Abstract
This case study is a blend of on-field study and research from secondary sources. The case study introduces the reader to the various cottage industries existing in Dharavi and attempts to burst the stereotypical myth of a slum being a place of misery, unemployment and squalor. The case then proceeds to bring out an understanding of the growth in the e-commerce sector in India through the marketplace model while enumerating the challenges faced by the cottage industries in Dharavi which prevented them from directly selling their products to the e-commerce websites. The story of a for-profit e-commerce web portal called Dharavi Market is brought out and its innovative business model, which has enabled in getting many craftsmen of Dharavi onto the e-commerce platform, is explained. Finally, the case highlights the company performance, describes the economic and social impacts of Dharavi Market on the craftsmen of the neighbourhood, brings out the limitations of the organization in accomplishing its objectives and contemplates the future prospects of this social enterprise.
Dilemma Question
Rapid growth in the e-commerce sector in India through the marketplace model has given an opportunity to many small-scale manufacturers, suppliers and retailers to sell their products throughout India. This has enabled businesses to become profitable and expand their operations.
Even the small-scale manufacturers of Dharavi have been given this opportunity, but how does one address their social needs. The social needs encompass access to better health care and education, better living conditions for the workers, gentrification of workshops and hygienic surroundings. Therefore, how does one ensure not only the economic prosperity for small-scale industries but also the social development for people working in these industries?
Chronological, Sociological and Economic Understanding of Dharavi
Dharavi constituted one of the seven islands of Mumbai and was inhabited by Koli fishermen. When the islands were joined into the city of Bombay (Mumbai) and the lands were reclaimed, many Koli fishermen lost their traditional source of livelihood (Sharma, 2000).
Mumbai was at the heart of rapid urbanization during the British Raj in the nineteenth century AD. Mumbai was characterized by European areas and native areas. The native areas were characterized by mass migrations without investments in infrastructure by the British, which led to the proliferation of squatter settlements characterized by lack of sanitation, healthcare and portable water (Dossal, 1991). This culminated in the bubonic plague of 1869 AD, which spread from Mumbai to the rest of India, killing nearly 200,000 people and infecting nearly 8 million people (Dossal, 1991).
The British responded by clearing the city of polluting industries like tannery and pottery and relocating them along with their workers to the village of Koliwadas at the edge of the peninsula, on the periphery of Mumbai. Thus, Dharavi was born.
Soon, rural migrants looking for work in Mumbai began pouring into Dharavi to look out for lucrative jobs in the industries existing there. They wanted to escape from the poverty in their village and were helped by their brethren already established in Dharavi. This led to a migration pattern, which lent a cosmopolitan character to Dharavi.
Dharavi was characterized by various settlements, wherein each settlement was represented by a community and its characteristic occupation. These communities were separated by a nullah, drain, wall or a small road. The prominent communities inhabiting Dharavi were the Chikki makers from Vidarbha region in Maharashtra, textile workers from Jaunpur and Azamgarh in UP, tanners from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, goldsmiths from Bengal and Kumbhar terracotta potters from Gujarat (Sharma, 2000).
Dharavi grew after independence and its industries were involved in a gamut of economic activities from tanning, illicit liquor distillation and pottery making to plastic recycling. The tanning industry served the abattoir located in Bandra (Sharma, 2000). As Mumbai began to grow, Dharavi no longer constituted the edge of the city and was encompassed by the middle-class localities around it.
Dharavi blossomed into an industrial hub producing a variety of goods through small-scale industries. These industries existed in one-room workshops and employed people locally. The buildings in Dharavi were characterized by one-room workshops on the ground floors and residential dwellings on the top floors. This mitigated loss of work time due to travel, characterized by overcrowded public transport and traffic congestion (‘Dharavi Film’, 2014). Even though these workshops functioned like sweat shops without proper ventilation, lighting and were characterized by overworked craftsmen, working for more than 9 hours a day and being paid below the minimum wage, nobody complained because these workshops provided employment to the locals and reduced the probability of crime (Sharma, 2000).
