Technology
The CEO Who Helped Deliver India’s Online Shoppers to Walmart
- Kalyan Krishnamurthy helped Flipkart fend off Amazon incursion
- CEO’s turnaround strategy included answering customer calls
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The outlook for Indian online retailer Flipkart was decidedly gloomy when Kalyan Krishnamurthy became chief executive officer in January 2017. The startup’s valuation was dropping, fundraising was more difficult and Amazon.com Inc. was pledging $5 billion-plus to siphon away customers.
So the 46-year-old former hedge-fund manager took some risks. He fired senior managers, set more-aggressive sales targets, boosted spending on promotions and promised to dominate India’s festival-season shopping.