Mr. Shubham Dhumale – Management Learning’s From Dabbawala
Name: Shubham Dhumale
Education Qualification: Bachelors in Engineering – Information Technology
Current Education: Pursuing PGDM – Finance
Declaration
I declare that this essay is the work of my own creation as part of essays competition organized by Dabbawala Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. I transfer the ownership, title and rights of this essay to Dabbawala Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. Dabbawala Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. may use this essay content in any way it deems suitable .
Name : Shubham Dhumale
Date : 15-08-2024
Management Learning’s from Dabbawala
Mumbai Dabbawala in the word itself there is the whole history, respect and emotion. They have been the very important part of Mumbai working life and economy that to since 1890. The employment which has been created through them is immense the people who have been working in the organization is not very strong educational background and it has helped the population of whole Maharashtra to earn income through the Mumbai Dabbawala . They have helped many people to earn income from lower background people. Employees in organization is not only from the Mumbai but they are from then all around the Maharashtra states like Pune, Satara, Jalna, etc.
As been Maharashtrian I feel very proud that such organization is from our state Maharashtra. Maharashtra is a form we all people proudly say the Origin of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj I was so touched with the speaker who has mention them as Malvas of Maharaj it was just so goosebumps moment for me it felt like people in our state are very deeply rooted to our ethics and traditional that is also what I was fascinated about. In the era of Chatrapati Maharaj there were people which dedicated their life gain swaraj for Maharashtra for future generation without even having expectation of having something in return to their service and Mumbai Dabbawala are also doing the same work with the malvas followed the principle just do work without expectation of something more. This selfless attitude of the Dabbawalas in our city feels so delighted and lucky to have people like them in today’s world. Nowadays even if you are asking help to your friend in the back of the mind, I am sure that you will afraid that, “If I have asked for help today from him will he ask for something more tomorrow” this kind of mindset we live in today’s world but the Mumbai Dabbawala will never think in such a way that’s what I learned from them. The management which has been very strong since 1890. Nowadays we are learning about the Management studies how to manage teams, organization and many more but can you imagine like in 1890 there was no management school in that era how Shri. Mahadeo Havaji Bachche has done that in that time what was he thinking about while starting the Dabbawala system. The coding system which is very effective how did he manage that, is that what he had knew from before or is that what he come up with, if he has come up with this coding system then he would have immense knowledge about this.
This coding system has helped the Mumbai Dabbawala organisation to deliver Dabba’s at right time and at right place at right time not after what even after so many years. The main highlight about the working of the system is that without the help of any technology they are able to do it with very high accuracy and gaining them the status of SIX SIGMA ORANIZATION without the help pf any technology help. I am very sure that there would be very less companies which would have gained six sigma without the help of technology. Technology is the reason what we are today in today’s world, all the things which are utilizing todays are on the base of technology, all of we can’t even think about the world without technology it would very dangerous to even think about but they have achieved that. The start of Mumbai Dabbawala was at 1890 and the John Pierpont Morgan was also in same era, in 1890 Father of J.P Morgan have died and inherited the capital and become what we all know for sure, the great investment banker of the history. If we match all the above factors, we can see that there were many many great things happened in that era what was the modest of the people at that time, I just so eager to even think about it, it seems so interesting about this, isn’t that a coincidence or just 2 things happening at same time.
The message which they coney through the organization “Homecooked food is best food “is the main message from them. They are not talking about their services which they provide they are talking about the message which is beneficial for the people of our city, for our health. The company’s will be having slogan which would be having an interest for their services which they provide which will be beneficial for them but not the, Mumbai Dabbawala’s are willing to do that. “Customer are like God “this is very meaningful statement which they follow. They will not discriminate any customer they will always treat every customer with same respect. They will always prioritize the customer first and then the other things even there is rush in locals and many other factors they will be delivering the tiffin to their respective customer no matter what affects them. As the GDP of our country in low the price for their service is also very reasonable that every working associate can afford it. There are many reasons why we should admire the Mumbai Dabbawala and learn from them. But the harsh truth is that even if we will see it the Mumbai dabbawalla are getting the benefits which we all are able to achieve it. The basic needs like getting proper education for their children, loans, Health benefits are not been able to benefit the Mumbai dabbawalla it feels very unfair. They are doing their task to serve the food and in return as a society they are not getting what they should have. Mumbai Dabbawala should able to have benefits and we all should help them to gain the attention and help them with their issues. Even thou they are famous they have attention but it is not that much beneficial if it is not helping the Dabbbawals community to grom in future. Sustaining the organization is very important in world they are able to attend to it but they also have a grow as community. Growing is very important for the whole economy if one sector/ field will grom the economy will be growing in all sectors, it will have affect on the whole economy and not to them respectively, if one person grows all of them around him will grow. Thus, having growth Is not beneficial for individual but for the whole economy.
