The attrition story at Myntra/Jabong is continuing with the not so unexpected announcement of the resignation of Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan coming through. It is being reported that Flipkart, under the new management after being taken over by Walmart, will abolish this post of CEO of Myntra.
As already reported in these columns, the larger plan is to merge the three fashion verticals, Flipkart Fashion, Myntra and Jabong into one unit with its head reporting to the Flipkart CEO. Already, there has been a round of staff reduction in different overlapping functions in Myntra and Jabong and the controlling office moved to Flipkart’s headquarters in Bengaluru. It is felt that more employees may be asked to leave in the coming days.
The CEO’s functions have been internally reassigned to Amar Nagaram. Besides Ananth Narayanan, the Chief Revenue Officer Mithun Sundar and Manpreet Ratia who was handling a host of functions including HR, Operations, Customer Experience and Supply Chain have also put in their papers, the report says. On the flip side, it is said that those at the senior and even other levels in Myntra who are to be retained are being offered retentions bonuses etc. These may number around 50 to 75. Only those at Senior VP level and above won’t be offered these packages. There have been lateral movement of personnel as well.
One question everyone appears to be asking is if Jabong, as a brand, will be allowed to continue, because it has not been as successful as Myntra. Officially though, Flipkart has all through maintained that it stands by the two fashion brands and has no plans of closing them down. But that needs to be viewed in the context of previous statements, including the one by the outgoing CEO that he doesn’t have any plans to leave the company and that Myntra will continue to operate as an independent entity. That at least has now been proved false since not only is he leaving but the very post of Myntra CEO is being abolished, clearly indicating that the fashion brands won’t enjoy the freedom they had earlier and parent Flipkart will call the shots.