Case analysis about Dabbawalla

Case summary:
Dabbawalla is the name of a group of Indian entrepreneurs that deliver home-cooked food to Indian office- and factory workers in the city of Mumbai. By using the public transport, bicycle and handcarts they pick up dabbas (a kind of lunch box) in the office- and factory workers homes. They use codes on the lid and geographical depots to divide the lunch boxes in to different areas all over metropolitan Mumbai. After delivering the food they also provide the service of picking it up and deliver it home. The workers have a special bond making it feel like a family rather than a business. My task is to do a case analysis on MTBSA (as the company is called) using the SWOT-analysis.

Strengths:
• A good business idea – The company has found a need that is, if not ever-lasting, long-lasting. In these days with long business hours you don’t have time to eat long lunches and its to expensive eating out every day at restaurants. The offices don’t offer cafeterias or restaurants and it would be hard to fill all the different food-demands that the workers want. Bringing their own lunchboxes is hard as the public transport is crowded and you need your two hands for holding on to the train and your briefcase.
• Environmental friendly – The dabbawalas uses their feet, bicycles, handcarts and the public transport making their contribution to pollution close to zero. The dabbas are made by tin or aluminum and has a long life span making their impact on the environment small as well.

Weeknesses:
• Complicated system – The system the dabbawallas use to devide their dabbas to the different districts is all made by hand. By using different colour pens they write codes that helps them figure out where to deliver the dabba. These codes are written on top of the lid and on the bottom making it hard to identify. As everyone has his or her own handwriting the risk for misreading increases. Due to that the streets change names frequently they need to make up code names for the different spots in Mumbai, which further complicates the process. This system could leed to a larger amount of misdeliveries.
• Sensitive to employee turnover – The system described above together with the close relationship the dabbawalas have to each other makes it hard for a new dabbawalla to do his work properly. Learning to understand all the code names on the streets and the codes on the dabbas takes time and could create frustration among the others, as the delivery end is very competitive between the different groups.

Opportunities:
• Extend their range – By expanding and making just small changes they can evolve their company to distributing other things, like letters and small packages, to companies in the metropolitan Mumbai. They can use the same system and the only difference is that instead of picking up lunch boxes at workers homes they have a hub somewhere where they can distribute and sort the letters before handing them out to the companies.
• Expand – Even if Mumbai is the biggest city in India there are other big cities where the demand for this service would be high, like Delhi and Bangalore.

Threats:
• Continued population increase – India is one of the fastest-growing populations in the world. The pressure on the public transport is high already and even more people using it could be devastating for the dabbawalas. The demand for timing will be even more important if they should be able to deliver all the lunch boxes in time.
• The increased influence from the western part of the world – As India is getting more and more influence from the countries in the west the companies sees India as a potential new market. In the case of the dabbawalas, they are seeing a big competitor since big American companies like Pizza Hut, Mcdonalds, Burger King is being established. They offer fast food and quick lunches, which could make it harder for MTBSA to keep their customers.
• Increasing economy – As the economy is growing and the view on the dabbawalas is changing, the company will see a big challenge in keeping the dabbawalas down to earth. The more famous and mentioned the dabbawalas gets there is a risk in them losing what has made them famous, the familiar atmosphere, and instead they will tear the bond between them.

Conclusion
MTBSA has found a long-lasting business idea. Looking at it from a VRIO-analysis I would say that they have a sustainable competitive advantage, as their idea is valuable, rare, hardly imitable and supported by the organization. Even though big food chains are taking a lot of marketing shares my opinion is that the dabbawalas will continue living on. The big food chains offer the same types of food when the dabbawalas can provide home-cooked food that the workers have made themselves.
The fact that the company is taking a step into the technological part is very important. Even though I like the niche and the familiar way of handling distribution of the dabbas I think they need to evolve into a more technical system. It’s a big change but if they wanted to they could evolve a lot in my opinion. If they had a PDA like Intermec or other brand and bar codes on the lunch boxes they would take away the error rate they get using color codes and nicknames for the different kinds of streets. It would remove the familiar feeling and I’m not even sure if it is realistic. The same thing occurs when it comes to the expanding and extending their range. There is a demand for this kind of service in other cities but I am not sure if the company is interested in taking that step as it increases the risk of losing the company soul on the way. With soul I mean the pride and the familiar atmosphere that flows in the company. A big change could generate a decrease in the pride the dabbawalas has about working with their profession. It would also further increase the potential threat the company might have to deal with during to the evolving economy and the rising knowledge and fascination about the dabbawalas. The appreciation the dabbawalas has received and increased money access can lead to that they feel a demand to get higher salaries, more appreciation from the company, better working hours and more trips home to their family. In summary, it is of great importance that the company understands the value of their employees as they are under the microscope from a lot of different associations and companies that compete in fascination about the dabbawallas achievements.