Why Executive Search Firms Say Senior Executives Are Leaving Startups in India

The movement back from startups to large established companies has started. Several CXOs from ecommerce and startups are on their way back to large MNCs and established Indian conglomerates and there are several others who are on the lookout, according to six executive search firms specialising in senior-level startup searches.

Lack of innovation opportunities, culture misfit, roles becoming redundant are among the reasons that have prompted senior leaders from Flipkart, Jabong, Housing.com, Ola and others to move back to traditional established companies, the search executives said.

In November, Peshwa Acharya, Housing. com's chief of strategy, marketing and franchising, left the startup to join a large travel, holiday and hospitality conglomerate as chief marketing officer. Suvomoy Sarkar from Ola joined Sears Holdings Corporation as head of the India analytics centre last month while Manish Maheshwari joined as CEO of Network 18 digital this month from Flipkart where he was the head of seller business and eco-system. A few months ago, Vikas Ahuja joined The Oberoi Group from Myntra, where he was the chief marketing officer.

Among others who have left over the past two years are Aparna Ballakur, who joined PayU as vice president human resources from Flipkart, where she was chief people officer, and Deepak Menon, who joined Microsoft from Jabong, where he was a product advisor and mentor. Others include Vikram Dasu, chief executive officer at Avenue Ecommerce Ltd - Dmart, who moved in from HomeShop18.

"Most ecommerce companies like Flipkart, Snapdeal are top-heavy and looking at high cost individuals working with them trying to force exits," said Kris Lakshmikanth, chairman & managing director at The Head Hunters India. "There are 100 guys in our database who have come out of ecommerce companies at middle to senior level, who are looking for jobs," he added. Anshuman Das, managing partner at Longhouse Consulting, said about 30% of the senior executives at startups and ecommerce firms are currently contemplating moving back to larger companies.

"We get a lot of requests from executives wanting to move back owing to funding issues and uncertainty. People who are not able to adjust to a fastpaced state of change and would like to work on broad, long-term plans are better suited for MNCs," he added.

"There is a fair amount of such movements taking place. Lot of people in startups are feeling jittery and want to move back," said CK Guruprasad, partner for global technology & services practice at Heidrick & Struggles.

"Companies do not have so much money now to burn on people they hired in a frenzy at one time. Also some of them who have moved in from large MNCs and established companies are not able to adjust with the environment prompting many to look at moving to regular jobs," he added.

Indian startups are becoming aggregators of product and services, and lack of cutting-edge innovation is also leading to frustration among several senior-level executives. At a time when there are rising concerns around valuations, many feel going back to established companies is a much better option.