Dabbawallas win over management students with trade secrets

The evening class at Welingkar Institute of Management on Wednesday was a special one. Those who once had Harvard Business School and Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad commenting on their dabba delivery skills, were now taking classes for management students in Bangalore.

As the students and a few corporate employees jotted notes, Pawan Agarwal, who has worked closely with the Mumbai Dabbawalla Association and has a doctorate in the study of their logistics and supply-chain management , shared their success mantra.

"Just two thoughts are driving the 120-year-old institution. One, work is worship. Two, customer is God. That is the culture and attitude with which 5,000 dabbawallas work," he said.

Pawan was equipped with a dabba himself when he explained the coding system to 200-odd people at Welingkar's Electronics City campus.

"There is no alternative for hard work. Each dabbawalla carries 65 to 70 kg on their head. They own every moment in the nine hours they work. Here, I see people sitting in offices and hunting for other jobs!" he told them.

Teamwork is the key. "When dabbawallas were awarded six sigmas, they couldn't comprehend its meaning. The then president , while accepting the award, said: "If you are giving six sigmas, one should go to the railways and one to the cycles that each of us use. That is what we like to call teamwork."

The class moved on to leadership. "The president of the Dabbawallas is himself a dabbawalla. The team leaders ensure his group members have train passes and in case a member doesn't have money to buy one, he pitches in. That is called leadership," he explained.

A DIFFERENT WORLD

Companies today speak of problems such as retention of employees. The dabbawallas don't even know what that is

They (companies) speak of corporate social responsibility today. The dabbawallas have been doing that for 120 years. They give Rs 50 every month for pooja, where the poor are fed.

There have been instances when women send forgotten spectacles, letters or pens through dabbawallas to their husbands at the workplace. Today, companies will call it value-added-services .

They got an ISO certificate even without applying for one. They do not know where the certificate is. They work for customer satisfaction.

In companies, we speak of how we have to take care of one's health and prioritize family over work. For dabbawallas, work comes first. 

Source: EconomicTimes