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Dabawalas: Lessons for Building lasting success based on values
"Businesses go through dramatic twists and turns. Some survive, while quite a few fall by the way-side. Corporate heads grapple with this and are keen to find a sustainable model for making organisations last. Dabawalas, the story of Mumbai’s ubiquitous homemade food delivery men stands in sharp contrast. A 115-year-old business enterprise, run by semi-literate group of people, that has sustained itself through the vicissitudes of change presents a role model. Through a dialogue between four characters, the book brings to the fore key characteristics of successful organisations — values, decentralised decision-making, continuous value addition to customer care and many more. Besides this, the book includes take-aways for leaders and managers to imbibe for building lasting success based on values."
- GenresBusinessIndiaNonfiction
124 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2007
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116 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 4, 2019
The book is very good in respect to learn about the Business model of Dabawalas (or the courier center) they used to deliver the Daba from one place to one another within 3 hours to more than 5ooo people each Day. They work upon the Basic principle, i.e. Time.
There are lots of things which you will get to know after Reading this book.
Thank you,
Happy_Reading!
-jhaluck
There are lots of things which you will get to know after Reading this book.
Thank you,
Happy_Reading!
-jhaluck
November 16, 2016
It's a wonderful book anyone can finish it within 2-3 days. Easy language.
A must-read book for entrepreneurs !
A must-read book for entrepreneurs !
February 27, 2015
Simple and good read.
July 11, 2018
It is an excellent account of the journey of Dabbawalas. Read my detailed review at:
https://shrotryia-bookreview.blogspot...
https://shrotryia-bookreview.blogspot...
August 13, 2020
the book tells about how the food is delivered in he entire Mumbai by dabbawalas in such a short span of time. THE BOOK IS AWESOME!! ITS HIGHLT RECOMMENDABLE.
August 9, 2009
The story of their success is not new. It has been around for a while and has been excitedly spoken of in various business events and discussions. They have made Mumbai proud by placing an otherwise taken for granted enterprise on the global map. I am, no doubt, talking of the Dabbawallas of Mumbai. Those pyjama-donned and Gandhi-cap clad busy-bees who are ubiquitous every morning during your commute to office.
I finished the very unputdownable book, Dabbawalas, by Shrinivas Pandit, yesterday, in one sitting. The entire book is a set of dialogues between the office bearers of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust and the author and Anita Dalal. The author has inserted takeaways at the end of every dialogue and has summarised them at the end of the book. It is a very simple read, does not use complicated business jargon, neither does it present an over-analytical view of the dialogues. In fact, the analysis, if you insist on calling it that, is embedded in the conversation seamlessly and does not require a separate process in your brain to comprehend that.
The dialogues provide a deep insight into the functioning of the Dabawalas: not as a process of implementation, but the philosophy and the value system of an enterprise. The dialogues often touch upon the concept of durability, which had me mesmerised, thinking of how these people look at their business and how most businesses are superficial in their mission definition.
This book is an important read for anyone in business for one very important reason. This book explores the psyche of the enterprise. Often, most business-self-help books provide you the tools of success -- describe what has been successful in one business that you may implement in yours. This is a classic posture for failure. Most processes are built on foundations of a value system that is often ignored. To adopt a process without it's underlying value system is a mistake that many businesses make. In my opinion, every enterprise is unique based on the value it creates for customers and markets. Therefore the processes that they should adopt must be derived out of the value systems that they follow. Processes that are orphaned from their biological value systems are doomed to fail or at best achieve mediocre results.
A significantly large population who knows about the Dabawalas story, will focus on their six-sigma performance -- one error in 16 million transactions (99.999999%). This would be the fallacy. Dabawalas, by Shrinavas Pandit, helps provide the perfect context of this error-rate. The context of the belief-system in mission; the spiritual density in action; a discrete single-mindedness of a business (not financial) goal, and the arresting inclusion of every stakeholder in the enterprise.
The book, if you are willing to delve in its takeaways, is even a guide for how you may live your life. Read it completely, if you want to make sense of why certain things work and why certain don't. In the fast-paced life that we live, it will be useful for us to take a few scoops from this book, rather than scrape the icing, mistaking it for the cake.
I finished the very unputdownable book, Dabbawalas, by Shrinivas Pandit, yesterday, in one sitting. The entire book is a set of dialogues between the office bearers of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust and the author and Anita Dalal. The author has inserted takeaways at the end of every dialogue and has summarised them at the end of the book. It is a very simple read, does not use complicated business jargon, neither does it present an over-analytical view of the dialogues. In fact, the analysis, if you insist on calling it that, is embedded in the conversation seamlessly and does not require a separate process in your brain to comprehend that.
The dialogues provide a deep insight into the functioning of the Dabawalas: not as a process of implementation, but the philosophy and the value system of an enterprise. The dialogues often touch upon the concept of durability, which had me mesmerised, thinking of how these people look at their business and how most businesses are superficial in their mission definition.
This book is an important read for anyone in business for one very important reason. This book explores the psyche of the enterprise. Often, most business-self-help books provide you the tools of success -- describe what has been successful in one business that you may implement in yours. This is a classic posture for failure. Most processes are built on foundations of a value system that is often ignored. To adopt a process without it's underlying value system is a mistake that many businesses make. In my opinion, every enterprise is unique based on the value it creates for customers and markets. Therefore the processes that they should adopt must be derived out of the value systems that they follow. Processes that are orphaned from their biological value systems are doomed to fail or at best achieve mediocre results.
A significantly large population who knows about the Dabawalas story, will focus on their six-sigma performance -- one error in 16 million transactions (99.999999%). This would be the fallacy. Dabawalas, by Shrinavas Pandit, helps provide the perfect context of this error-rate. The context of the belief-system in mission; the spiritual density in action; a discrete single-mindedness of a business (not financial) goal, and the arresting inclusion of every stakeholder in the enterprise.
The book, if you are willing to delve in its takeaways, is even a guide for how you may live your life. Read it completely, if you want to make sense of why certain things work and why certain don't. In the fast-paced life that we live, it will be useful for us to take a few scoops from this book, rather than scrape the icing, mistaking it for the cake.
December 27, 2014
After reading this book, I turned to the front to see if I could find the editor's name. The author seems to have felt a thesaurus would be a suitable substitute. There were many Indian-isms in the book (we left at sharp 8 o clock) interspersed with purple prose, which made it difficult to read and conveyed nothing, to top it off. I learnt absolutely nothing from the book except that the author and his associates ate at a lot of fancy restaurants while working on this book.
January 23, 2008
Picked up this book in India because I heard about the dabawalas and their success through the past 100 years. They have interesting perspectives on how to manage employees as well as customers. Their story is a great lesson in finding business opportunities and it's core values to grow customers and keep employees productive.
August 7, 2013
I've always been hearing about the dabawalas as a Case study in six sigma, but this book gives quite a detailed and realistic account of them. Quite interesting to read the take-aways at the end of each chapter
Want to read
August 25, 2013good initiative
December 29, 2015
My Book review - http://booklibraryreviews.blogspot.in...
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews