Binny Bansal and woman had consensual affair, probe concluded
The accusation of sexual assault came in late July, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity because the details aren’t public. The person said the accuser was a former Flipkart employee, while a second person who knew of the situation said the woman never worked there.
Some are now more sensitive to the equation that founders and senior executives at startups share with women colleagues. While the ‘#MeToo’ movement also had impacted the startup ecosystem, Bansal’s exit has brought the issue much closer home for fellow entrepreneurs. Among male founders, there’s a sense of insecurity. But female founders TOI spoke with said the conversations happening now will lead to a healthy change over the long term. Most of the founders who spoke did not wish to be named.
“The recent developments can change the fundamentals of how startups function internally, especially in companies that have founders as young as 25,” a founder said. He said that while greater sensitivity in workplace behaviour is good, the same should not be taken out of context to implicate founders at some point in the future. Other founders too said they are being cautious about workplace behaviour with women but are worried about a “casual joke” coming back to haunt them later.
Binny Bansal's exit: A resignation that raises more questions than it answers
Non-disclosure might have been Binny’s biggest undoing. It’s an issue that many global companies take very seriously. Sources close to Walmart said Binny did not make any disclosure about the allegation of personal misconduct against him to Walmart at the time of the latter’s acquisition of Flipkart earlier this year.
In Binny’s case, the internal investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions, but the company said it revealed “other lapses in judgement, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation”. It is believed that Binny did not disclose anything about the complaint against him when Walmart was doing its due diligence of Flipkart prior to acquiring it.
Binny Bansal's exit: Flipkart staff shocked, but see business as usual
"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. 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.
Much like major global startup hubs, India’s startup ecosystem too is male dominated. Shreya Mishra, co-founder of Flyrobe, said there may be a sense of insecurity among some men over the startup culture, but that should not be the core concern right now. “Instead, we should look at how many women have gone through these issues. And it’s about time we take corrective measures, at the cost of some feeling uneasy about that casual joke, if need be,” she said. Another woman founder of a startup said men need not be scared over their day-to-day interactions with female colleagues.
Sanjay Swamy, managing partner at seed-stage venture fund Prime Venture Partners, said the fund constantly has discussions with its portfolio companies to build awareness about these issues, and ensures they create systems to tackle them.
from Times of India https://ift.tt/2PwaVnA
