GIBS associates with Mumbai Dabbawalas internships (world's best Supply Chain Management Organization)

Now that the 21st-century world primarily means mega businesses, enough models exist to convince of the immense possibilities of business dreams! Each business study aspirant in the secret heart of hearts wishes to become an entrepreneur and run a skyscraper office, perhaps for an enterprise in hospitality or healthcare, to cite two of the most successful sectors. Global Institute of Business Studies would promote many such dreams during the semesters of the MBA or the PGDM. GIBS also teaches BBA and BCOM to cater to both bachelors and masters studies.

While looking out for business models to hold up for emulation in personal careers for the delivery of products or services, maybe both, the global city of Bengaluru has much to offer. Whether it is automobiles, software, industry and education, fashion wear, to name some dynamic fields, internships and placements come successfully each year. A batch of professionally satisfied boys and girls has been the happy ending for several years since 2001 as the 2018-2020 batch is set to launch this year.

Each major company has a secret or two to teach. While it is true that most information remains carefully guarded secrets because of the fear of piracy and conflicts, we need to share, with the wonders of digital technology making information transfer so convenient. Moreover, the future may be a world without secrets because of an all-invasive technology.

The Mumbai Dabbawalas Supply Chain Management system

Who would have thought that the comparatively low-tech food delivery guys in teeming Mumbai would succeed so well as a business model? The facts are hard to believe. Besides, they do not sell products and thus have no need to advertise or gain publicity. The company is well over a hundred years old. The basic service they provide is to reach the lunch containers to the offices from the home and retrieve and return the container to the home afterward.

That seems to be easily done except that Mumbai is a mighty extended city and delivery means transport through crowded trains and long distances. It is very true that the natives get the job done better and that is the advantage of the delivery guys. They have a feel for the city and the culture, the language and the people, though half of them are illiterate. Like everybody else, they are adopting technology too, but there has been no need for so long. They can do very well without.

Large scale of dimensions

Managing such an enterprise would be easy if it concerned the elite alone that reminds of food apps and the hottest restaurants in the town or the neighborhood. Maybe 5000 or more dabbawalas carry food for about 200,000 office goers across that might city each day, except on holidays. A dedicated business record indicates that one mistake occurs in 16 million transactions. That earned a six sigma classification and an ISO 9001 salutation.

Practice makes perfect, for sure

Like the local washerman or cobbler, repetition seems to be at the heart of the perfection. Yet, the dabbawalas have been around since 1890. That is a story of mighty practice indeed, handed down over generations. Incomes, payments, and turnovers are not huge in comparison to some mega companies that make the headlines globally each day. Certainly not in the millions and billions of dollars, anyway!

A game played with food containers

Each responsible for the distribution of 30 or 35 lunch boxes within a particular area, it is a superbly organized workforce that is realistic and responsible. A dabbawala earns $125 each month and the customers pay $6. That may sound absolutely underpaid but so has been their tradition for so long. Imagine a startup today attempting the same food delivery service. They would charge a lot more and make mistakes all the time, probably make a mess of it all and close shop soon in spite of advanced digital devices.

Lessons to learn

•    Food is a delicate subject and particularly so among Indians with some being vegetarians and feeling defiled if delivered meat by mistake. A coding system ensures that mistakes almost never occur with 40,000 transactions each day during delivery and return. Just imagine the finesse of the Supply Chain Management model without technology. GIBS students have much to appreciate.

•    On cycles, on foot, carts, carriers, by trains and yet never late. Even in bad weather and difficult city conditions like strikes and demonstrations too, the system works. Small reasons are not enough to give up such a seemingly essential service.

•    Lunch boxes change hands six times daily and yet there is never a mistake.

•    No union exists, employee disputes are never heard of and everybody like the police cooperates with the easy to recognize dabbawalas in white caps. Brand identity has been achieved a century ago. Many companies would be happy to change places with them.