Flipkart makes key changes in leadership team ahead of the IPO plan

As the e-commerce firm focuses on building and growing its business further, it has made a few leadership role changes in areas such as supply chain, category design operations and fintech and payment

Flipkart has made key changes to its leadership team as the Walmart-owned e-commerce giant readies for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) by next year. As the firm focuses on building and growing its business further, it has made a few leadership role changes in Flipkart Supply Chain, CDO (category design operations) and M3 (marketing, merchandising and monetization), and Fintech and Payment Group organisations.

Amitesh Jha will be taking up a new role in the CDO and M3 organisation. He has been leading the Ekart-Myntra Supply Chain, Jeeves - F1, CX and Marketplace for the last 3.5 years. Over this time, he has been instrumental in building high performing supply chain, CX and marketplace teams that are strongly committed to customers, sellers and our people.

“In this role, he (Jha) will oversee the consumables, softlines, and customer and marketing charters,” said Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, in a letter addressed to the employees and which has been seen by Business Standard.

In the letter, Krishnamurthy said Jha has effectively led Ekart to scale it to become one of the most efficient supply chains in India, enabling the firm to pass on higher value to our customers every day. His vision has allowed Flipkart to make forward-looking investments in infrastructure and capabilities like automation and sustainability to support our long-term growth and customer experience ambitions. “He (Jha) has helped create a strong pipeline of senior leaders at Ekart and has made it a talent magnet for the most knowledgeable and talented supply chain professionals from across India and the globe,” said Krishnamurthy.

With this development, Manish Kumar, senior vice president for grocery, furniture, home and general merchandise, Nandita Sinha, vice president for customer and marketing charter and Nishit Garg, vice president for lifestyle, will report to Jha, effective March 1, 2021.

Ranjith Boyanapalli, senior vice president for fintech and payments group will take on the additional charters of CX, marketplace and the central liquidation team (CLT). Samdani Basha, vice president for CX and Jagjeet Harode, SD - marketplace, with the added mandate of CLT, will now report to Boyanapalli, effective March 1, 2021. 

“Ranjith (Boyanapalli) is one of our most seasoned leaders and has successfully built a strong fintech and payments business grounds up over the last two years,” said Krishnamurthy.

Under his leadership, Flipkart launched and scaled products like the co-branded credit card (CBC) and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL). Flipkart would continue to focus on affordability and new-age fintech products for India. Boyanapalli also used to lead the CX function till about two years ago and drove effective transformation to enable higher customer centricity at Flipkart. “I look forward to his leadership on CX, Marketplace and CLT,” said Krishnamurthy.

Hemant Badri is joining Flipkart as senior vice president, supply chain, effective March 1, 2021. In this role, Badri will be responsible for the Ekart-Myntra Supply Chain and Jeeves - F1 priorities at Flipkart. All the asset leaders currently reporting to Jha will now report to Badri.

“In order to enable a smooth leadership transition, Amitesh  (Jha) will directly manage and mentor Hemant  (Badri) over the next few months,” said Krishnamurthy.

Badri comes with rich experience of over 20 years and a proven record of delivering results, innovation, and thought leadership. He brings a wealth of expertise in varied domains such as strategies, operations, manufacturing and customer service. His other expertise includes logistics, demand planning, sales and cost transformation. Badri was the global vice president of planning, analytics and customer experience and the vice president of planning for European operations at Unilever’s Headquarters based out of the Netherlands. He was also a member of Unilever’s global supply chain leadership team.

Last December, Flipkart also made key changes to its board. The new directors to the board included Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HDFC Ltd Keki Mistry, two new directors from Walmart — Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer Suresh Kumar and Executive Vice-President (EVP) of International Strategy and Development for Walmart International Leigh Hopkins, along with Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy.

Walmart-owned companies in India, Flipkart and PhonePe have risen to the challenges of the coronavirus health crisis and have emerged stronger with the adoption of digital technologies accelerating across the country, said Judith McKenna, president and chief executive officer of Walmart International, recently during a meeting with the investment community.

Also, Doug McMillon, president and chief executive officer, Walmart, recently said that the firm is growing rapidly in India as  Flipkart and PhonePe are homegrown businesses with innovation and solving problems for the Indian customer at their core. “We continue to be impressed with Flipkart and PhonePe talent led Kalyan (Krishnamurthy) and Sameer (Nigam),” McMillon had said.

The Bentonville-based company (in Arkansas) is locked in a battle with US rival Jeff Bezos-led Amazon and Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance’s JioMart for dominance in India’s online retail market through Flipkart, which it bought for $16 billion in 2018. Digital payments giant PhonePe also came to Walmart as part of the acquisition.