Interactive session "One day at a time" with Sakaram Sitaram Gavande & Abhishek Dinkar Ekal, the Dabbawalas from Mumbai November 26th, 2013

YFLO organized an interactive session on ‘One Day at a Time’ with Sakaram Sitaram Gavande and Abhishek Dinkar Ekal, ‘The Dabbawalas from Mumbai’.

Ms. Garima Sharma, Chairperson, YFLO in her welcome address appreciated the precision and dedication that the dabbawalas bring to their daily work.

In his Keynote Address, Abhishek Dinakar Ekal, Vice President of Dabbawala Foundation said that it all started about 125 years ago when a Parsi banker wanted to have home-cooked food regularly in office and gave this responsibility to the first ever Dabbawala. Others liked his idea and the demand for Dabba delivery soared.

He said, almost 85% dabbawalas are illiterate and the remaining 15% are educated up to 10th grade. However, through years of dedicated work, time management, strike-less work and gaining experience in logistics, the dabbawalas have created a place in the sun.

The session went on to highlight several management lessons that can be drawn from the network of food delivery.

For instance, low capital investment, low operational costs, focus only on serving customers satisfactorily, not to be over dependent on technology, build business around existing infrastructure, abandon bad customers, and the most important lesson, cooperation, which is the key for success.

‘Though the work sounds simple, it is actually a highly specialized trade that has developed over a century and has become an integral part of mumbai’s culture’ noted Sakaram Sitaram Gavande, Secretary of Dabbawala Foundation.

The session further discussed how the Dabbawala network has achieved a 6-sigma level of accuracy in this business, which means only one mistake in six million chances.