Seema Nair, CHRO at Flipkart. Photograph by Nishant Ratnakar

‘External candidates bring diversity’

Key tenets of leadership at FlipkartDomain knowledge and inspiration and cultural role modelling are extremely important, especially at higher levels. The culture tenets of leadership at Flipkart focus on audacity, bias for action and founder-owner mentality. We evaluate potential leaders using globally validated psychometric instruments that help us understand whether the candidate is a good fit for the organisation and vice-versa.

Internal elevation versus external appointmentsData tells us that both internal and external candidates are excellent choices. While the former has the advantage of familiarity with the organisation’s culture, the latter brings diversity. We have a strong new leader assimilation programme in place at induction level and when the leader completes a quarter. More than a third of our leaders have rotated roles within the organisation over the last few years.

On preparing for an IPOAn IPO is a significant milestone, but it is just that on a longer journey. There is work to be done from a readiness standpoint to continue to strengthen the governance and reporting framework, making sure that we know we are enabling leadership capabilities to manage investor and board relations, and so on.

Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, at Flipkart Group. Photograph by Nishant Ratnakar for Forbes India

‘We do sandbox for innovation’

Balancing innovation with complianceThe Flipkart I joined from Walmart was a startup focussed on attacking the problem statement first and then looking at what solutions can be executed and what can’t be done. Today we do sandbox for innovation, and the leadership meets periodically to check if we are sacrificing speed for governance and how can we do away with different hoops or layers to fast-track innovation.

Inclusive complianceAs a marketplace, we work with MSMEs and small sellers, and some compliances are a cost to these smaller players. For example, when we decide to do away with plastic packaging, the cost of logistics for the smaller players goes up. Some of the compliances will happen over time, while we, as a marketplace, can encourage brands working with circularity.

On IPOOne of the benefits of having Walmart as a partner is that we’ve become a publicly listed grade entity when it comes to governance. For example, there are certain disclosure norms which are local in nature and needed for them to operate in India, and we comply with those. But again, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Hemant Badri, VP & Head of Supply Chain, Customer Experience at Flipkart Group. Photograph by Nishant Ratnakar for Forbes India

‘A customer’s first need is convenience’

On Quick CommerceQuick commerce fulfils core customer needs: Convenience and quality. A customer’s first need is convenience—can I get it delivered quickly, anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes. The second is quality—is it authentic, is it the best and is it safe for my family? Minutes helps us fulfil every daily need with trust, superior quality and convenience. We already have 300 to 500 million annual active users, and we were not supplying them vegetables, dairy, bread, eggs.

On minutes’ differentiatorFirst, think of it as a go-to market channel, not a separate model. Second, start with the customer. Third, solve the right need state. For us, it is daily essentials and vegetables—our average basket has six to seven units of which four to four-and-a-half are fresh. Another differentiation is that we are Flipkart—we can give you a mobile, electronics, home décor, toys, all in 15 to 20 minutes. Around 80 percent of mobile electronics selection in your locality moves through Minutes. It’s a strong execution game—extremely relentless. And we make sure that all our experience from other businesses—running warehouses, line haul, last mile—is embedded to make this far better. Technology helps make us predictable and efficient.

On supply chainWe get produce from farm to shelf within 12 to 24 hours, and from there another six to eight hours to the fork. Everything moves through a cold chain and is handled in a controlled environment. Our supply chain ability, existing facilities and large seller base help us stay competitive because we also fulfil through the core Flipkart channel.........

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