Talk about disruption of whole industries by the internet is everywhere. Yet that does not work out all the time. The dabbawalas are a famous organization in Mumbai delivering every day to workers in town-center meals prepared by their family in the outskirts – all with a very low percentage of error. As reported by Bloomberg ‘Startups Haven’t Replaced India’s 19th Century Food Delivery Service‘, many start-ups have attempted to displace them in the past years and they have all failed.
This goes to show that it is not so easy to disrupt traditional processes even in the area of distribution, in particular when cultural aspects need to be taken into account (Indian workers seem to largely prefer home-made meals, possibly on hygiene grounds and/or family pressure! – and they appear reluctant to order meals from restaurants).
As a hypothesis for this interesting failure, the fact that those startups have tried to replace at the same time the distribution system and the sourcing of the product. This might have worked in some instances (Uber, Airbnb) but that remains a very rare occurrence.
This reminds us that we need to always remain very humble when it comes to disrupting any kind of industry or process!
