in a high retention rate of the employees resulting in long-lasting
relationships with the workforce.
The other major factor is the operational efficiency of the group. This was by far the biggest
differentiating factor for dabbawalas from their competitors and other normal delivery companies. The
dabbawalas worked mostly from memory and had a simple yet sophisticated coding system that was at
one point even adopted by the airline industry and FedEx. This distribution system has also played a
major role in the success of the group.

2. Analyse the different components of the STAR Model in this case.

The components of the STAR model have been depicted in the case in the following aspects:
● Strategy - The strategy that the Dabbawala follow is oriented towards attaining maximum
efficiency in timely delivery of the lunch boxes to the customers at a highly competitive pricing
with a remarkably low instance of errors.
● Structure - The Dabbawalas are organized within their respective regions that they cater to. 15-25
Dabbawalas cater to a particular region and organize themselves into primarily autonomous
groups.. One of the senior Dabbawalas acts as the supervisor of that region. Since these groups
are self organized, there is a greater sense of autonomy with each Dabbawala to be accountable
for their jobs. However, there is some amount of hierarchy in the organization as well. Each
Dabbawala is answerable to the supervisor and each supervisor is answerable to the executive
management team.
● Process - The process of delivering Dabbas is largely horizontally differentiated with little role of
people’s powerplay in attaining the task. The flat hierarchy is attained by keeping the chain of
commands small. The organization is also decentralized with each group of Dabbawala working
independent of other clusters. All the Dabbawalas are trained in all tasks in order to enable a
flexible collaboration amidst them.
● Rewards - The rewards that the organization provides to the Dabbawalas are in various forms.
Firstly, it provides a reliable job opportunity for people from different villages near Pune. The
organization also provided lifetime financial welfare and support for all members and provided
them the autonomy to determine their own policies about hiring, logistics, customer acquisition,
etc. A fair and steady pay along with the established trust is also a lucrative reward for the
diligence of the Dabbawalas.
● People - The people recruited for the job are from about 30 villages in and around Pune. One of
the salient features of the people is that they are preferred to be underqualified so that they abide
 by the ways of the organization without questioning too much. Having scope of learning
something on the job is also a factor that keeps the Dabbawalas motivated. Strict rules like those
about the dress code and alcohol consumption keep a tab on the performance of the
Dabbawalas.

3. Explain how the different components of the STAR Model support each other or are aligned to each
other?

Alignment of all the components of the star model helps to communicate a clear, consistent message to
the company's employees. The business model is placed at the center of the model and holds the five
components, namely, strategy, structure, process, rewards and people, together. The organization's ability
to successfully align the components with one another is critical to making an impact
The structure of an organisation is determined by its strategy. Processes are depending on the structure
of the company. The implementation of reward systems and people policies is defined by structure and
processes. The task is to devise an organising strategy that takes into account all five parts and how they
interact to produce an organisation with the strategy, skills, and capabilities it requires to succeed. A key
principle of Galbraith's Star Model of Organizational Design is that organisational effectiveness is
maximised when the points of the star are aligned.

In the case of dabbawalas, the strategy that Dabbawalas follow is timely delivery, at a minimal price. This
gives rise to the structure of the organization where a mukadam oversees 20-25 dabbawalas and ensures
that the work quality is not compromised. This helps in the horizontal hierarchy of the distribution process
where individual dabbawalas hava autonomy with the work that they do. This helps to attain a flat
hierarchy by keeping the chain of commands small. The dabbawalas are trained on an individual level to
make sure that there is no compromise in the work. The reward provided by the organisation is pretty
similar to the one provided by any self help group or a small co-operatives. They provide a reliable source
of income and bonuses to the employees (though dependent on individual customers). Along with that,
there is also a provision to involve a family member if one is retiring, hence making sure that the value
system and vision of the organization is not compromised. Lastly, the people policies of the organization
are strict as they have a low margin of error in the operations. They impose strict fines if a member
doesn't abide by the rules of non-smoking, non-drinking and following dress code. This is kept so that the
deliveries are done on time and there is minimum loss in transportation time due to consumption of
intoxicating substances.
4. Explain the role of managers/muqaddams here

The dabbawala is a system that is unlike the way other supply chains work. The philosophy behind the
company is not to diversify by leaps and bounds or make humongous profits but to serve the existing
customers with as much deviation as possible. Needless to say, the company needs to earn a stable
revenue stream and profits to sustain the vast dabbawala workforce. An integral cog towards the
implementation of this system is the muqaddam.

A muqaddam is the team leader of a dabbawala group. In many ways he plays the role of what would be a
“HR manager” cum ”General manager” of a company. He is usually an older member who is in charge of
monitoring the members of his group till the final tiffin delivery. The muqaddams are in charge of
recruiting new members and assessing their appropriateness by looking at their shared beginnings with
other dabbawalas and their reputation. A muqaddam also oversees the relationships between
dabbawalas and their customers, negotiating initial delivery agreements and overseeing monthly
subscriptions. The delivery system is based on a code that the muqaddams enforce and resolve disputes
between different dabbawala groups while constantly looking for methods to improve their group's
competitiveness to boost their earnings.

5. The environment is changing. Which aspects of the environment do the Dabbawalas have to
necessarily deal with and which aspects they could develop capabilities to deal with over a period of
time.
There are several changes that have been coming about in the recent times that have posed challenges
for the Dabbawalas. The following are some of the prominent changes and the way forward with respect
to their impact on the business:
● With the magnitude of business that the Dabbawalas have been doing now and with the split
second precision of the delivery, even a minute delay in collecting lunch from any of the houses
due to the homemaker being late with the lunch will lead to a cascading effect on the overall
delivery time. This is one of the problems that the Dabbawalas have to necessarily deal with.
● With the increasing traffic in the city, handcarts have become difficult to maneuver. This is a
problem that can be addressed by incorporating better modes of transportation in the model.
However, considering that the lack of technology keeps the operating cost of the business
remarkably low, the usage of automobile might lead to an increase in the costs which would then
be translated into an increase in the Dabbawala’s collection from each customer. Additionally, it
also requires a challenge of training the Dabbawalas to drive/ride - a challenge that could be
overcome by training and deploying a handful of the new generation of Dabbawalas as drivers for
a particular group.
● Dilution of trust or safety protocols that lead to checking of the Dabbas at times in offices by the
guards also lead to a delay. However, keeping in mind the fact that they are also doing their job
diligently, there is little room for negotiation/working around on this.
● The lack of technological adoption is yet another challenge and probably the greatest of all
challenges. With the growing usage of mobile phones and web applications, the Dabbawalas
cannot solely rely on the word of mouth publicity for their services. In order to make the access all
the more convenient and to capture the youths as customers, the Dabbawalas need to digitize
their business. The funding for the training could be obtained through proposing the project to
Govt of Maharashtra (banking on the kind of award winning example the business has set for the
world) or the training, as proposed in the case, could be undertaken by NGOs.
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