Flipkart COO quits; Kalyan Krishnamurthy takes responsibilities of Ekart

The churning at the top level at Flipkart is continuing. Now, Flipkart's chief operating officer Nitin Seth is in the news, and is said to have put in his papers for personal reasons, according to an ET report.

Seth was in charge of the logistics unit Ekart besides corporate functions like strategy and human resources (HR) till recently.

His exit will put the former Tiger Global Management executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy in charge of all key functions of the organisation.

"The Ekart and corporate functions that Seth was in charge of will now go to Kalyan," said the press report.

Seth was made COO of the company in January this year, when Krishnamaurthy took over as Flipkart CEO from co-founder Binny Bansal. Seth had joined in February 2016 as chief people officer and saw his responsibilities quickly grow even as Flipkart went through multiple management restructurings.

He was first elevated to chief administrative officer in the middle of 2016, putting him in charge of strategy and corporate function.

As COO, Seth's additional responsibilities included heading Ekart and customer experience, besides the existing responsibilities. Before joining Flipkart, Seth worked as the MD of Fidelity International where he was responsible for offshore operations across India and Tunisia.

Before Fidelity, he led McKinsey's global knowledge centre in India for eight years. Seth was reporting to Krishnamurthy.

Flipkart is also separately looking to hire an HR head, but it is not clear if it will hire a new head for Ekart.

The new development, Seth's exit, comes at a time when the Bengaluru-based company is in talks to acquire rival Snapdeal, where it will need to redistribute the over 1,000 employees at the company. Flipkart is also in the process of integrating acquisition of eBay India, making HR a key function for the organisation right now.

Photo Credit: Reuters