Leadership at Ola to get affected as it adopts a holding co. structure
To boost company’s valuation and to improve the management of its businesses, Ola (ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd) is adopting a holding company structure similar to that of Flipkart. The holding company will own different units, including its core cab business, food delivery app Foodpanda and the nascent businesses of electric vehicles and the international unit. And the separate businesses will have their own independent heads, thus revamping the entire management structure.
Reports suggest that Senior Vice-Presidents Saikiran Krishnamurthy and Pallav Singh are expected to get bigger roles under the new structure.
“Ola Chief Executive Bhavish Aggarwal wants to create a similar structure to that of Flipkart,” shared four people close to the matter. “It’s becoming difficult for Bhavish to devote attention to all the different businesses. The group structure is an efficient way to increase management bandwidth,” said one of the four people.
It was the group company structure that allowed Flipkart to improve its overall valuation and gave enough management focus to each business.
In April 2017, Ola’s holding company ANI Technologies created a subsidiary, Ola Electric Mobility Pvt Limited to enter the electric car segment. And in March Ola hired former BMW executive Anand Shah to head the electric vehicle business.
In December 2017, Cab Aggregator Ola also entered the food delivery business by acquiring 100 percent stake in Foodpanda India for $31.7 Mn. Post the acquisition Saurabh Kochhar, former CEO of Foodpanda India, exited the company, and Pranay Jivrajka, Founding Partner at Ola took over as the food delivery company’s CEO.
Since it's inception in 2010, Ola has expanded into a $3 Bn company with various businesses under its umbrella. From its core cab business to food delivery app Foodpanda, to its recent business of electric vehicles, the Bengaluru based company has its fingers in many pies. The group structure and having independent heads for its different businesses will help in increasing the management bandwidth and allow it to unlock more value.
