Dabbawalas in India - a Case Study

DABBAWALAS

I. Introduction

In this fast-paced tech-savvy world, can a business model survive without the use of technology? Obviously, no! But obvious? Is it? Let’s have a look at how Dabbawallas of Mumbai have been able to survive without technology for the past 125 years even after the growth of food industry and emergence of number of competitors. We will also examine the external forces affecting the food industry and various issues faced by Dabbawalas due to new emerging trends and changing face of market, and how they should respond to it based on the internal analysis of Dabbawalas.

II. Indian Food industry

Indian food industry is the largest retail consumption category in Indian household. It is 6th largest in the world and is growing at a rate of 15% annually. To know more about the external environment of a company in this sector we apply various analysis techniques.

PESTEL Analysis

o Political

Government of India (GoI) has launched certain campaigns and policies which reduce the entry barriers for a firm trying to enter this industry and provide conducive environment for companies to grow. The “Digital India” campaign aims at improving online infra-structure and increasing internet connectivity, encouraging e-commerce activities. The GoI has also allowed 100% FDI in the food sector, thus encouraging foreign players to enter. Thus, political factors are making this industry easy to penetrate which hints at increasing competition in coming years.

o Economical

India is showing astounding growth rate in terms of GDP (Exhibit 1) as well as in the food industry (Exhibit 2). Food constitutes the largest retail consumption category in India.

The disposable income of the mass (Exhibit 3) is on a rise which means that the customers are willing to shell out money. The ease of doing business (EoDB) ranking (2017) of India by World Bank in October 2016 increased by one point to 130. However, the “Starting a Business” component of EoDB slipped by 4 points thus making entry a bit tougher.

o Sociocultural

Every region in India has its own food preference. This variation owes to differences in culture and religion. The cuisine in North India differs completely from cuisine in South, East and West India. Food diversity can be well seen in Exhibit 4.

A new trend (Exhibit 5) is being seen in the Indian market. The consumption of fast food is increasing among the youngsters and they can be seen eating out frequently. Another trend that can be observed is posting of pictures of food online. Hashtags such as “foodporn”, “foodgram”, “foodgasm” have increased the popularity of creatively served food. A study from YPulse shows 63% of people