Dabbawala-Harvard Business School case study

10:35 PM Edit This 0 Comments »

I'd never heard of the dabbawalas until a month or so ago

For those in the dark, dabbawalas are delivery men (barefoot and mostly illiterate, by the way) who bring Mumbai office workers a nice warm lunch to their offices. In the good old days, these meals were home-made; in today's world, a good proportion are catered. (Remember, this is India: think outsourcing.)

Each day, about 5,000 dabbawalas deliver a total of roughly 200,000 meals - all through a hyper-efficient, color-coded supply chain that relies naught on technology. Their results are spectacular: a Six Sigma delivery rate! That's one slip-up in every 6 million deliveries - the vaunted and often elusive "six nines" quality. (And I'm guessing that, when there's a mistake, the mistakee ends up with a pretty good meal, anyway.)

In the dabbawala logistics system , dabba-gatherers pick up the lunches, which are in transported - via bicycle - to railway stations, where they're bucketed by destination, and placed on the train.

When they reach their destination, dabba-deliverers grab their buckets and get them to the office workers who ordered them.

All the dabbawalas receive the same rate - ghastly by our standards, but a way out of abject poverty for the poor, illiterate folks who hold these jobs.

Interestingly, dabbawalas have developed something of a business school cult-following - there's even a Harvard Business School case study about them.

Also interesting: although they don't rely on technology to work their supply chain, the dabbawalas are not lacking in tech savvy, and they have their own web site - www.mydabbawala.com - which you will be "warmly welcome[d]" to.

We the Dabbawalas , have been known to provide excellent services without any technological backup. However with the advent of technology and internet in particular we have decided to be part of this info way. On one part our core job of supplying the Dabbas to the people of Mumbai from their home to office will still be carried on without any technology or IT support but we will be using IT in general and Internet in particular to provide value added services to our prestigious customers.

For starters, they're using their site to make sure that complete and correct information about them is "passed on to the world." Apparently, they have plans to let people order their dabba online, as well.

Like the US Postal Service, dabbawalas are rain-snow-sleet-hail kind of guys - just substitute "monsoon" for snow-sleet.

The site is also used to promote the careers of the dabbawalas, noting their typical characteristics - hard working, honest, reliable, and low paid. "So its [sic] cost effective to employ a Dabbawala."

So in case you need to employ a person with these characteristics you may employ a Dabbawala. A Dabbawala may be recruited in many companies like security agency, courier industry , small offices , big companies,etc. The Dabbawala will be happy to get a better job and this will ensure good life for the family of Dabbawala.

Note: When a Dabbawala gets a job , first he has to bring a replacement Dabbawala in his place and then only he ,may join a company. This ensures that our system works properly.

Please contact us with your requirement to employ a Dabbawala. We will be very happy to serve you.

Pride Of Tamilnadu...

10:27 PM Edit This 0 Comments »

C K Ranganathan, chairman and managing director of CavinKare, has shown the world it is possible to beat the multinationals even in the most difficult market of fast moving consumer goods.

Ranganathan's journey, which started from a small town of Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu, has been an amazing one. A business which he started with only with Rs 15,000 is now worth Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion).

He learnt the first entrepreneurial lessons from his father, Chinni Krishnan, who started a small-scale pharmaceutical packaging unit, before moving on to manufacture pharmaceutical products and cosmetics.

In an interview with rediff.com, the CavinKare chief speaks about his inspiring journey.

His father, his inspiration

My father, Chinni Krishnan, an agriculturist, was also into pharmaceutical business. As I was poor in academics, he wanted me to either do agriculture or start a business.

My siblings were good in studies -- two of them became doctors and another a lawyer. I was the odd one out. While my siblings studied in English medium schools, I was put in a Tamil medium school. I used to suffer from an inferiority complex because of my poor academic record.

Studies did not interest me, but rearing pets did. When I was in the fifth standard, I had a lot of pets -- more than 500 pigeons, a lot of fish and a large variety of birds. I used to earn my pocket money out of pet business at that time. Perhaps, the entrepreneurial spirit in me showed its first streak.

The origin of the concept of sachets

My father died as I entered college. He had come out with the sachet concept a couple of years prior to his demise. He felt liquid can be packed in sachets as well. When talcum powder was sold only in tin containers, he was the one who sold it in 100 gm, 50 gm and 20 gm packs.

When Epsom salt came in 100 gm packets, my father brought out salt sachets of as low as 5 gm.

'Whatever I make, I want the coolies and the rickshawpullers to use. I want to make my products affordable to them,' he used to say.

Selling things in sachets was his motto as he said, 'this is going to be the product of the future.' But my father could not market the concept well. He moved from one innovation to another but never thought of marketing strategies. He was a great innovator, but a poor marketer.

Joining the family businessAfter my father's death, my brothers took charge of the family business. In 1982, when I joined them after my studies, they had launched Velvette Shampoo. Within eight to nine months, I left the business because my ideas clashed with theirs.

As I was in the manufacturing unit, I did not know anything about marketing or finance. But, my inferiority complex notwithstanding, I was somehow confident of doing business better.

