Flipkart shuffles roles among top executives

Flipkart typically rejigs its VP-level roles once every 2-3 years as the exercise allows the top executives to lead and experience different businesses and verticals in the company.

Walmart-owned Flipkart has internally shuffled some of its top-level executives, Moneycontrol has learnt. Smrithi Ravichandran, who was earlier the vice president (VP), and head of Grocery, has now been moved to head Mobiles, a key category for the group.

Ravichandran, who has spent nearly 12 years at the company, was leading the Grocery vertical for the last two-and-a-half years. She was also previously the head of Payments, Consumer, and Commercial Lending and Insurtech at Flipkart.

Grocery has emerged as an important unit for Flipkart, especially as newer players like Y Combinator-backed Zepto, Reliance and Google-funded Dunzo, SoftBank-backed Swiggy, and Zomato’s Blinkit all are strengthening their quick-commerce divisions in their attempts to grab a larger piece of the e-grocery market.

The Kalyan Krishnamurthy-led etailer has, however, maintained that it will not give in to the hype around 10-minute grocery deliveries as the format is not sustainable and will instead take longer to deliver orders. Flipkart is also growing its Grocery business with a focus on localised brands.

Internal replacement

“Building the hotly contested and exciting business of e-grocery at Flipkart…Grown the business by 4X in 20 months,” Ravichandran said on her LinkedIn profile.

Her role, as VP and head of Grocery, will be internally filled by Hari Kumar G – another Flipkart veteran who has spent nearly 11 years at the company and was most recently the VP and head of Large Appliances, Electronics, and Private Brands at Flipkart – people in the know told Moneycontrol.

Kumar was promoted to the VP level from Senior Director around August 2020 and has been in charge of large appliances since then. Large appliances include TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, and the like. Kumar’s earlier position will now be assigned to Jagjeet Harode, who was promoted to a VP role only in February this year.

That essentially means that Harode will now juggle a dual role as VP and Business Cluster Head of Electronics, Appliances, and Private Brands, along with leading operations for Large Appliances, Kumar’s previous role.

A Flipkart spokesperson confirmed the developments to Moneycontrol. Flipkart typically rejigs its VP-level roles once every 2-3 years as the exercise allows top executives to lead and experience different businesses and verticals in the company, a person in the know said.

This is the second such reshuffle at the Walmart-owned company this year. In February, Flipkart promoted Rakesh Krishnan, who has spent a decade at the company, from Senior Director and Head of Electronics Business Unit to VP and Business Head of Marketplace.

Similarly, Ravi Krishnan was promoted to head Flipkart Labs in February 2023. He was previously VP and Business Unit Head, Appliances and TVs.

At Flipkart, VPs report to Senior Vice Presidents (SVPs).

Exits

Last month, Moneycontrol reported that Adarsh Menon, who serves as the SVP and Head of New Businesses, including Shopsy, Cleartrip, and ReCommerce, is said to be leaving the company. Along with Menon, Chanakya Gupta, the VP of Strategic Partnerships and D2C Brand Accelerator (Flipkart Boost) will also be exiting Flipkart.