Monday, 23 February 2015

Bansals get new roles in Flipkart recast

India's largest online retailer Flipkart has undertaken a massive reorganization at a time when the e-tailer is looking to prune its losses and make itself IPO ready. Under the new structure, Flipkart will be split into three verticals to bring a sharper focus on its strategy and help the company tap its next phase of growth.

While the Bengaluru-based company's co-founder and CEO Sachin Bansal would continue to spearhead the e-commerce biggie at the top, he will also take on an additional role of pushing all the new initiatives at the firm. Sachin, who co-founded Flipkart with Binny Bansal (they are not related) in 2007, will reduce the scope of his day-to-day operational involvement in the company, sources privy to the development said.

Binny, who is currently designated as the COO, would be overseeing the logistics and supply chain side of the business, while Myntra's co-founder Mukesh Bansal would drive the commerce platform along with taking care of marketing activities and the marketplace vertical.

Mukesh, who came on board Flipkart after the fashion e-tailer was acquired by its cross-town rival for $330 million in May last year, has seen his influence grow steadily within the company. In November last year, Flipkart had given Mukesh the mandate to lead marketing for the online commerce major and also be in-charge of categories like consumer electronics and computers.

When TOI reached out to Flipkart on its recent reorganization, a company spokesperson said, "As a growing business, we are constantly reorganizing our teams to match the changing environment. Realigning roles and responsibilities helps us keep pace with our aggressive growth and the dynamic environment we operate in. We have done many such changes in the past and will continue to do the same in the future whenever the needs arise."

The company's engineering division is also getting a makeover. It will now be headed by Sameer Nigam, and its chief technology officer Amod Malviya would drive R&D and innovation.

Sources told TOI that the company's decision to split Flipkart into three units was taken at a board meeting held last week and was announced internally to all its employees last week.

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