How does small business become big business?

There is a well-known story about Mumbai’s dabbawalas. How did they become famous across Mumbai?

They are famous not just for the amazing service they provide, but also for the unfaltering accuracy with which they operate.

Now there is a well known proverb that says, “Tiffin time goes tech savvy”. Four years ago, when the BBC splashed Mumbai’s dabbawalas across TV screens worldwide the buzz was all about how this massive network functioned seamlessly, without  a hitch and especially without the help of modern, information technology. The mind boggled at the thought of a lone Raghunath Meghe sitting in his shantytown office, organizing the massive workforce that delivered hot meals to executives and businessmen throughout the bustling metropolis of Mumbai.

With no computers or online services, this lean machine was a management marvel; it made its way into business school case studies, into the headlines of major broadsheets across the globe and even caught the attention of Prince Charles. It even earned itself a Six Sigma certification long before most companies in India knew what it was. Before that, the stars of Mumbai’s launch hour operated akin to invisible men, barely noticed and never missed.

A practice that originated almost two centuries ago, the concept of the dabba is quite simple freshly cooked and packed food is brought to the work place from the home. The pick-up and delivery service began when the city began to grow in size and population.

 Mumbai is a densely populated city with a huge flow of traffic. Because of this, lengthy commutes to workplaces are common, with many workers travelling by train. Instead of going home for lunch of paying for meal in a café, many office workers have a cooked meal sent by a caterer who delivers it to them as well, essentially cooking and delivering the meal in lunch boxes and then having the lunch boxes collected and resend the next day. This is usually done for a monthly fee. The meal is cooked in the morning and sent in lunch boxes carried by dabbawalas, who have a complex associated and hierarchy across the city. A collecting dabbawala, usually on bicycle, collects dabbas from homes or more often from the dabba makers (who actually cook the food). The dabba have some sort of distinguishing mark on them, such as a color or symbol, but there is no name as the mark on the lunch box, because most of the dabbawalas are illiterate.