Even before being appointed to lead the largest e-commerce company in India, Kalyan Krishnamurthy had signaled a change: as head of sales at Flipkart focused on profitable items of "big bills", a shift away from fixing the Industry at all costs.
That helped change the group's income after a series of valuation valuations, and secured the best work for Flipkart's senior investor Tiger Global in a management shakeup this week.
Krishnamurthy was named CEO on Monday, while outgoing co-founder and CEO Binny Bansal moved into the new role of group leader.
He said investors, led by Tiger, were getting more and more nervous as losses not only affected early investors who bought higher valuations but made it more difficult for Flipkart to leverage the market and raise fresh capital .
The company is preparing for an initial public offering, probably in 2018 or 2019.
Flipkart and Tiger Global declined to comment on the restructuring and its implications.
Flipkart has seen its edge in the online marketplace in India eaten by the global giant of Amazon.
However, some company sources credited Krishnamurthy, who joined Flipkart in June to head some of his sales efforts, with Amazon overtaking during the festive push for sales starting in October.
No official data for the period are available, but several analysts and company sources said that Flipkart recorded a higher Gross Goods Value (GMV).
A source close to the company said that GMV's Flipkart for the October peak month was over 50 billion rupees (£ 599.02 million).
Flipkart and Amazon declined to reveal their sales data.
Company sources said Krishnamurthy did this by offering discounts and other incentives on more expensive items such as televisions, phones and appliances, helping to achieve better margins than rivals that paid the most attention to volume.
"It focused on discounts in high demand categories such as mobiles (phones), TV and large items - washing machines, air conditioners," an employee said.
If Flipkart can overcome Amazon in the long term remains to be seen.
Deep pockets are key to gaining market share through aggressive rebate, and the US giant has announced a $ 5 billion investment plan in India.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in a September 2016 report, said it expects GMV's market share in Flipkart to remain largely unchanged at 44 percent by 2019. By comparison, the broker expects the Amazon grows to 37 percent from 28 percent estimated for 2016.
FALL ASSESSMENT
A senior Flipkart executive, who like other company sources declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the restructuring of management this week was on the cards since the day Krishnamurthy Joined Flipkart.
The source close to Flipkart added that Tiger Global, the US hedge fund that owns about a third of the company, wanted to be more involved in Flipkart's operations.
Launched by two former Amazon employees in 2007, Flipkart has grown to become India's most valued $ 15 billion startup in 2015.
But its valuation has shrunk to less than $ 10 billion by the end of 2016 in the midst of intensifying competition and needs fresh funds to stay ahead of Amazon in the battle for supremacy in the Internet service market over Rapid growth of the world.
The talks were conducted with US retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which seeks to invest between $ 750 million and $ 1 billion in Flipkart, Reuters reported in October.
Biny Bansal told Reuters in October that the company had cash reserves to last up to three years, but the source close to the firm said Flipkart was about two years before its war chest had dried up.
The company raised just over $ 1 billion over the past two years, but needs to raise more funds in the next six to eight months, according to the same source.
"Tiger, along with other investors, wants to stabilize the ship and make it IPO ready as soon as possible," said the source familiar with investors' discussions.
Binny Bansal also mentioned the "IPO provision" as one of his key objectives as CEO of the group in an internal memo announcing the reorganization.
The restructuring of Flipkart takes control of daily operations to Binny Bansal, who replaced Sachin Bansal a year ago as CEO.
As CEO of the group, Binny will oversee the allocation of capital between the units, while Sachin will be responsible for the strategic direction of the existing business, Flipkart said in a statement.
"Investors are happy with the way the founders have moved away and given control to professionals, as it is very rare in India," one source said.
One day after Krishnamurthy took over, three senior executives, including Flipkart's chief logistics unit and its marketing director, left the company, according to local media. A spokesman for the company declined to comment.
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