World’s most innovative distribution system
For every 16 million deliveries, only 1 goes missing!

Manish Tripathi of Mumbai Dabbawala fame and his group of dabbawalas work along the city’s Marine railway line and begin to gather at Churchgate station at 11.30 am.

Each wearing a white Gandhi hat, the dabbawalas have time to chat and organize the tiffin boxes between them, before taking up to 40 tiffin boxes each, slung over bicycle handlebars, loaded onto hand carts or carried on long trays balanced on top of heads.

More than 175,000 or 200,000 lunch boxes get moved every day by an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawalas, all with a small nominal fee and utmost punctuality. Remarkably, they have not had any strike for 120 years.

In fact, the Berkeley University in California teaches the logistic system of Dabbawalas as a case study in their business management programmes, and many Indian business schools do the same.

According to a professional survey, there is only one mistake in every 6,000,000 deliveries! In 2001, Forbes Global magazine conducted a quality assurance study on the dabbawalas’ operations and gave it a Six Sigma efficiency rating of 99.999999.

Manish has been lecturing at various business to management institutes including Harvard Business School, Wharton, Stanford and other colleges and corporations across the globe explaining the finer nuances of the business model, and why it is so efficient and successful.

The fact that every dabbawala is a share holder of the organisation and is treated equal adds to its enterprise appeal.

He innovated low cost, long haul aviation by putting Malaysia on global map!

In July 2007, Azran was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia X, the world’s first truly low-cost long-haul airline. He led the start-up team that developed the business plan, raised capital, secured relevant licenses and approvals, acquired aircraft and launched AirAsia X’s first inaugural flight to the Gold Coast, Australia in November 2007.

Despite a tumultuous 2008 and 2009 in global aviation, AirAsia X has expanded from one aircraft to nine, tripling revenue and passenger volume to RM750 million and over 1 million passengers in 2009.

AirAsia X now flies to eleven destinations in Australia, Greater China, India, Korea and Europe. AirAsia X operates with the world’s lowest long-haul unit cost and the world’s highest aircraft utilization. Its London route is the longest low-cost flight in service today. AirAsia X has been recognized as the 2008 Best New Airline and jointly awarded the 2009 Airline of the Year award with AirAsia Berhad. Azran has twice been nominated for CEO of the Year award by the World Low Cost Airline Congress in London.

Azran was formerly an Associate Partner of McKinsey & Company, an international management consultancy, where he co-led its Asia Pacific Corporate Finance & Strategy practice. He holds a Masters degree in Management Science and a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering, both from Stanford University.

He is 38 years young, a competitive Ultimate Frisbee player, a keen surfer and snowboarder, and has completed several full marathons.

A prolific international speaker, Azran has been invited as one of the Young Leaders at the 2010 World Islamic Economic Forum and represented Malaysia as one of Asia Society’s 2009 Asia 21 Delegates.