With the online fashion space poised to grow to $2.8 billion by
2016, Myntra plans to double its leadership team by the end of this
fiscal to accelerate growth. On course to clock over Rs 2,000 crore in
gross merchandise value in FY15, Myntra sees a 100-member leadership
team across functions by April 2015 — almost twice the number in July
this year — all holding positions of associate vice-president and above.
Myntra plans to add about 1,000 professionals to its present 2,000-strong workforce by June 2015. The leadership team will be a mix of seasoned professionals hired from other companies and in-house employees groomed and elevated to the top ranks.
The top tier, expected to handle functional roles and execute business responsibilities, will be apportioned across verticals like private brands, technology, marketing and customer experience. Besides, significant numbers will be added to the tech team, including the mobile division. The technology team may also witness seasoned veterans from international shores, like the US, being hired.
“We are looking to strengthen the leadership layer for every function, be it technology, marketing or customer experience. Technology and marketing will be the two main areas and then comes our private brands. We will hire people with expertise in specific areas like sourcing, design etc,” Pooja Gupta, senior vice-president and head, Human Resources, Myntra, told FE.
Gupta said the e-tailer will undertake a slew of initiatives in the next six to eight months around leadership development and building managerial effectiveness, besides charting out development plans for individual leaders. “We want to ensure that our leaders manage our very aggressive growth in the next two years. We will invest very deeply in that,” Gupta added.
While most homegrown e-tailers like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal have been attracting professionals by the droves, both in the top ranks as well as freshers, industry experts are sceptical. “Filling in the top ranks with big names not only adds to the company’s competency, but also adds to its brand value, which, in turn, helps it rope in investments. Besides, most of such hires are done keeping in view future growth prospects. To my understanding, things will rationalise and such hires will come down eventually,” said Kamal Karanth, managing director at Kelly Services, India and Malaysia.
Myntra has on-boarded former McKinsey executives Abhishek Verma (senior vice-president and head of private brands), Rahul Chaudhury (vice-president, strategy) and Sidharth Gupta (vice-president, head of strategy and corporate development) in the last couple of months to capture the lion’s share of the market. Its parent, Flipkart, recently hired former Calvin Klein India CEO Rishi Vasudev as VP for fashion retail and former Tata Motors executive Parameswaran Balakrishnan as vice-president (HR) for supply chain.
Myntra’s Gupta, however, asserted that the senior leadership team is being curated to support its robust growth plans more than anything else.
“It’s important not to go overboard with it. When you hire people for leadership, they have a huge impact on the culture and people in the company. We want to make sure that when they come in, they don’t dilute the culture. We want to be very selective about how we approach it,”
she added.
Myntra plans to add about 1,000 professionals to its present 2,000-strong workforce by June 2015. The leadership team will be a mix of seasoned professionals hired from other companies and in-house employees groomed and elevated to the top ranks.
The top tier, expected to handle functional roles and execute business responsibilities, will be apportioned across verticals like private brands, technology, marketing and customer experience. Besides, significant numbers will be added to the tech team, including the mobile division. The technology team may also witness seasoned veterans from international shores, like the US, being hired.
“We are looking to strengthen the leadership layer for every function, be it technology, marketing or customer experience. Technology and marketing will be the two main areas and then comes our private brands. We will hire people with expertise in specific areas like sourcing, design etc,” Pooja Gupta, senior vice-president and head, Human Resources, Myntra, told FE.
Gupta said the e-tailer will undertake a slew of initiatives in the next six to eight months around leadership development and building managerial effectiveness, besides charting out development plans for individual leaders. “We want to ensure that our leaders manage our very aggressive growth in the next two years. We will invest very deeply in that,” Gupta added.
While most homegrown e-tailers like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal have been attracting professionals by the droves, both in the top ranks as well as freshers, industry experts are sceptical. “Filling in the top ranks with big names not only adds to the company’s competency, but also adds to its brand value, which, in turn, helps it rope in investments. Besides, most of such hires are done keeping in view future growth prospects. To my understanding, things will rationalise and such hires will come down eventually,” said Kamal Karanth, managing director at Kelly Services, India and Malaysia.
Myntra has on-boarded former McKinsey executives Abhishek Verma (senior vice-president and head of private brands), Rahul Chaudhury (vice-president, strategy) and Sidharth Gupta (vice-president, head of strategy and corporate development) in the last couple of months to capture the lion’s share of the market. Its parent, Flipkart, recently hired former Calvin Klein India CEO Rishi Vasudev as VP for fashion retail and former Tata Motors executive Parameswaran Balakrishnan as vice-president (HR) for supply chain.
Myntra’s Gupta, however, asserted that the senior leadership team is being curated to support its robust growth plans more than anything else.
“It’s important not to go overboard with it. When you hire people for leadership, they have a huge impact on the culture and people in the company. We want to make sure that when they come in, they don’t dilute the culture. We want to be very selective about how we approach it,”
she added.
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