Modern as well as traditional industries constituted Dharavi. The modern industries included tanneries, leather finished goods, garments and metal products like buckles, straps and sutures (‘Dharavi Film’, 2014). While the traditional industries included pottery, jewellery and gold refining. Dharavi’s food processing industry thrived in local home kitchens making papads, sweets and bakery products for restaurants and bakeries throughout Mumbai (‘Dharavi Film’, 2014).
Dharavi also blossomed into a hub of waste management with recycling industry in the 13th compound (‘Dharavi Film’, 2014; The Economist, 2007). Anything from metal scraps to plastic products was recycled effectively in Dharavi, thereby helping it to mitigate the garbage problem in Mumbai. Soon it soared to become the largest recycling hub in Mumbai (The Economist, 2007). With a population density of around 300,000–350,000 people per square km, Dharavi, in the twenty-first century, had an estimated population of 700,000–800,000 spread over 175 hectares (Sharma, 2000). The industrial output of Dharavi was estimated to be around US$1 billion in 2012 (‘Dharavi Film’, 2014).
The economic activities, industrial setting, prime location and cosmopolitan vibe made Dharavi an important region of Mumbai. This culminated in concerted efforts since mid-1980s to gentrify the area, albeit superficially (Sharma, 2000). Many redevelopment schemes were proposed but they remained only on paper or were implemented superficially giving rise to haphazard developments in and around Dharavi. Only those redevelopment schemes which involved the residents in the planning, development and implementation of the project were successful. Schemes where the builders wanted to make huge profits and left hastily were unsuccessful (Vaswani, 2007).
Many redevelopment plans to gentrify Dharavi faced dilemmas like dislocation from community living, removal from traditional jobs, proliferation of vertical slums and alienation of people (Vaswani, 2007). It was discovered that any redevelopment plan would be unsuccessful if it did not involve people at the grassroots level and neglect the sociological aspects of the communities.
Window of Opportunity in the E-commerce Sector
As of 2015, even though the e-commerce sector was in its infancy in India, nevertheless it experienced unprecedented growth from 2009 with a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 35 per cent (The Times of India, 2015a). Its value was worth US$16.4 billion in 2014 (Price Water Corporation [PwC], 2015) and was projected to be worth US$60 billion in 2022 (PwC, 2015). Even though e-travel had a lion’s share, e-retailing experienced the fastest growth with a CAGR of 56 per cent from 2009 to 2014. By 2015 it was pegged at US$6 billion and was expected to reach US$20 billion by 2022 (PwC, 2015). As of 2015, electronics and durable products followed by apparels, books, multimedia content and personal care products constituted 80 per cent of all e-retail transactions (PwC, 2015).
Economic growth leading to higher per capita income facilitated improvements in information and communications technology (ICT) and logistics infrastructure coupled with cheaper access to Internet on smartphones and tablets, and a young demography would facilitate the growth of e-retail in India. Increasing sales of smartphones and plans by the central government under the Digital India initiative to bring 4G into semi-urban and rural areas could lead to an expansion in the e-retail segment.
