The exit of co-founder and CEO of Flipkart, Binny Bansal, is the latest in a long list of senior corporate and media personalities forced out on sexual misdemeanour charges. The broad contours of the probe, ordered by Walmart, the new owner of Flipkart, reveal that Bansal was in a consensual relationship with a former employee. But things fell apart sometime in mid-June. Besides issues of sexual misconduct, which Bansal denies, there is admission of having handled ‘things badly’. Walmart also seems to be upset about having been kept in the dark about l’affaire Binny Bansal when it took over management in August.
Bansal’s stepping down raises more questions than answers, as these cases do since the time of Phaneesh Murthy’s exit from Infosys in 2002. Should penalties be levied when a consensual relationship goes sour? Are internal committees equipped to probe the thin line between ‘consensus’ and forced consent? As workplaces are roiled—from Google in the US to the government in India—on charges against men sexually exploiting women subordinates, we can see the legal system has few answers. Companies are struggling to put norms in place, but are facing speed bumps as in many cases it is the men at the top, setting the norms, who are accused of preying on their fellow employees.
In this case, it seems the timing of the disclosure by Walmart took Bansal by surprise. Was a real case of inappropriate sexual behaviour leveraged to settle unrelated issues? If it was, it is again not the first. A very recent disclosure by a hotel executive seemed to point at a very large corporate using charges against a CEO-level person to settle internal battles.
Further, when ownership changes, the management should also change to reflect the new philosophy. In this case Walmart, a company based on thrift, bought an e-tailing platform based on a cash-burn revenue model. By retaining the old guard, it ran the risk of embarrassing accidents as we just saw. It can be avoided.