Kalyan Krishnamurthy: The man behind Flipkart-Walmart deal

The historic Flipkart-Walmart deal for a whopping $16 billion is the talk of biz town. Here's a look at the man, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who made it a reality

A humble start
Kalyan Krishnamurthy, 46, holds an MBA degree from the Asian Institute of Management, the Philippines, and an MBA in Finance from UIUC College of Business, Illinois (US).

Life before Flipkart
Krishnamurthy had stints in many organisations before joining Flipkart in 2016.
He started his professional career as the head of Procter and Gamble's finance supply chain vertical, before moving to eBay as the Asia finance operations division head.
After spending seven years at P&G, he joined Tiger Global, one of the investors in Flipkart, as director of finance for its portfolio companies in 2011. He had also served as a Director of Sunshine Teahouse Pvt. Ltd.

First innings at Flipkart
He served as the Interim Chief Financial Officer at Flipkart Online Services from May 2013 to November 5, 2014. He was soon elevated as the sales head. He won over most Flipkart employees with his straightforward personality and deep knowledge of e-commerce.

Second stint & Big Billion Days
He returned to Flipkart in June 2016 as the de-facto sales head and took some drastic steps to revive the company's fortunes. He started the ball rolling with the removal of at least four senior executives, delivering a key message to all Flipkart employees -- if you don't deliver, you will be cast away without a second thought.

His first big assignment during his second stint at Flipkart was to ramp up the annual Big Billion Days sale -- the flagship event clocked better numbers for Flipkart in 2016, compared to that of arch-rival Amazon. 

The turnaround
2017 was a defining year that changed Flipkart's fortunes. The homegrown e-commerce major was facing headwinds with a steady decline in valuation and dry fundraising phase.
Soon after Krishnamurthy was elevated as the CEO, he introduced the "80-20 rule", focussing on 20 per cent of categories, which raked in 80 per cent of the company's revenue.
Under Krishnamurthy, Flipkart forayed into the grocery business, while trying to get a foothold in the non-banking financial sector with fin-tech platform.
The deal between Walmart and Flipkart shows that Krishnamurthy's turnaround strategy worked wonders for the company, attracting the biggest inbound acquisition in India ever.

People's man
Krishnamurthy, known to be a taskmaster, prefers to be hands-on and easily accessible. He is also credited with the exclusive tie-ups with smartphone brands, which brought in the big bucks through Flipkart-only sales.
His involvement in the company's day-to-day operations reflect in his decision to spend time with customers in Mumbai's Dharavi, personally attending customer-service calls and reaching out to rural households with doorstep services

Road ahead
According to reports, Walmart has offered Krishnamurthy a 'golden umbrella' - a retention bonus of about $2 million if he stays with the company for three years.
Krishnamurthy is expected to continue as Flipkart's CEO even after the Walmart acquisition. Taking a lead in bringing all the sellers together through an email address, Krishnamurthy said: "Flipkart will continue to be a marketplace where sellers from around the country can connect with customers... Flipkart and Walmart will maintain distinct brands and operating structures post this investment."
If Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal was the strategist and technically-sound visionary, who built a multi-billion dollar empire from scratch in just over a decade, Krishnamurthy perhaps is the next best thing that could have happened to India's startup ecosystem, and the e-commerce movement in the country.