The conventional retail industry in India was characterized by local mom and pop stores known as kiranas. This helped major e-retail players in India to bring the kirana stores under its ambit through the marketplace model. However, despite the situation, there were many challenges for craftsmen from Dharavi to register online on renowned e-commerce players and facilitate the growth of their business. The challenges are as follows:
Inability to get easy access to credit: The craftsmen were unable to get the credit easily as they were running factories which had propped up illegally in the neighbourhood. Moreover, the businesses they ran were unorganized; therefore they were cut off from organized banks in obtaining the credit, which could help them in growth and expansion of their business. Therefore, they were exposed to unofficial moneylenders and loan sharks who charged exorbitant interest rates, preventing the growth of businesses. Circuitous supply chains: Traditionally Dharavi had been a playground for middlemen. Many businesses supplied their products to the middlemen, who used their buying power to coerce the craftsmen into selling their products at lower prices. They then passed the products through nebulous and circuitous supply chains to the end user. While the craftsman got a lower price due to greater bargaining power of the supplier, the end user had to incur the hidden costs in the supply chain while purchasing the end product. Therefore, the craftsmen were not able to make profits and they could not either expand their business, improve the condition or living standards of their workers. The workers were working for more than 9 hours a day in sweatshop conditions. They were being paid below the minimum wage and were getting exploited. This neither benefitted the entrepreneurs nor their workers. Inability in meeting the standards of e-commerce portals: They also had problems while registering directly onto renowned e-commerce portals like Flipkart, Amazon or Snapdeal due to difficulty in obtaining credit, limited manufacturing capability and inability to meet the suppliers’ standards and code of conduct, which many e-commerce portals demanded. Moreover, many e-commerce players were worried about losing their reputation among potential consumers as Dharavi was associated with squalor among the urban middle-class consumer. Social development was the need of the hour: Hypothetically, even if reputed e-commerce players had registered craftsmen of Dharavi onto their portal, they might have benefitted only some of the craftsmen and their workers by creating economic prosperity culminating in regular income and improvements in purchasing power for both the craftsmen and the workers. However, social development like improved access to healthcare, better education, gentrification of workshops and hygienic neighbourhood could only have been possible through a social enterprise. Dharavi was characterized by many NGOs advocating social development for its inhabitants by putting pressure on local government through mass media campaigning and generating funds from corporates to ameliorate the socio-economic misery of its residents. Nevertheless, a social enterprise which could directly involve the civil society organizations (CSOs) both through profits and corporate funding was needed to address issues of social development.
Therefore, a for-profit social enterprise which could capitalize on the economic potential of the industries in Dharavi, as well as promote social development for craftsmen through collaboration with various CSOs was needed. The business had to create economic prosperity by creating sustainable profits for the craftsmen and itself while promoting social development by collaborating with CSOs to improve the ergonomic conditions of the workshops and facilitate in improving the health and education of the workers.
Dharavi Market: Linking Social Enterprise into E-commerce Industry
Identification of the Business Need
Dharavi on the outset was like any other slum in a developing middle-income country with cramped shanties having inadequate sanitation, dirty streets, high population density, sweatshops and poverty. It was shown as a pariah in many films like Sudhir Mishra’s Dharavi (1991) and Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2009). Many Bollywood gangster movies like Deewar (1975), Bombay (1995) and Satya (1998) used the shanties of Dharavi as a background setting in many of their films leading to a perception of the area being infested with nefarious activities. But after scratching the surface, a vibrant social life characterized by multiculturalism, thriving work culture and the essence of entrepreneurship was revealed. This was discovered by Megha Gupta, the founder of Dharavi Market, which is a for-profit social enterprise that uses the e-commerce platform to boost the apparel and artefact industry in Dharavi.
Megha Gupta, a Mumbaikar (citizen of Mumbai), completed her Bachelor Degree in Mass Media (Journalism) from the Mumbai University in 2006 (Dharavi Market, 2016a). She had a brief stint with Mid-day Multimedia Ltd, where she was reporting about infrastructure issues in Mumbai (Dharavi Market, 2016a).
She went to the UK to learn about tackling infrastructure issues and gain knowledge in town planning in detail, therefore she pursued an MA in Regional and Town Planning from the Sheffield University in UK. After passing out in 2008, she came back to Mumbai and worked in the research and publication department with some of the best firms in the area of architecture and urban planning like Hafiz Contractor and PK Das Associates.
Her learning experience was enriched with a stint at PK Das Associates. PK Das is a versatile architect often regarded as an ‘Architect Activist’. He believed in following a bottom up approach insofar as urban planning and architectural gentrification is concerned. At PK Das Associates, community-centric development in line with the aspirations of people was carried out. PK Das Associates had beautified the Gateway of India, Bandstand and Carter Road.
Later, Megha Gupta quit PK Das Associates and worked as a freelance town planner, did research in town planning to understand the needs of the residents of various colonies in Mumbai and came out with architectural proposals to satisfy the needs of the residents. She worked on many projects with URBZ, and a project with Renault under the aegis of URBZ to study the transportation and logistics pattern of Dharavi led to a metamorphosis in Megha Gupta’s career.
