Walmart rushes teams to Bengaluru, help Flipkart after Binny Bansal's exit

Walmart Inc is flying in reinforcements from Bentonville to Bengaluru, apart from teams from subsidiary JD.com, for handling operations at Flipkart. The development comes amid anticipation of exits at the top level from the company, following the unceremonious exit of co-founder and group Chief Executive Officer Binny Bansal. 

With the last leg of festive sales before Christmas right around the corner, the US retail giant does not want to take any chances, said people close to the online marketplace company. 

A large chunk of middle management employees, who have been part of Flipkart for the last five to six years, were left shocked by the way Bansal took his exit, they said. 

“They (Flipkart employees) fear that with both co-founders gone, the ethos of the company will change. There is also uncertainty around whether there will be a rationalisation of workforce. Most of the older employees have started sending out feelers to other firms,” said a person close to the company. 

The Bengaluru firm has a workforce of around 50,000 — a vast chunk of which are delivery associates typically not on the rolls of the company.

The people in the know also added that the company’s human resource department is getting a lot of queries from employees who are uncertain about their future. 

“The HR department has now started talking to people in batches to assure them that things will not change and it will be business as usual. They also claim that Walmart has no plans of rationalising the Flipkart workforce.” 

Flipkart did not respond to a detailed mail sent on these issues.It is also learnt that Walmart’s senior management team, including its core leadership, is likely to be flying in from the US to India, to quell employee fears. A town hall meeting is on the cards, apart from meetings with top sellers, to explain the changes that are happening in the company.

“Many of the sellers have also reached out to the sales and marketing teams in the firm to understand what exactly is happening. Their only issue is that they do not want any more surprises going forward. They want assurances that their margins will not go down and the commissions being charged by the firm would not drastically increase,” said one of the senior executives at Flipkart’s seller services.

The last leg of the festive sales typically happens during Christmas. Flipkart has, till now, claimed top spot in India’s e-commerce market, claiming that almost 70 per cent of all online sales happen on their portal. Walmart doesn’t want Flipkart to let go of this momentum. 

The Bentonville-headquartered retail giant seems to be grooming Kalyan Krishnamurthy to be the group CEO ever since the company has acquired a majority stake in Flipkart, in May. Sources added that someone might be brought in from the US to be the new Chairman of the Indian entity.