Snapdeal Organizational Structure

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E-commerce is one of the most sought after business platform in India recently. Currently, the

penetration of e-commerce is low but the e-commerce user base is increasing day by day. This is mostly

due to fast rate of new entrants in the Industry. Thus there is a need to understand these organizations in

detail as they may shape the future of retail industry in India in near future. We have selected 4 big e-

commerce players Snapdeal, Flipkart, Amazon and e-bay to analyze organizational design and how they

are responding to increasingly complex and changing environment.

SNAPDEAL

Snapdeal.com is an e-commerce platform started by Mr Kunal Bahl (Wharton University

graduate) and Mr. Rohit Bansal (IIT Delhi Alumnus). …show more content…

The bureaucracy is not present here and collaborative environment

is supported. Horizontal co-ordination is achieved through task forces, cross functional teams and

pilot groups whenever a new product has to be launched. These teams and groups take strategic decisions

pertaining to evaluation and launch of the product.

The organizational culture at Snapdeal supports collaboration among employees, provides

freedom to employees, inculcates responsible behavior and recognizes and rewards innovative ideas. This

is evident from day one when a new employee joins and is assigned a buddy from the team and a mentor

from senior management (rite of passage). The company sponsors successful launch of products and all

teams celebrate thereby creating bonding between employees (rite of integration).

FLIPKART

Flipkart was founded by Mr. Sachin Bansal and Mr. Binny Bansal both alumni of IIT Delhi.

Flipkart, other than being traditional platform for e-commerce also boasts of good distribution reach.

Business …show more content…

However as the company grew its operations hiring for senior manager posts increased and the

structure became functional where each unit was headed by a senior member. Since there was less

competition when Flipkart started inefficiencies of the system were hidden. However, as competition

enhanced and new players with innovative ideas started capturing the market Flipkart found it difficult to

respond. Hence, Flipkart with its functional structure is experiencing many problems related to supply

chain inefficiencies, private finance, eroding market share etc. This is due to the delay in decision making.

It is also believed that innovation has ceased in Flipkart because the decision making power informally

rests with the founder group (source:“Can Flipkart deliver” , a cover story from ForbesIndia.com).

At the initial phases Flipkart was the major player in Indian e-commerce space owing to its

innovative capability of employees. However, traditional structure has curbed the innovativeness of the

organization. Culture within different functions is reported to be innovative and open but resignation of

some senior managers has posed serious questions on this portrayal of culture and structure of

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