Megha Gupta used to spend 14 hours every day from 6 am to 10 pm, studying and documenting these activities. She discovered that many residents were using cheap smartphones in the range of ₹2000–4000 with applications like WhatsApp to carry out the business transactions with potential suppliers. She was also exposed to a gamut of goods, which were produced and transported through Dharavi. This revealed many thriving industries in the neighbourhood to her. The wide exposure to this ostensibly hailed pariah of Mumbai revealed the thriving spirit of entrepreneurship, which defined the foundational ethos of this impoverished yet energetic neighbourhood.
This inspired Megha Gupta to create a business venture in the e-commerce sector using ICT to drive economic prosperity and social well-being among the craftsmen of Dharavi. Thus, the idea of Dharavi Market was born.
Advent of Dharavi Market
Keeping this in mind she launched a for-profit e-commerce social enterprise called Dharavi Market in August 2014 with a working capital of ₹500,000 and also launched a new app developed along the lines of WhatsApp to help craftsmen upload their product images on the website along with the respective product details. They could also quote the product prices using the app. Capital expenditures were incurred on developing the website, getting the office space at Matunga West and developing the mobile app. Weblinks, a Mumbai-based company, facilitated in developing the website and the app for Dharavi Market.
Business Model of Dharavi Market
Dharavi Market operated a marketplace model wherein it planned to register many resident entrepreneurs with Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). They were to sell their products by clicking their photos, writing their descriptions and quoting their prices. The product was then to be uploaded via an app developed by the company along with the product description to the founder and administrator Megha Gupta. It then needed to be approved by the founder to be uploaded on the website.
Finally, the customer was to buy the product online and also pay for the logistics. Dharavi Market was to use third-party logistics (3PL) companies to ship goods to all parts of India and to different parts of the world namely through India Post, DTDC and DHL. The product was first procured from the craftsman, put through a quality check by the company and then shipped. When the customer did not place a return request within 7 days of receiving the product (except clay and pottery all other products can be returned/exchanged), the craftsman got his share of money while the company made a small commission per sale of the product thereby creating a non-zero sum game situation for all the stakeholders.
Dharavi Market’s product portfolio included a variety of goods from clothes, bags, accessories to pottery products from Kumbharwada. They also sold customized products, which were made bespoke for the customer, wherein the customer sent the photo and design of the product he or she wanted and then enlisted product specifications along with their contact details to the company. The company sent these details to the craftsman before reverting back to the consumer. Finally, the company also included raw materials in its ambit to buttress corporate orders.
Therefore, the company aimed to fulfil the following goals:
Bring every craftsman and his work into the public domain by putting his work in the local and global market while offering the middle-class consumer a range of good quality products at affordable costs and also give every craftsman a fair price for his product. Create awareness about Dharavi being a place of enterprises, creative spirit and community life rather than poverty and misery. Facilitate a dialogue between the customer and the craftsman, which would help the consumer to learn about the socio-economic aspects in the township and help the craftsman to learn about latest marketing trends and consumer preferences. To use the website as a platform to address the issues of inadequate housing, livelihood, health, education, sanitation and commute problems enabling in concrete action by NGOs, public policymakers and public agencies.
Organization Structure of Dharavi Market
Corporate sales officer: The person is responsible for establishing relationships with corporates and executing bulk orders placed by them. Dharavi Market also is involved in business-to-business operations and provides intermediate products to the corporates in bulk. The intermediate products include finished goods and raw materials.
Logistics officer: The person is responsible for procuring the products from the craftsmen. Subsequently, this person packs and ships the products to the 3PL companies to be delivered to the customer.
Inventory manager: The person maintains a record of products shipped and the transactions involved.
Support staff: There are two representatives who sell the products of Dharavi Market in a kiosk at Inorbit Mall in Malad, Mumbai.
