Binny Bansal's exit: Flipkart staff shocked, but see business as usual

BENGALURU: "What?...Really? That came out of nowhere," a former senior executive of Flipkart, who still keenly watches happenings at the company, said after hearing about the abrupt exit of Binny Bansal as chairman & group CEO. That was the general reaction of current and former Flipkart employees. Several said they have been on chats and calls to see if they could get any additional information than what was officially disclosed about the allegations of personal misconduct.

"Everyone is surprised since there was no buzz of anything like this within the organisation," a current employee said, adding that usually hints of such developments make it to the corridors of the company.

Stunned by allegations; challenging time for my family and me: Binny Bansal

Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, who resigned as CEO of Flipkart group on Tuesday said that he had been mulling over leaving Flipkart at the right time since the deal with Walmart. "However, my decision to step down has been accelerated by certain personal events that have taken place in the recent past,” he said. Bansal noted that the allegations were uncorroborated.

"Some employees close to Binny swear by him, others are speculating about the merits of the case," said another employee. Some told TOI that Flipkart has instructed staff not to talk to the media on the matter. Binny's departure is not expected to change things much. A former executive noted that Binny was due to transition out of the company anyway. "It was planned, it might have happened next year," he said. Binny too had pointed out in his email to employees that his plan was to continue in his group CEO role for only a few more quarters.
Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy also sought to reassure employees. "I wanted to personally let you know that there will be no changes in our operating processes, or to the mission of the company as a result of this news," he said in an email to staff. He said the board remains committed to investing for the long-term and supportive of the leadership team's desire to evolve into a publicly-traded company in the future.
Krishnamurthy, Nigam gain from exit

BENGALURU: The gainers from Binny Bansal’s exit from an operational role in Flipkart are Kalyan Krishnamurthy and Sameer Nigam. Krishnamurthy, who has been CEO of Flipkart, will now have Ananth Narayanan, who heads Myntra and Jabong, reporting to him. The Walmart-Flipkart statement said that Flipkart will now include Myntra and Jabong. The latter two will, however, continue to operate as separate platforms within the Flipkart business. Krishnamurthy will now report directly to the board. Nigam, CEO of the payments service PhonePe, will also now directly report to the Board. He gets a freer hand. (TNN)

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