Starting his own business with Rs 15,000

I had left my brothers saying that I did not want any stake in the property or business. That was a defining moment for me. I had saved Rs 15,000 from my salary and that was all I had. Yet I was confident of achieving success. I did not feel anything about riding a bicycle after having got used to cars.

For a week, I could not make up my mind as to what business to do. I knew only two things; making shampoo and rearing pets. I didn't want to venture into the shampoo business as it would initate a fight with my brothers. However, I decided to do the same later as I could only make shampoo.

I rented a house-cum-office for Rs 250 a month against an advance of Rs 1,000. I took another place for the factory for a rent of Rs 300 a month and against an advance of Rs 1,200. I bought a shampoo-packing machine for Rs 3,000.

How Chik Shampoo was born
I named it Chik Shampoo after my father. The product did not succeed immediately; we learnt many things during the process. In the first month, we could sell 20,000 sachets and from the second year, we started making profits.

I moved to Chennai in 1989 but our manufacturing unit continued to be in Cuddalore. It took me three years to get the first loan because banks asked for collateral. I did not have any. But one particular bank gave me a loan of Rs 25,000 which we rotated and later upgraded to Rs 400,000, Rs 15 lakh (Rs 1.5 million), etc.

You know what the bank manager wrote in our loan application? 'This person does not have any collateral to offer but there is something interesting about this SSI unit. Unlike others, this company pays income tax!'

I must say my business never looked back because I was very particular about paying income tax.

Strategies that made Chik Shampoo No. 1 in South India

When Chik entered the market, Velvette Shampoo was being marketed aggressively by Godrej [ Get Quote ]. But a scheme of ours became extremely successful -- we exchanged five sachets of any shampoo for a Chik Shampoo sachet, free.

Later, we altered the scheme -- we started giving one free Chik Shampoo sachet in lieu of five Chik Shampoo sachets only. Soon, consumers started asking for Chik sachets only. The sales went up from Rs 35,000 to Rs 12 lakh (Rs 1.2 million) a month.

When we introduced jasmine and rose fragrances, our sales went up to Rs 30 lakh (Rs 3 million) per month and with actor Amala as our model, our sales rose to Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) a month! Each idea of ours was rewarded by our customers. There has been no looking back since then.

Our market share increased and in 1992, we became the numero uno in South India. It took nine years for me to overtake my brothers' business.

How Chik Shampoo conquered the rural market

Multinational companies sold products in big bottles and not in sachets and they sold only from fancy stores. They did not look at the small kirana stores, nor did they look at the rural market.

We went to the rural areas of South India where people hardly used shampoo. We showed them how to use it. We did live demonstration on a young boy. We asked those assembled to feel and smell his hair.

Next we planned Chik Shampoo-sponsored shows of Rajniknath's films. We showed our advertisements in between, followed by live demonstrations. We also distributed free sachets among the audience after these shows. This worked wonders in rural Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. After every show, our shampoo sales went up three to four times.

Today, the Indian rural market is growing at a pace double than that of the urban market.

Launching Meera Herbal powder

We continued with Chik Shampoo for seven years before venturing into anything else.

Meera Herbal powder was actually not our idea. Shaw Wallace [ Get Quote ] already had a herbal product but it was marketed very poorly. We felt there was a demand for herbal products and we made a good product. I felt we should be the leader if ours was a good product. And guess what? In the third month itself, we topped the market. In six months, we had 95 per cent market share, while Shaw Wallace had only 4-5 per cent.

How Beauty Cosmetics became CavinKare

As we planned to expand to new products, we thought the name Beauty Cosmetics would be restrictive. In 1998, we ran a contest among our employees for a name and one of them suggested CavinKare; with C and K spelt in capitals. CK, my father's initials. Cavin in Tamil means beauty and grace.

Perfumes for the poor
We wanted to cater to those who cannot afford (high priced) perfumes. Good perfumes came at a huge price -- they were beyond the means of ordinary people. We decided to come out with a Rs 10 pack Spinz. We were successful in that too.

Shampoo market shareIn the last two to three years, our market share has come down though we are growing. It is mainly because of the anti-dandruff shampoos in the market. We do not have an anti-dandruff shampoo yet. From 0 per cent, the anti-dandruff shampoos have taken over 25 per cent of the market.

Only 75 per cent of the market, therefore, constitutes ordinary shampoos. We hold 20 per cent of the market share.

But we are the largest brand in rural Uttar Pradesh [ Images ], Andhra Pradesh, etc. and we are the number one in many other states as well.

On the decision to launch a fairness cream

We decided to launch Fairever in 1997 as we saw a huge demand fairness cream. We are the second largest player in the market in this.

Research states that when a product is good, consumers do not shift to a new brand. Our team told me not to venture into the fairness cream market as the consumers were quite satisfied with the existing products. But we went to launch our product containing saffron -- which is traditionally used to get a fair complexion. In six months, our sales galloped.

This was followed by Indica hair dye.