Company Performance
Since its inception 1 year ago, the business performance has been satisfactory. The organization operated at break even by selling to consumers and taking corporate bulk orders. The business planned to transform itself into a private limited enterprise in January 2016, which could facilitate in investments from venture capitalists and private financial institutions as shareholders thereby enabling the business to scale up and bring many craftsmen under its ambit. This may improve the economic conditions of the craftsmen with higher income, which is regular and sustainable. The collaboration with various CSOs and effective implementation of social policies by them could improve working conditions and facilitate better expenditures on social services like healthcare and education.
The founder gave more weightage to social impact over financial performance. She felt that increased media coverage generated publicity, which not only helped in spreading awareness about the business, but also promoted growth of the business. The mass media helped to propagate the business story adequately among potential customers, business ventures and CSO groups. Growth was to be achieved in a steady and sustainable manner.
Dharavi Market attracted online customers from across India; primarily most of their customers were from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities aged between 18 and 35 years. As of February 2016, jackets, particularly finely stitched and crafted leather ones, sold like hot cakes during the months of December and January. Pottery from Kumbharwada was popular from July to November and laptop bags along with travel bags were in perennial demand, generating most of the revenue for the organization. In 2015, wallets and passport cases sold highest by volume. Dharavi Market also made revenues by accomplishing corporate bulk orders; they sold leather goods to DSK and IEC in Singapore.
In order to increase the reach of the products from Dharavi and take the craftsman and their work mainstream, Dharavi Market tied up with Snapdeal in February 2015 (The Times of India, 2015b) to sell the products of the craftsmen on a large scale. This move enabled Snapdeal to showcase products of the artisans and create an exclusive Dharavi-Snapdeal store on the e-commerce platform (The Times of India, 2015b). This move was in resonance with Snapdeal’s strategy of getting 1 million small and medium businesses on board and saw local artisans use this platform to sell their products nationwide through a sustainable model (The Times of India, 2015b). The media coverage given to Dharavi Market and its mantra to create profitability and social development for the craftsmen resulted in this partnership. Since then Dharavi Market partnered with Shop Clues, Paytm, Flipkart and eBay. This helped the company to expand its customer base and also save on its transportation and logistics costs since these were done by the respective e-commerce players. The proliferation of products made in Dharavi through well-established e-commerce players in India helped the products and their craftsmen to become conspicuous among the bourgeoning Indian middle class and create awareness about Dharavi being a hub of small-scale manufacturing.
Moreover, the awareness through mass media and social media coupled with reasonable financial performance prompted the company to work towards becoming a private limited company. In February 2016, Megha Gupta announced to launch made in Dharavi products through a distinct brand called ‘Dhama’ (Zee News, 2016), meaning shelter in Sanskrit. Dhama, a portmanteau of Dharavi Market, planned to have high-quality eco-friendly products in faux leather, jute and cotton (Zee News, 2016). With a private limited company and a new line of products, which cater to ethical consumption, Dharavi Market could reach new heights.
Economic Impact on Craftsmen
Dharavi Market transformed the livelihood of the craftsmen registered with it significantly. Not only their income levels improved, but also they were able to get a regular source of income. They had regular work and found it easy to sell their products, getting a fair price for them. They made the products while the company supported them.
In a short film by Our Better World featuring Dharavi Market, leather artisan Mohd Rafiq Shaikh acknowledged the fact that online selling gave him more return, and he was fairly paid for the work he did (Ohri, 2015). The hassle of getting in touch with a wholesaler and retailer was tough, and they ended up getting more money than he did.
He quotes, ‘Each of them makes some money before it gets sold finally so the profit is divided among three people. They would stop after buying as much as they required so there wasn’t a constant income’ (Ohri, 2015).
He added, ‘Selling online is not only beneficial to business owner but also to the customer.’
When he got a fair price for his hard work and acknow-ledgement from the customer he certainly felt proud (Ohri, 2015).
Abbas Zakaria Galwani, a pottery artisan from Kumbharwada, decided to make the most of his talent and skills and sell his pottery products online. He believed in the potential of the Internet to make it big (Ohri, 2015).
