Flipkart carries out first major management shake-up since Walmart takeover

Bangalore: In the first major executive shake-up since Walmart Inc. bought a majority stake in Flipkart, several senior and mid-level executives have been moved to new roles, while other leaders have been moved from Flipkart to Myntra and vice versa, as Flipkart Chief Executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy looks to fill key positions in key business units.

Following the end of the crucial Diwali sale, Flipkart has moved a number of senior executives to new positions as Krishnamurthy seeks to improve the e-commerce company’s performance across all units and reduce Flipkart’s dependence on smartphones, which still generate more than 50% of Flipkart’s total sales.

Flipkart has brought on Sandeep Karwa, head of its major home appliances business, to work on a new hyperlocal offering that will span across its grocery business.

Hari Kumar, a senior executive who has held various roles at Flipkart over the last few years, has been appointed as head of the large home appliances business.

More importantly, Flipkart has appointed Aditya Soni as the new head of its flagship smartphone division after his predecessor, Ayyappan R., was transferred to Myntra.

Smrithi Ravichandran, a senior executive who led key events like Big Billion Days, merchandise and business developments, has been moved to a new position at Flipkart’s fintech unit. Ravichandran’s role has been taken over by Nandita Sinha, who headed Flipkart’s furniture and home business, the people said. Flipkart is expected to name a new furniture head in the coming weeks.

Flipkart has also moved key executives like Ayyappan to Myntra, while some top leaders from Myntra are likely to be transferred to Flipkart. For instance, according to the first two people mentioned above, Myntra’s current CTO Jeyandran Venugopal is likely to be transferred to Flipkart in a new role after Myntra’s flagship End of Reason sale, which usually takes place in December-January.

A Flipkart spokesperson declined to comment on the changes.

The last few weeks and months have brought a huge amount of change to Flipkart. Most notably, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal was forced to resign after an internal investigation by Walmart and Flipkart into an allegation of “personal misconduct” by Binny Bansal. The investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing to support the allegation, but it did reveal an “error in judgment” by Binny Bansal, according to Walmart.

Following Bansal’s departure, Flipkart gave Krishnamurthy a broader mandate within the group, with Myntra coming under his purview after the online fashion retailer remained independent since its acquisition in 2014. Krishnamurthy later clarified that Myntra would continue to be an independent company.

Mint reported on November 16 that Flipkart may eliminate the group CEO position and retain the new structure put in place after Binny Bansal’s departure. It then carried out a large round of layoffs at Jabong, as part of a broader integration between Myntra and Jabong, Mint reported on November 16. Around 150-200 employees were let go as part of the restructuring, although Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan later told Mint that around 10% of the combined workforce of Myntra and Jabong would be laid off.