Flipkart is running a competition to enable an employee to become the CEO for a day, an exercise to familiarise employees with the challenges at different levels of the organisation.
Interested candidates have to fill up a form explaining why they can be a good CEO. The acting-CEO-for-a-day will get to attend all the meetings the actual CEO, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, attends and also take decisions.
The company in an email to employees said: "As CEO you get to attend all the meetings Kalyan would, take decisions on his behalf, even send emails to the entire org! In other words, you get to be Kalyan for an entire day!"
The Bengaluru-based company that recently secured $1.4 billion in funding from Tencent, Microsoft and eBay for a valuation of $11.6 billion, is looking to drive several employee engagement initiatives as competition and the pressure to turn profitable intensifies. Flipkart has so far received 150 applications for the CEO initiative, which it hopes will act as a bridge between the top management team and the lower rung employees.
"The winner can shadow Kalyan and be part of all the meetings, hear things first-hand, see what kind of situations come. It's a lot of experiential learning," Pramodh Karumbaiah, senior HR director at Flipkart told TOI.
All the responses from the aspiring employees would be validated by a panel and given to the CEO, who will pick one person, Karumbaiah said.
"People wanted to know what the CEO does. How does he work, and prioritize things. It will help us connect with our employees on the ground and for them to see the other side of the table," Karumbaiah said.
Krishnamurthy said Flipkart has a talented pool of people leading high intensity teams who are helping the company disrupt and innovate. "Through the Big10 (10th anniversary celebration) initiatives, we intend to gain some fresh perspective and insights, as well as make it a fun, engaging initiative for our people,, he said.