Flipkart Rejigs Top Management Amid Exodus Of Executives, Cost-Cutting Drive

Battered by the exodus of top executives and an ongoing cost-cutting exercise, ecommerce major Flipkart has reportedly undertaken a major reshuffle at the vice president (VP)-level.

Sources told The Economic Times that senior vice president (SVP) of supply chain, Ravish Sinha, has left the company after an eight-year stint. Meanwhile, VPs across key operational verticals have been transferred to other businesses in what appears to be the startup’s triennial rejig.

The announcement of the rejig was done in an internal note to employees around January 30. Inc42 has reached out to Flipkart for a comment on the latest developments and the story will be updated on receiving a response from the company. 

The report, citing a source, said that the ecommerce giant reshuffles its VP-level roles every three years to allow executives to spearhead multiple businesses. Most VPs report directly to senior vice presidents (SVPs). 

Ajay Veer Yadav, who is the SVP of the electronics and appliances vertical, will directly oversee the work of VP of electronics Hari Kumar. The former VP of marketplace Jagjeet Harode has been moved to the large appliance business unit and will report to Hari Kumar.

Rakesh Krishnan will replace Harode. He will now lead the marketplace business and report to Manish Kumar, who is the current SVP of grocery, beauty, home, general merchandise, furniture, and private label categories.

On similar lines, Ashutosh Singh Chandel will take over as the business unit head of Flipkart’s recommerce business and will report to Adarsh Menon, the SVP of new businesses such as Cleartrip and Shopsy. Alongside, VP of Flipkart’s large appliances category Ravi Krishnan will now head Flipkart Labs and will directly answer to Naren Ravula, who is the current vice president and head of product strategy and deployment.

Sinha’s exit comes at a time when the startup has been marred by the exodus of multiple top executives. The ecommerce major’s Flipkart Labs vertical first saw the exit of the head of product and innovation at Firedrops Sai Krishna VK in December last year. Following this, head of Flipkart Labs Ajay Ponna Venkatesh also bid adieu to the company in January 2023. 

Curiously, both Venkatesh and Sai, cofounders of deeptech startup Scapic, which was later acquired by Flipkart, later joined crypto platform Polygon. 

Flipkart’s Mounting Losses 

The ecommerce giant has been saddled with losses. While its marketplace arm raked up a loss of INR 4,361 Cr in the financial year 2021-2022 (FY22), its B2B arm saw its loss widen to INR 3,404.4 Cr during the same period. 

In a bid to clamp down on the piling losses and heavy cash burn, the startup has gone on a cost-cutting overdrive. While the ecommerce major will not give salary hikes to 4,500 senior executives this year, it has also heavily scaled down the operations of its quick commerce vertical, Flipkart Quick. 

While it does not plan on shutting down the quick-commerce vertical, Flipkart largely plans to focus on just offering fresh groceries through the channel. 

Besides, the company is also said to be tightening its purse strings amid the ongoing market volatility and adverse macroeconomic conditions. 

Despite the hiccups, parent company Walmart appears to be optimistic about the Indian ecommerce venture, terming Flipkart a market leader with a huge addressable market opportunity to tap into going forward.

As per Inc42, India’s total addressable ecommerce market is projected to soar to $400 Bn by 2030.