Further strengthening its core team in India(and SE Asia), Chinese behemoth Alibaba has hired former McKinsey and Delloite executive Madhur Deep as the Senior Vice President. He will be responsible for heading the strategy and investment teams to build out market entry, investments and partnerships for both B2B and consumer-facing e-commerce businesses in India.
Much like every other recent hire, he will also be reporting to K Guru Gowrappan, the Global MD at the Alibaba Group, who is currently heading the India expansion and keeping a close check on things. This move comes at a time when Alibaba is planning to ramp up the capabilities of its B2B platform in India by partnering up with major logistic solution providers. It is also looking to strengthen its reseller platform by providing startups and SMEs with financial aid.
Prior to Madhur Deep, the Chinese giant has already roped in former chief business officer of LocalOye, Bharati Balakrishnan alongwith Priya Cherian, former director of human resources of rival e-commerce giant Flipkart. Other senior executives who’re agressively working to expand operations in the country include, senior director Kshitij Karundia and director Soumitra Sharma.
Before joining Alibaba Group, he has worked with some renowned MNCs including the likes of McKinsey, Delloite, Goldman Sachs, and ITC. He has spent a good five years at McKinsey as a Senior Engagement Manager — advising and helping other chief executives in technology, digital, media and IT industry to achieving their strategic and operational aspirations — before making the switch.
Madhur Deep is an excellent choice for the e-commerce company — in terms of a strategist and consultant, who’ll help them better understand the mindset of the Indian masses and deploy schemes accordingly. India is much different from China in terms of market conditions and Alibaba needs to catch up with Flipkart and Amazon for them to be even considered by the masses as an alternative.
Alibaba already has an indirect presence in India through its investments in Indian e-commerce companies Paytm and Snapdeal. It holds a majority stake of about 40% in Paytm, who has recently also spin-off and setup a seperate e-commerce arm. The company has its eyes on expansion in whole Asia region and recently invested a huge sum of $1 billion in Lazada which is one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia.