He says,
After all this technology has become available, selling our products has become much easier. Through Dharavi Market if the customer buys our product from us we get double the earnings. (Ohri, 2015) When we earn more it improves our lifestyle and we can provide our children with good education.
He could also take a day off every now and then and enjoy weekends with the family (Baey, 2015).
He says, ‘Now with this additional income, we can take our families to enjoy.’
Thus the above examples give credence to its economic impact on the craftsmen. However, being in operation for approximately 1.5 years, it has made a significant impact on the craftsmen. The business would need to be operational for more time and become scalable if it has to improve its economic impact on the craftsmen and achieve its objectives.
Social Impact on the Craftsmen
Dharavi Market created social impact on the craftsmen by collaborating with CSO organizations like Asia Initiatives and URBZ. Asia Initiatives launched Social Capital Credits (SoCCs) system. SoCCs is a bottom-up approach driven by local communities. It encouraged communities and individuals to do social good and rewarded it with social credits, which could be spent to fulfil the needs of the community thereby helping in creating savings from real income, which could be invested into fixed deposit or education (‘SoCCs’, Dharavi Market, 2015).
Activities which contributed to social good included cleaning lanes, waste management, sending daughters to schools, painting public walls, etc. These could be spent on obtaining mobile recharge, procuring food rations and getting a health check-up. A volunteer with URBZ worked with local communities to decide the SoCCs menu with the list of activities to earn and spend social credits. Each activity was assigned credit points. The participation from the community tailored the SoCCs menu to be in resonance with the needs and aspirations of the community (‘SoCCs’, Dharavi Market, 2015). An SoCC manager from the community or the partner of URBZ was trained to maintain the SoCC passbook to validate the tasks performed for earning the SoCCs (‘SoCCs’, Dharavi Market, 2015).
Currently, SoCCs is manual but a digital platform to facilitate the transaction of SoCCs is a long-term goal which would enable easier acquisition and management of the social credits. With a digital platform being available on mobile phones and computers, the members of the communities could monitor their social credits, facilitate transparent transactions of social credits and learn about various social activities that could generate social credits. In short, the SoCCs programme enabled communities, as groups and individuals, to perform social good, which was rewarded with ‘Social Credits’, and finally the social credits could be used to meet expenditures by availing products and services which contribute towards social development. This results in savings on capital, which could be used in fixed deposit savings or spent on education thereby improving the overall well-being of the community and building social capital.
The idea for SoCCs came to Geeta Mehta, the founder of Asia Initiatives, out of the firm conviction that overemphasis and complete reliance on money is more of a problem than a solution, and progress and development could be better served by creating sustainable and equitable alternate mediums of exchange (Dharavi Market, 2016b). She adds,
Today there is an urgent need for and the opportunity to invest in new paradigms of development. SoCCs is one such initiative—through our different pilot projects, people are being encouraged and taught to attend health sessions and camps, being trained on civic consciousness and preservation of water, on hygiene and cleanliness. (Dharavi Market, 2016b)
URBZ carried out an SoCC pilot project in six lanes of Subash Nagar Dharavi and gave 1 kg toor dal (pulse) to each family of the cleanest lane every month to drive the cleanliness programme (Dharavi Market, 2016c).
Any craftsman who registered with Dharavi Market also became part of the SoCCs programme. Dharavi Market asked consumers for their contribution to the SoCCs as well as vouched to get corporate CSR funding for CSOs to be utilized into the SoCCs programme. Dharavi Market gave SoCCs to craftsmen who produced good quality products, sent these at a stipulated time and maintained cleanliness in their workshops. The craftsmen used these SoCCs to get mobile recharge and to get health check-ups.
There were plans to give SoCCs to the craftsmen through the following activities: sending their girls to school or university, keeping their workshops clean or training new boys as artisans. They could then use these SoCCs to attend skill development courses or improve conditions of their workshops like putting fire extinguishers, new exhaust fans and seating arrangement for their workers (Dharavi Market, 2016b). Many volunteer architects working with URBZ were to advise them on these parameters. However, significant evaluation of the social impact of these plans would depend upon the success of Dharavi Market in getting corporate funding and making profits. Therefore, Dharavi Market needs to be scalable and profitable over a long period, in order to assess the impact of holistic social development on the craftsmen.
