Every morning, Kalyan Krishnamurthy makes six phone calls.

One by one, the Flipkart CEO checks in with each of his key generals. Hemant Badri in supply chain. Sakait Chaudhary in finance. Kunal Gupta in fashion. Kabeer Biswas in quick commerce. Ajay Yadav in mobiles. Ravi Krishnan in product. It’s not chit-chat; it’s a numbers dump. If something’s off, he wants to know why. And fast.

Take the recent slump in travel bookings on Cleartrip—whose boss, Anuj Rathi, exited in April. Blame it on the India-Pakistan conflict, said his team. Krishnamurthy didn’t completely buy it; he picked up the phone and called three competitors to confirm the trend himself.

This is the Flipkart boss in wartime mode—obsessive, omnipresent, and always a little sceptical. “His wife asks if he’s married to her or to his business heads,” joked one executive.

But there’s a thing about wartime CEOs: they need an army. And Krishnamurthy is running outMoneycontrolWalmart-owned Flipkart sees a string of SVP, VP exits in top deck churn of commanders.

Earlier in May, Ankit Jain, the head of grocery and large supply chain, quit to join Swiggy Instamart. A raft of vice-presidents followed him out the door—HR, analytics, product, travel. This was the third major leadership shakeup in six months. 

The timing couldn’t be worse for the company that’s been on an eternal journey to profitability. The latest available numbers—Flipkart’s FY2024 financials—show revenue up 26% but losses also growing by 13% to Rs 4,200 crore. All of this while its parent is having a banner year. 

Walmart, once seen as a lumbering big-box relic, is now out-AmazoningThe EconomistHow Walmart became a tech giant—and took over the world Amazon. Its market cap has surged 50%, its valuation multiple now higher than Apple’s. Its e-commerce engine is humming, ad revenue is climbing, and even its US stores have been rebooted as distribution powerhouses. 

The contrast is brutal.

Meanwhile, Krishnamurthy keeps deploying his trusted lieutenants across troubled business lines. Smrithi Ravichandran, or the team’s “sharpshooter”, has ping-ponged from fintech to grocery to now mobiles and travel.