According to reports from Business Standard, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, group CEO of Flipkart since 2018, emphasizes that maintaining startup culture is fundamental to the company's success. Speaking over lunch at The Oberoi, New Delhi, he stated that "I want Flipkart to continue to be like a startup. That's my personal objective as a CEO." He explained that this requires "a culture of ownership among employees, the organisation has to have agility and problem-solving characteristics," with rewards and initiatives designed in a startup manner where risk-taking is institutionalized. As reported by Business Standard, Krishnamurthy elaborated on the importance of retaining startup DNA while driving growth, stating that "The company has to get bigger and bigger and bigger, but we have to be a startup, a big startup and an even bigger startup."
As reported by Business Standard, Krishnamurthy divides his time strategically across three key areas. He allocates one-third of his time to ensuring good talent and leadership strength, another third to reviewing top strategic priorities, and the remaining time to stakeholder management. Regarding quick commerce, he clarified that "quick commerce is a subset of the middle bucket of strategic initiatives and projects. We are not a quick commerce company." He emphasized the company's focus on "commerce for the country" across India's diverse consumer base, stating that "India has a very big base of consumers and it's by far the most distributed set of consumers across geographies, across demographics."
According to Business Standard, Flipkart reported a net loss of ₹5,189 crore in 2024-25, though Krishnamurthy declined to discuss specific profitability targets. He stated that "There is a fairly formal process on this. There's a strategy for the company, then there's a resourcing plan for the strategy, which we agree on with our board and investors." When asked about the IPO timeline, he noted that "The decision on something like an IPO is not my decision. It's a decision which will be led by the majority of investors and obviously will get discussed at the board." Recent reports suggest that Walmart may have decided to prioritise profitability over an immediate IPO, with the company having recently completed the reverse flip of shifting its corporate headquarters domicile back to India from Singapore, thus paving the way for a domestic stock market listing.
As reported by Business Standard, Krishnamurthy identified AI as a key competitive advantage, stating that "Whoever is able to use AI and technology to take products to customers before others will win. And I actually hope and wish that Flipkart is able to do it better than others." He described this as "the North Star for technology and for AI in general." He emphasized that "There are infinite opportunities on AI use cases, but what I care about the most is this." In recent discussions, Krishnamurthy reiterated his focus on AI, stating that "Whoever is able to use AI and technology to take products to customers before others will win. And I actually hope and wish that Flipkart is able to do it better than others."
According to Business Standard, Krishnamurthy dismissed the notion of specific competitors, stating "My job is to make sure I have the best value proposition and over time we will win because of that." He explained his approach: "As long as customers are growing and the frequency with which they buy on Flipkart improves, I do believe across the board, competition will get covered." He emphasized that "We are truly a national business. It's an Indian business to the last level, to each and every level." When asked about the complex regulatory landscape in ecommerce, he stated that "Regulators, I think, have a primary role to protect the country, to protect the customers of the country, and their primary stakeholders—the masses of the country. They have to do their job, and our job is to comply."
