A business model and a love story in a dabba

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, March 12, 2007

It’s a love story, a lot of fun and serious business. And to talk about his dubbawala business model, Manish Tripathi, honorary director of Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers’ Association (MTBSA), visited Kolkata on Monday, speaking at length to the best engineering and management brains in the country and 30 odd students and seven faculty members of the University of Nebraska, Omaha, USA. He spoke on how to become a great time manager and how to win the trust of the people, a factor extremely essential in business.
He was delivering a special lecture at Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM), IIT Kharagpur.
Addressing over 400 students in the Kalidas auditorium, Tripathi said, “Management theories may be good but they are jargon to us. We talk of computers but little do we realise that it replaces the value of the human workforce. I feel utilising the human capabilities are important. We have done that for the last 116 years and have been operating smoothly.”
He peppered his speech with anecdotes that also brought out the lighter side of this very serious business.
Asked if the dabbawalas would ever offer their services in Kolkata, Tripathi answered in the negative, saying frequent strikes called by the workers’ unions were a big deterrent. “We have seen how strikes have resulted in the closure of mills in Mumbai. We do not want that to happen,” said Tripathi. “Moreover Mumbai’s topography is such that the traffic moves in one direction and trains are easily available. But that is not the case with other cities.”
Many MBA students have done research on dabbawalas and have submitted recommendations to them. But the dabbawallas have never looked through the pages. Explaining to students their logistics and time management technique, Tripathi said, “All recommendations are gathering dust. We would like to follow our age-old method. Here in IIT, I am listening to the suggestions and recommendations of the students. They are the best brains of the country and it is a good opportunity to know what they think.”
The students were completely bowled Tripathi’s lecture. “Listening to his lecture and going through his power point presentation was a very humbling experience. We had guest lecturers from big universities but none of the lectures made so much sense to us. He is practical and experience driven. One can instantly understand his model,” said Joydeep Bhattacharya, a first year student.
He also spoke of how Prince Charles had invited his colleagues for his wedding. Traipthi also recounted how his ilk became a part of the love story of the newlywed couples by carrying their love letters in the tiffin box.
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com