Limitations
Dharavi Market had the following limitations due to its lucid organization structure, small size and overdependence on funding from external sources:
Limitations in meeting the economic impact: Though Dharavi Market provided the craftsmen with increased income, which was regular and sustainable, it could do it only for a small number of craftsmen. In order to increase and regularize the income of many craftsmen, it needs to be profitable for a long period of time. This would enable increased funding from corporate foundations, venture capitalists and public donors. This could help many craftsmen in not only improving their lives, but also in improving their workshops and expanding their businesses. Many craftsmen believe in the enormous potential of online businesses. Limitations in meeting the social impact: While Dharavi Market has created grandiose plans to promote social development among the craftsmen through the SoCCs programme by collaborating with CSOs, it has been able to achieve this only in a limited manner. The success of its social impact could be ascertained only when it achieves its objectives in a comprehensive manner according to its plans and creates significant social development for its craftsmen with substantial gentrification of the workshops. Balancing profits with social objectives: In order to maximize its social impact, Dharavi Market has to expand and grow at a rapid pace. Dharavi Market, being a start-up, has been operational only for 1.5 years. At break-even performance, it needs backing from angel investors to thrive and bring in many craftsmen into its operations; however, this may result in working to fulfil the needs of the investors. Moreover, with expansion, the organization structure of Dharavi Market may be altered. This may dilute the vision and ideals of its founder, since bureaucracy with its emphasis on strict adherence to policies and procedures often tears away the idealism of social enterprises by stifling innovation and risk-taking.
Future Plans
As of February 2016, Dharavi Market intended to create an exhaustive database of the craftsmen that would include the photos of their workshop, information on how they make their products and their life stories. That would not only allow the customer a choice in selection of artist, but could also provide the craftsmen with an insight into consumer trends and likes.
Dharavi Market planned to get many craftsmen under its ambit in order to expand its product portfolio and enable prosperity among craftsmen it served. It planned to enable the CSOs and NGOs in raising SoCCs through CSR funds allocated by companies and improve the life of the craftsmen by linking them with these NGOs working in the domain of implementation of effective public policy.
Megha Gupta imbibed the soul of Dharavi and its businesses, thereby these became her personal goal. In February 2016, she believed in the growth story of the business, since she believed she was improving both productivity and profitability by organizing the unorganized and nascent manufacturing industries of Dharavi. Giving an analogy of tourism websites like Goibibo and MakeMyTrip, which helped tourism service providers to transform the tourism industry, she believed her venture could transform the manufacturing industry in Dharavi.
Earlier it was difficult to procure goods from Dharavi due to poor infrastructure, complex supply chains, lack of trust and banking issues. However, with the proliferation of IT services and the inception of the venture named Dharavi Market, business became easier with craftsmen seeing an improvement in the level of their incomes and easy accessibility of their products to the target consumer.
When asked about her competitors, she viewed her competitors as collaborators who would help her business to grow in a sustainable manner. She said,
I am not here to compete with a Flipkart, Snapdeal, ShopClues or eBay rather I would want these to sell my products and expand the reach of my business in a scalable and sustainable manner. This would reap benefits for the e-commerce player, my business and the craftsmen.
She envisioned in transforming Dharavi into a state-of-art manufacturing hub, analogous to Shenzhen in China. With its limited financial capability, localized operations and relentless media coverage, Dharavi Market created a significant economic, psychological and social impact in a short period of time. However, in order to accomplish its lofty aims and proliferate its ideals, it would need to manage both social impact and profitability on a large scale. This could result in challenges like managing organizational complexity and diversity, creation of bureaucratic and standardized processes, increased pressure by venture capitalists for higher returns on investment and dilution of social impact vis-à-vis the final performance. For Dharavi Market to be successful in the future, these issues need to be assessed and tackled.
Footnotes
Note
The information was obtained after conducting a personal interview with the founder and administrator of the organization.