Mumbai's 'dabbawalas' are a hit in the UAE

While it’s almost essential nowadays to flaunt numerous management degrees and work out a strategy to survive in the corporate world, a young man from Mumbai has exploded all those marketing myths with his impressive statistics and showed UAE a unique way of effective management.

“It’s about keeping it simple and honest,” said Arvind Talekar, spokesperson from the Nutan Mumbai Box Suppliers Trust – Dabbawala, who insisted that they prefer to keep their distribution model untouched by technology.

Speaking about the 125-year-old successful model of the Mumbai dabbawalas who collect and distribute lunch boxes in the Indian city, Talekar elaborated on the daily working of the dabbawalas and how their low-cost and eco-friendly (they use only bicycles and Mumbai’s local trains) model registers only minimal slip-ups. It has even been awarded the coveted six-sigma.

“We keep it simple. I have seen that many times technology doesn’t work. So, it is best not to use it because if it fails, then we can’t deliver the lunch boxes on time. We are illiterates and we prefer to keep a mental note. We don’t depend on gadgets,” said Talekar.

For the dabbawallas, it all boils down to time management and their super-efficient and honest workers. Every steel lunch box is identified by a unique code, ensuring that there are no mix-ups, and that food travels without any hitch.

“We deliver 200,000 tiffin boxes, which means 400,000 daily transactions. And there are no delays,” said Talekar, adding that despite the numbers and a 5,000-strong work force they are able to keep glitches to the minimum.

Mumbai’s dabbawalas were highlighted in the global media when Prince Charles of Britain visited them in 2005. “We had no idea who we were going to meet. But we told them to come to the railway station at 11.45am because we had a 20-minute gap.”

Talekar thinks it was this event that turned things around for them. “Now we are invited to so many cities around the world to talk about how we work,” he added.

Their management model has been studied at Harvard and has even been featured in prominent media publications.

“We were even invited to the wedding of Prince Charles. Only three invitations were sent to India, of which two were for the dabbawalas! It even got a man from Mumbai his Phd,” Talekar said.

Their model has no place for a legal system or even an account. “We don’t want to complicate it. We want to keep it simple,” he said.

While he has travelled to many cities to talk about their management model, Talekar thinks it can’t be recreated in any other city.

“The dabbawalas work so well because of Mumbai’s local trains. Only if you have a good transport system like that will it work,” he said.

Asked if they would plan something similar for Dubai, he said, “I don’t know. The metro is too small to accommodate our crates.”

It was Talekar’s simplicity that impressed the audience at the 3rd GCC Government Organisations 3rd and 4th Line Leaders Development Conference on Tuesday, who have invited him to speak again on Wednesday. 

Impressive numbers

Distance travelled:                                                 60km to 70km (daily)
Number of boxes each dabbawala carries:     40
Weight each dabbawala carries:                       nearly 60-65kg
Tiffin boxes delivered per day:                            200,000
Daily transactions:                                                 400,000
Total employee strength:                                      5,000

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