Maximising Food Safety at Flipkart!

They say Culture Breeds People!

A culture of entrepreneurship, risk-taking, and inclusivity is a perfect concoction for the people within an organization to be much more and achieve much more. And yet, what is culture, if not the byproduct of the people within it? People and culture are mutually inclusive and are the reason that organizations can stand the test of time. At Flipkart, we’re proud of the culture of inclusion and innovation we’ve built around us, which is a direct result of the kind of talent that we have brought into our environment over the years. Flipsters are maximisers through and through, with inherent audacity to work on big solutions, have a deep bias towards action and customer-centricity.

Enter, Gopika Pandy M, Senior Manager, Food Safety at Flipkart.

Gopika’s tale is that of maximising beyond the known, and of learning, and continuing to grow no matter what. Gopika and her journey are the epitome of lots of firsts. Starting her Flipkart journey as a Manager back in December 2019, Gopika joined us in a new role overseeing food safety compliance at the Chennai branch for groceries. Gopika quickly picked up the process of storage and distribution, and ensured that nothing was ever in disarray. Not only that, she was also the first woman in this team.

Experiences - the new, the old and the ones implemented country-fold.

Gopika came to Flipkart with a decade-long rich experience that had taught her functional skills and stakeholder management in food safety. However, in just the third month of her stint, the global pandemic hit us all badly, and suddenly, work-from-home became the mandate. Managing things virtually was now a whole different ball game altogether! The number of food orders doubled and so did the efforts of delivering safe food to customers. However, Gopika’s support to ensure the overall levels of safety was nothing short of spectacular! She stepped up and quickly adapted to the changing work model by taking up courses, partially or fully funded by Flipkart to digitize the processes and optimize the compliance function. She learnt about data monitoring, tracking, reporting, and made training aids to standardize the process. For the first time, she had to write content for the training aids and execute them so the team could clearly follow the procedure and seek virtual assistance as and when required.

It was a new challenge and the opportunity to make a larger impact than she had ever before. Due to her efforts, her training system became a hit, with Flipkart suggesting it widen these teachings and standardize them across the country. Addressing one of her biggest pivotal moments at Flipkart, she said:

“My past experience aided me to tackle the challenges head on, and my manager’s guidance and faith in my work helped me perform at my best. It makes me want to try to do better each day. Even at an organizational level, Flipkart gives me the complete freedom to make decisions and stand by me when I try something new. It keeps me going, it keeps my drive alive.”

Leaving a Mark

At Flipkart, each person is a maximiser, holding the ability to create a difference and drive large-scale impact on the organization and India’s ecosystem at large. We are audacious big thinkers, motivated by our passion and purpose for solving problems at scale and serving India’s billions. Gopika and her team have been instrumental in ensuring relentless service through our grocery branches across India in challenging times. How, and more importantly WHY does she continue to maximise this way?

“At Flipkart, I learn new things every day. It might be surprising, but in the past 3+ years, I’ve never once said that I don’t want to work on something. Working here has improved my professional and personal life. Being able to freely interact with the stakeholders and my leaders has given me the confidence to take up new projects and contribute more significantly. At Flipkart, every day is a new day, and every day is better than the last.”

Since entering the fray at Flipkart, Gopika and her team have designed manuals, built SOPs and checklists to meet the standardized food safety measures, and even went above and beyond expectations to write content and scripts that serve as a guide to all on-ground staff across all of Flipkart’s grocery fulfilment centers. The digitalization even included a QR-coded setup where the employees could scan the code to open the relevant documents that needed to be filled in.

The team, led by Gopika, also took the onus of aiming towards getting Flipkart internationally recognized in the area of Food Safety. This required the team to update their practices and follow global standards. Gopika led the efforts to roll out new processes that needed to be followed and ensured that the staff understood the changes in the food controls. The team worked together vehemently for over a year, and successfully gained the Global Food Safety Initiatives (GFSI)-recognized Food Safety System Certification (FSSC), making Flipkart the first Indian e-commerce company to be recognized and certified globally for its Food Safety Compliance standards. Talk about Leaving a Mark, on the big stage!

One thing remains certain - Gopika and many in her team continue to remain restless; restless to achieve more and contribute more towards providing an elevated experience to India’s billions. And it’s this pursuit of refinement that separates Flipsters, and their aspirations to keep experimenting, learning and growing to fuel India’s ecosystem.