Flipkart may appoint new Group CEO
Pvt. Ltd, now controlled by Walmart Inc., is considering naming a new chief executive at the group level, two people familiar with the matter said.
Flipkart co-founder and Group CEO Binny Bansal took over the chairman’s role in May after former chairman Sachin Bansal left Flipkart over differences with the company’s board.
Now, Walmart, which agreed to buy 77% in Flipkart for $16 billion in May, is considering separating the responsibilities of chairman and Group CEO, the people cited above said. Apart from the eponymous e-commerce platform, Flipkart group owns the fashion retailers Myntra and Jabong as well as the mobile payments firm PhonePe.
Walmart is considering both internal and external candidates for the Group CEO role, the peoon ple cited above said. Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy is one of the candidates to become Group CEO, the people said, requesting anonymity.
Flipkart may decide to name a new Group CEO, partly because co-founder and current Group CEO Binny Bansal is not actively involved in daily operations. He will, however, remain as the chairman of the company.
To be sure, the decision to name a new CEO for the entire group is not yet entirely finalized and Flipkart may well decide to continue with the current structure, one of the people cited above said. However, in recent weeks, the conversations around naming a new group CEO have been serious, the person said.
A Flipkart spokeswoman said that the company does comment “speculations and rumours”.
Earlier this month, Walmart moved several of its leaders to senior positions at the Group level at Flipkart. Walmart appointed a new chief financial officer, general counsel, chief ethics and compliance officer and group controller. The Economic Times newspaper had reported these moves last week.
If Flipkart does name a new CEO at the group level, it’ll mark what will be the fourth major leadership transition in as many years. In 2015, Flipkart had undertaken a massive reshuffle that saw the company being split into three separate parts, which were run by Flipkart co-founder and then CEO Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal and Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal (none of them are related to each other). In 2016, Flipkart elevated Binny Bansal to the role of CEO, after all of Sachin Bansal’s major strategic bets had failed and FK conceded market share to Amazon.
BENGALURU:Flipkart