Kalyan Krishnamurthy has been named the new chief executive officer (CEO) of the Bengaluru-based e-commerce company Flipkart. He replaced co-founder Binny Bansal, who was made the group CEO in a management reshuffle.

The company announced a new organisation structure with Flipkart Group organisation at the apex level. It said that the newly formed ‘Group Org’ will focus on creating future value through a portfolio of new and high growth businesses. It would also manage capital allocation across group companies, and ensure each business has a strong CEO in place.

Before assuming his new role with Flipkart, Kalyan Krishnamurthy was with Lee Fixel’s Tiger Global Management, largest investor in the e-commerce firm by value. He joined Flipkart in June last year as the head of ‘category design organisation’. 

Krishnamurthy will now be responsible for overall customer experience, development and management of Flipkart talent & organisation and the end-to-end Flipkart P&L.

The success of Big Billion Day, which was mostly orchestrated by Krishnamurthy was one of the reasons what tipped the scales in his favour at the board as the new CEO.

On the other hand, Binny Bansal will focus on leading new, high growth businesses, capital allocation and IPO readiness. He will have oversight of Flipkart, fashion portals Myntra-Jabong and the payments business PhonePe. Sachin Bansal, the other co-founder will continue to be the executive chairman, providing strategic direction for existing businesses, mentoring senior leadership, and will work closely with Binny Bansal on the new portfolio. 

Binny Bansal in a statement said,

Our execution engine is revved up. We are now ready to build the Flipkart of the future as we continue on our journey of transforming commerce in India through technology”.

To take on their competitive firm Amazon, Flipkart changed the way its management functions. 

Krishnamurthy said, 

'We are a growth company and that is by far the single biggest agenda. Execution, growth and innovation are the buzzwords for 2017."

Sachin Bansal said,

'E-commerce in India is going through its most exciting phase and Flipkart has played a pioneering role in shaping this very remarkable journey. We believe that Flipkart can play a transformational role in improving commerce in India and improve the quality of lives of millions of people across the farthest corners of the country. We also want to continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the internet and the commerce ecosystem of India.”

This reshuffle also gives Binny Bansal more time to think about the larger picture as at this stage Flipkart needs that founder-driven leadership at the group level.

This change did not come as a surprise for the employees as in the last few months, Flipkart has undergone numerous changes in the top management level. 

As reported to ET by an Flipkart employee,

'There is no major change in terms of day-to-day operations”.

In early 2013, Flipkart witnessed some challenges as its losses had soared beyond control with slow sales growth and the entry of Amazon.com Inc., the giant American online retailer, into India added more to its woes. There was also valuation mark-down by investors which led to laying off employees. 

But the latest rejig will open new doors of opportunities for the firm to grow. There are many other changes made to the organization. Nitin Seth, presently the Chief Administrative officer, will be the Chief Operating Officer for the company and will report to Krishnamurthy. In his new role, Seth will be responsible for the company’s logistics arm Ekart and customer experience in addition to his existing role of leading human resources, strategy to execution capabilities and corporate functions for Flipkart. Ananth Narayanan will continue as CEO of the company’s fashion unit Myntra-Jabong and Sameer Nigam will stay on as CEO of PhonePe, a Flipkart-owned payment app. Seth, along with engineering organisation head Ravi Garikapati and chief financial officer Sriram V, will now report to Krishnamurthy. Ekart CEO Saikiran Krishnamurthy will move to an undisclosed new role, where he will work directly with Binny Bansal.