In their white pajamas and Gandhi topis, they may not sport the conventional corporate look. But Mumbai’s dabbawalas explained some basic principles of management with future managers. Crowned with the six-sigma quality standard, the dabbawalas shared their success mantras with students of Vivekanand Education Society’s Institute of Management Studies and Research, last Saturday.

Raghunath Dhondiba, President, Dabbawala Association and Gangaram Laxman Talekar (Secretary) addressed a large gathering, including students and professors of different management colleges. The crux of the lecture was that ‘customer satisfaction’ should be the most important goal of any company.

Time is virtue

Punctuality and time management are on top of the agenda for dabbawallas. Whatever be the circumstances, employees never getdelayed even by a few minutes. For years, they have been taking the same trains and buses. “We have to cover a distance of 65 to 75 kilometres a day in three hours; we can’t afford any delay”, says Gangaram Laxman.

Zero technological Investment.

The whole tiffin distribution requires negligible technology. “This is one of the reasons why we are successful; our man power is highly efficient”, said Gangaram. Interestingly, the average literacy at Dabbawallas is up to class VIII, with more than 60 per cent of the total employees still illiterate. “Intelligent people waste their time in asking questions whereas we only focus on fulfilling our responsibility”, said Gangaram.

A single weak link breaks the whole chain.

All the members in a team should perform excellent to bring a perfect result. Corroborating this, Dabbawallas’ honchos explained about different distribution and...

how each segment maintains its time-cycle. “Ours is a war against time; we have no space for lapses”, said president Raghunath.

No discipline, no growth.

The dabbawallas have to follow three rules at any cost.
(a) They have to wear white caps during working hours.
(b) They are not allowed to drink alcohol during working hours.
(c) They have to carry their identity cards

If found flouting these norms, any employee can be punished and fined from Rs 500 to Rs 1,500. In extreme cases, the person might also be fired from the organization. “A good leader could never make things run properly if there are flaws in the system”, said Raghunath. “One should never compromise with the discipline in the organisation, as it hits the integrity of that association”, he added.

Error rate: 1 in 16 million transactions.

“I do not know the exact meaning of error, but one thing that I know is when you are serving someone, it is not acceptable to make mistakes”, said Gangaram. Dabbawallas take 2 lakh tiffin-boxes every day, resulting into the total transactions to 4 lakh per day, still the error rate is one in 16 million transactions. That is how they have earned Six Sigma certification.

“No Strike” record.

The 5,000 employees of Dabbawallas’ Association have never gone on strike. “Whenever we feel that there could be dissatisfaction in anyone’s mind, we simply tell them to take a leave and rest on that day; from the next day, the employee comes without any annoyance”.

Marketing fundas

Due to their high reach...

to the commonest people, Dabbawallas’ often carry the pamphlets, stickers and other marketing material of different companies for a fee.

The highly efficient coding system

Although the average literacy of Dabbawallas’ is class VIII and more than 60 per cent are illiterate, all of them are well versed in decoding their exclusive coding system. Each area is divided into several small distribution sectors and each sector is handled by a particular person. This person understands the address in that locality very well. Also, this perfection comes with practice. Many new employees work for months under the guidance of their seniors.

Share the success with everyone who is the part of it.

Success stays forever only when shared equally between all the people who worked for it. “Howsoever big the organization is, its success depends on the efficiency of all the employees working for it; so they all need equal respect and gratitude as given to the senior members”, said the Dabbawalas’ president.


Another lesson that Dabbawallas gave was that real lessons of life are never taught in the classroom. It is the commitment and determination of a person, which creates wonders. “Nothing could be as important as the responsibility taken by you; this is the only principle dabbawallas’ are following for last 116 years”, said Raghunath.