Two and a half years ago, we launched Ruchi pickles in sachets and we became number one there too. We sell close to 5,000 tonne of pickles per annum. We hope to double this in two to three years. Food is a huge market: we have understood that.

Our target is to be a Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) company in another three years.

Reasons behind his success

Teamwork is the main reason for our success. We have good professionals who work really hard. The second reason of our success is innovation. We have executed innovative ideas as well.

CavinKare Ability AwardThis month, we presented the 5th CavinKare Ability Foundation awards for physically disabled achievers.

I stayed as a tenant at Jayashree Ravindran's place (the woman who started the Ability Foundation). Once, she said she wanted to start a magazine for the disabled. Though she did not ask for sponsorship, I gave her a cheque of Rs 25,000. I also became one of the Foundation's founder members.

Once we came to know about the disabled who have climbed the ladder of success, we -- Ability Foundation and CavinKare -- decided to institute an award for them.

I feel each of us has to give something back to the society. I have great admiration for those who fight against all odds and attain success. When I started my career, I only faced shortage of funds but these people tide over graver difficulties. We must applaud their fighting spirit.

EASIER AND TASTIER SAMAYAL.....

6:17 AM Edit This 0 Comments »

VEGETABLE BRIYANI...YUMMYYYY......

Before getting started confirm that u r having the following things..then it is very simple...

RICE
CARROTS
BEANS
POTATOS
ONIONS
RED CHIILI POWDER
BAY LEAF(OPTIONAL)
KARAM MASALA POWDER
CURD
GINGER GARLIC PASTE


PREPARATION:
STEP 1:
wash the rice properly..if it not a basmati rice,then put some oil in a kadai(vessel) and fry that rice for a little time,so that it ll be like basmati rice,take that separately and keep it

STEP 2:
In the vessel put some oil,and put this cutted vegetables into it and fry till the raw smell goes..and also include the ginger garlic paste,and the garam masala powder,red chilli powder,bay leaves(masala smelled leaf) into that,later add some 2 teasppons 0f curd into it..and also add salt..

STEP 3:
In the above mixture now add the rice which is fried and add some water for boiling

STEP 4:
Take that out...your briyani is ready....try it out...

ANOTHER CUTE AND SMALL STORY

9:58 PM Edit This 0 Comments »

Hi friends...this is another cute and small story with great moral...read this....
once upon a time there was a organisation which was conducting fancy dress competition,and they were planning to give price for the person who looks exactly like charlie chaplin..and for the competition The greatman charlie chaplin also particicpated..and guys guess wat?he got the third place in the competition...this wat is the real world...if the world is not recognizing ur talents and ur efficiency,dnt feel bad..think this story..and keep moving forward in ur life...KEEP GROWING....

click the image to c more yummy chocalate images

12:47 AM Edit This 0 Comments »
my fav

EXCELLENT MORAL STORY

4:26 AM Edit This 0 Comments »

Be Deaf to Negativity…!!
Be Deaf to Negativity…!!
Once upon a time there was a bunch of tiny frogs…. who arranged a running competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants…. The race began….
Honestly: No one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. You heard statements such as:
“Oh, WAY too difficult!!”
“They will NEVER make it to the top.”
or:
“Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!” The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one…. Except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher…. The crowd continued to yell,”It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!” More tiny frogs got tired and gave up…. But ONE continued higher and higher and higher…. This one wouldn’t give up! At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top! THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?
A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal? It turned out…. That the winner was DEAF!!!! The wisdom of this story is:Never listen to other people’s tendencies to be negative or pessimistic…. because they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you — the ones you have in your heart! Always think of the power words have. Because everything you hear and read will affect your actions! Therefore:ALWAYS be…. POSITIVE!
And above all:Be DEAF when people tell YOU that you cannot fulfill your dreams! Always think:God and I can do this! Pass this message on to 5 “tiny frogs” you care about. Give them some motivation!!! Most people walk in and out of your life……but FRIENDS leave footprints in your heart
and I would like to share these thoughts with you…. MANY SMILES BEGIN BECAUSE OF ANOTHER SMILE… To The World You Might Be One Person; But To One Person You Might Be the World. You have been Tagged by the Froggy, which means you are a great friend!!

NICE STORY

6:15 AM Edit This 0 Comments »

CONTROLLING TEMPER: There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily, gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said “you have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.” Moral: You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there. Make sure you control your temper the next time you are tempted to say something you will regret later.

read this.

3:24 AM Edit This 0 Comments »
PLEASE SEE
"THE 11TH HOUR" VIDEO PRODUCED BY LEONARDO DICAPRIO..ITS AWESOME...EVERY HUMANBEING LIVING IN THE PRESENT WORLD SHOULD SEE THIS VIDEO.....

9:52 AM Edit This 0 Comments »

Custom Myspace Clock

9:47 AM Edit This 0 Comments »


Myspace Generator Codes
U R VIEWING MY SITE FOR THESE MANY SECONDS

hai this is me......

9:19 AM Edit This 0 Comments »

HAI THIS IS NIVA.....JUST NOW CREATED BLOG....