As in Mumbai there is huge number of populations of working professional who are not residents of Mumbai and even students have also increased in the city who find it difficult to have delicious food for them to eat daily. I think Mumbai Dabbawala can expand in that sector and have huge potential for growing. As I was looking on internet that they are trying to expand in Cloud Kitchens or Centralised Kitchen from where they will supply the Tiffin’s to consumer but rather than doing that, I have one idea. You have a huge network of houses from where you pick up tiffin’s like around 1 lakh homes you take tiffin and delivery it, so rather than setting up yourself from start you have leads and contacts of the Housemakers who makes tiffin for someone she cares, so we should tell them to make more tiffin for other people and she can earn too. Its like a win – win situation for both, Housemaker is also earning the Mumbai Dabbawala could also deliver House Cooked Food to the citizen as they have the demand and the have the logistics already, they don’t have to do that. Being an Indian I am sure that in everyone house we always make sure that we will make some extra food no matter what so rather than wasting that extra food we would just collect the Extra tiffin from the home a get that tiffin deliver. The benefit is that we would not have to invest that much and have a huge growth potential in increase of dabbas in daily life as this could be very economical and efficient execution for them.
Each tiffin given by the housemaker should be noted and she should get paid according to the number of Tiffin she will provide. There are many Housemakers who are not able to work due to many reasons and thus they want to earn money but it is not possible for them, so from this we will not even increases the employment for the women in the society but we can help the women’s which dream of earning and was able to achieve this. Providing Tasty House Cooked in the city of the Mumbai eery working Profession and student will never say no to that. They are bored of eating the food which is tasteless and not much healthy. Zomato and Swiggy will never be able to compete the business of Mumbai Dabbawala no chance. As they provide the food but the emotion which are been carried by the tiffin of the Mumbai Dabbawala are not at all comparable. Swiggy and Zomato are not at all what Mumbai Dabbawala does. Mumbai Dabbawala is the innovation core so they should also the first to execute such thing in Mumbai as they were the first to start the Dabbawala service in whole India. In today’s situation we have a term called work-from-home so we can also be able to provide such services to them as this idea is not only depend on the people who are working in the offices but we can also provide them services to in their house and there are many numbers of such citizens who are in need of the good food. Students are also target in the market there is various college in Mumbai who would be great consumer students are the also target audience of this service. In this we would not need to do any extra investment towards land, raw material, people and I am sure this will be something which will be revolutionary in it as no one has put attention in such kind of thing. This we will be something new for the organization itself also.
The Mumbai Dabbawalas show what India is all about. They work hard and use a simple yet effective system without fancy tech making them famous worldwide. They stick to old-school values like being disciplined, committed, and putting customers first – things we don’t see much these days. They do a lot for the economy and society, but we need to look after them too. It’s important to give them basic benefits and chances to grow. This isn’t just good for them, but it’s key to keep this one-of-a-kind service going strong. The Dabbawala model has the potential to grow into a home-cooked food delivery service. This offers a promising path forward. They can create a situation where everyone wins – homemakers, consumers, and the organization – by using their current network and meeting the growing need for real, home-style meals. This new idea can make their market position stronger and also create new jobs helping the economy as a whole. At its core, the Mumbai Dabbawalas are more than just people who deliver food. They stand for Maharashtra’s spirit of starting businesses and its people’s strong belief in tradition and doing things well. Their story shows us that even now when tech rules so much, people’s smarts and hard work can still lead to amazing things.
