Big business learns a thing or two from the humble dabbawalla

Carrying tiffin boxes lovingly packed by wives and mothers in nearly 200,000 surburban kitchens, these 5,000 lunch delivery workers are part of one of the world’s most admired distribution systems.

Employing a complex colour-coded logistics process, the dabbawallas (can-carriers) complete a door-to-door service across 15 miles (25km) of public transport and 6 miles (10km) of road with multiple transfer points in a three-hour period.

In a system finely tuned over 120 years they maintain an error rate of only one in eight million and have drawn attention from leading business schools, including Stanford.

Now, the power of their unique system and loyal customer base is being harnessed by top multinationals.



Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, tapped their network last month to launch its new Vista operating system.

Wearing branded caps and T-shirts, the dabbawallas distributed leaflets with tiffin boxes offering discounted prices on laptops and PCs with a local dealer. Every sale earned a 100-rupee commission (£1.20). Microsoft India claimed the unique promotion as a success. “They have access to 200,000 households. It’s amazing,” Rishi Srivastava, client business director, said. “We more than achieved the marketing objective we set ourselves.”

Raghunath Medge, the president of the Bombay Tiffin Box Supply Charity Trust, which oversees the dabbawallas, is regularly asked to give management presentations. “Proper time management is our key to success. We do everything to keep the customer happy and they help in our marketing,” he said in a recent lecture. Most new customers are referred, and the service, which costs between 150 and 300 rupees a month, is growing by about 10 per cent a year.

Distinguishable by their trademark white Gandhi topis, they are descendants of the soldiers of Shivaji, the legendary 17th-century warrior king. The trade, which originates from British rule, is passed down through the generations, with village elders recommending new recruits. About 85 per cent are illiterate, making the fact they employ a ten-digit alphanumeric code to track deliveries — like shipping companies — all the more remarkable.

Knowledge of the system is held by mukadams, experienced dabbawallas, who oversee financially independent sub-groups of younger workers. Each group is competitive for new customers, although forbidden from undercutting each other, and co-operative for deliveries.