There were other sweeping changes. About half a dozen Flipkart leaders who had worked closely with Binny, were moved to meaningless positions. It was Kalyan’s show now, and he had no use for them.
Before Flipkart had gone public with the news, Binny had informed his team in private. They were stunned. They were established corporate bosses who had held senior roles at companies far bigger than Flipkart. They had come to Flipkart, attracted by hefty compensation packages and to fulfil their dream of taking part in building India’s biggest internet company. But even before they could truly get a grasp of its workings, they were devoured by the vortex of its politics.
‘I’m sorry, but this is how it has to be,’ Binny told one of them.16 Within weeks, as many as five of Flipkart’s seniormost leaders would leave.
The only major player at Flipkart who came out unscathed was Nitin Seth. He had been promoted to Chief Operating Officer. He would now supervise Flipkart’s massive logistics business, apart from fulfilling his present charges of HR, strategy and other divisions. Though Nitin and Kalyan had struck a close friendship, Kalyan’s campaign for the CEO title had taken even Nitin by surprise. When Kalyan had re-joined the company, he was nominally at a lower level than Nitin. Nitin had played a crucial role not just in Kalyan’s return but also in his promotion a few months later. After realizing that it was futile to coax the Bansals and Kalyan to work together, Nitin had felt compelled to take sides in order to get things done.
He had chosen Kalyan, convinced that the Tiger Global representative would be the ideal sales head for Flipkart. Nitin had no idea that Kalyan would make a claim for the CEO post just a few months later. He had hoped that if Binny made way for anyone over time, the Flipkart co-founder would choose him. Instead, five months after helping secure Kalyan’s position at the company, Nitin found himself reporting to Kalyan. Nitin was a veteran of corporate politics, but even he had been blindsided by this twist in a coup he had helped carry out. In the process, he had alienated the Bansals who believed that Nitin had betrayed their trust. Some of the other senior managers at Flipkart also disliked Nitin, certain that he was greedy for power and had trodden over several capable leaders to get his way. As a COO, Nitin found himself in a strange place.
If he didn’t know it already, he would soon realize that titles held little meaning at Flipkart.
AMID THIS EVIDENT volatility, it would have surprised no one if Flipkart’s business began to suffer. Somehow, this wasn’t the case. The company hadn’t been run this efficiently in a long time. Costs were being brought under control, customer service was improving, Flipkart was continuously introducing smart business innovations such as a no-cost EMI scheme and a phone exchange programme, and most importantly, its sales were growing every month.
Flipkart had even kept Amazon subdued. After winning the crucial festival season sale battle, Flipkart continued to pull in higher sales than Amazon over the next few months. Kalyan’s ruthless quest for power had been carried out over months, but it hadn’t distracted him from the task of rejuvenating Flipkart. As CEO, his grip on the business had strengthened. With no one standing in his way, he made swiftdecisions.
Apart from Nitin Seth, Kalyan did away with most of Flipkart’s senior leaders, and instead worked directly with executives in the mid-management layer. Rather than hire experienced executives – as the Bansals had done – Kalyan preferred to groom junior managers whom he could mould as per his vision. He directly took charge of day-to-day affairs as opposed to CEOs who mostly concern themselves with strategy and high-level matters. He had dozens of people reporting directly and indirectly to him, far more than Binny or Sachin had when they were the chiefs. Most of the important sales roles were filled by his capable underlings, who were untiring in their efforts to implement his will. In a matter of months, he had shaped the entire company in his image. This was an unorthodox approach but one that was working well for the moment, as the improving sales numbers showed.
It was an opportune time for Flipkart to hit the market for capital. Though it had more than $1 billion in the bank, its coffers had to be replenished.17 New categories such as groceries were planned, existing categories like furniture would have to be relaunched, new infrastructure built, all of which would require lots of money. Besides, it had been nearly two years since Flipkart had last raised funds. A fresh dose of capital would remove any doubt about its decline, reassure all stakeholders, send a forceful message of counter-intimidation to Amazon. And it would allow the Flipkart team breathing room to run the business without apprehension.
Flipkart began to approach new investors in January 2017. Even after the valuation markdowns, the e-commerce slowdown, the harrowing experience of nearly being steamrolled by Amazon, and all the negative headlines, Flipkart executives still harboured some hope of raising funds at their preferred valuation of $15 billion. It didn’t take long for the illusion to be shattered. After meeting more than half a dozen investors, they found that no one was interested in doing a deal at that price. The company would have to acquiesce to a down round.18 A down round is seen as a humiliation by any fast-growing startup, and it was the same at Flipkart. But no one at the company pondered over this for long. Flipkart’s priority right now was survival, and endurance.
While Flipkart’s standing had diminished, it was still, by far, India’s most outstanding internet startup. To investors, the company pitched itself as a nimble startup that had held off the formidable Amazon. It also dangled the untapped
