The people of India have created a recipe for business that contains ingredients worth adding to your mix. Every morning Mumbai's legendary Dabbawalahs (lunchbox carriers) spread out across the city to collect freshly prepared lunches from people's homes and caterers. They then efficiently use the transport network, which they have fine-tuned over the past 112 years, to quickly deliver lunches to the customers' workplaces. In the afternoon, the network is reversed as the Dabbawalahs retrieve lunchboxes and return them to their place of origin. For this they charge approximately U.S. $10 per lunchbox, per month.

So why is this so special? After all, we have take-out and home delivery right here in the U.S. Here's why: the Dabbawalahs deliver over 200,000 lunches per day, with 99.99% accuracy. Forbes magazine gave this service its highest quality rating of Sigma 6, which means that per million transactions, there is just an error of one!

Here are lessons we can all apply to our businesses, courtesy of the Dabbawalahs:  
Share the wealth - The majority of the Dabbawalahs are stakeholders in the organization. You bet they show up everyday. Even when there is a strike (which happens often) or inclement weather.

Take care of your people - The Dabbawalah Trust provides several services to its members, including schools for the children and health care in emergencies. Can your organization say the same?