We recently outgrew our old offices and moved into a larger space in lower downtown Denver, in the shadow of Coors Field.  The move went smooth with only minor glitches – phones turned off prematurely and a few misplaced boxes.  We all pitched in and are now settled at our new address.

When I say we all pitched in, I mean those of us who were “volunteered” to be on the Moving Committee.  We unlucky few helped assemble desks, filing cabinets, book shelves, etc.  I must admit this is not one of my core strengths, and I hope my desk does not collapse!  While putting together the desk, I had flashbacks of assembling toys during the holidays for my younger brother.  The directions always made it seem easy, but it never was.

The recent issue of The Economist had an article, The Cult of the Dabbawala, about a group in India known for its efficiency and flawless logistics systems that use color-coded boxes to deliver meals 99.9999% on time, to the right address.  It is an amazing system that has been around since the Seventeenth Century, and it made me question the instructions I struggled with while assembling my desk.  If the pieces had been color coded would I have struggled and would I still have those unused mystery screws?  Would boxes have been temporarily lost if we had color coded them?  I doubt it.

Why do we overcomplicate things and make them harder than they should be?  At TrackVia, we do our best not to overcomplicate our online database solution.  Our database is powerful yet intuitive.  We even have color coding on our search results and Find Duplicate features – guess we learned a thing or two from the dabbawala.  The next time we move, I plan on pulling out colored Sharpies to color-code my boxes.

If you find yourself in the Denver area, please stop by and say hello. And don’t worry – everything is assembled so we won’t put you to work.