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Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal started their ecommerce company Flipkart in a Bangalore bedroom in 2007. Friends since their student days at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, the two — un-related despite sharing a surname — were bored with their jobs providing back-end IT services for Amazon in its home market. Restless, they decided to start their own business catering to India’s domestic consumers.
2007年，萨钦•班萨尔(Sachin Bansal)与宾尼•班萨尔(Binny Bansal)在班加罗尔的一间卧室创建了自己的电子商务公司Flipkart。同姓但无亲缘关系的两人在著名的印度理工学院(IIT)德里校区上学时就是好友，他们对自己为亚马逊(Amazon)在其本土市场提供后台IT服务的工作感到厌倦，于是决定创建自己的公司，迎合印度国内消费者的需求。
Since then, Flipkart has grown from a tiny online bookstore into India’s biggest online shopping platform. Still based in the tech hub of Bangalore, and considered by customers as the “Amazon of India”, it ships about 8m packages a month, containing anything from apparel to electronics and home appliances, to cities and towns across India.
自创建以来，Flipkart已经从一家小型网上书店成长为印度最大的网络购物平台。总部依旧设在科技中心班加罗尔的Flipkart，被消费者视为“印度的亚马逊”，每月向印度全国的大小城镇寄出约800万个包裹，从服装、电子产品到家用电器，各种商品无所不包。
Now it is going head-to-head against the company its founders once emulated — and a clutch of other rivals — as all vie for supremacy in India, the world’s biggest untapped ecommerce market.
如今，Flipkart正在与其创始人曾经模仿的公司（以及大批其他同行）进行激烈竞争，各家电商竞相要在印度这个世界最大的尚未充分挖掘的电商市场确立领先优势。
In January, the co-founders un-veiled a management reshuffle — with Binny taking over as chief executive from Sachin, whose new role is executive chairman — in order to manage better the many tasks at hand.
今年1月，为了更好地管理当下的诸多工作，两位联合创始人进行了一次管理层重组——由宾尼接替萨钦担任首席执行官，而萨钦出任执行董事长。
In a hotel conference room on a recent visit to New Delhi, 34-year-old Sachin, in a fleece pullover, jeans and sports shoes, insists he is not losing sleep over the competition or the fact that Flipkart has yet to turn a profit.
34岁的萨钦在最近一次出差新德里期间坚称，他并未因竞争或是Flipkart至今还未盈利而失眠。在酒店的会议室，他身穿羊毛套衫、牛仔裤，脚上搭配一双运动鞋。
“Eight years ago, we absolutely had no chance of even thinking about competing with anyone of any size,” he says. “In terms of market share, funding and the brand we have been able to build up in a very short amount of time — all that gives us confidence that we are sitting on a very good base to build on.”
“8年前，我们想都想不到自己可以与任何规模的对手竞争，”他说，“就市场份额、资金以及我们在非常短的时间内打造起来的品牌而言——所有这些都让我们相信，我们的公司建立在一个非常好的基础上。”
Powered by affordable smartphones, India is on the cusp of an ecommerce revolution, with online merchandise sales forecast by Morgan Stanley to reach $100bn in 2020, up from $11.5bn in 2015. As an early mover, Flipkart is at the forefront of this trend. It is India’s largest ecommerce company, by sales and valuation, which was a heady $15bn last year, although one of its investors, Morgan Stanley, recently revalued it at the more muted $11bn.
在廉价智能手机的推动下，印度即将迎来一场电子商务革命。摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)预测，印度在线商品销售额将从2015年的115亿美元升至2020年的1000亿美元。作为行业先行者，Flipkart处在这一趋势的最前沿。不论是按销售额还是按估值算，Flipkart都是印度最大的电商公司。去年，该公司的估值达到令人头晕的150亿美元，尽管其投资者之一——摩根士丹利最近给出了更加保守的110亿美元的估值。
Conventional wisdom holds that India’s online shoppers are fickle, and will look around to buy from whichever site offers the best deals. Flipkart, which has raised more than $3bn, and Amazon, now ploughing $2bn into India, are believed to have spent considerable sums to lure customers with deep discounts. But Sachin says his company’s biggest investments will be in improved technology and physical infrastructure and that will allow it to offer reliable services to win loyal customers. Flipkart has developed a phone app that loads fast even on India’s rickety mobile networks, and is now investing heavily in warehouses and logistics to ensure it can handle growing orders and ship goods quickly to consumers even in far-flung corners of the country.
传统观点认为，印度的网上购物者没有什么品牌忠诚度，他们会四处浏览，然后从提供最优惠价格的网站购买商品。据信，已经筹得30多亿美元的Flipkart与正向印度投入20亿美元的亚马逊都烧了大笔资金，利用折扣吸引消费者。但萨钦说，Flipkart最大的投资将用于提升技术和改善实体基础设施，使公司通过提供可靠的服务赢得忠实客户。Flipkart研发了一款在印度不稳定的移动网络覆盖范围内也能够快速加载的手机应用，并且正在大举投资于仓库与物流，以确保公司能够处理不断增多的订单，将货物快速递送至消费者手中，哪怕他们住在印度的偏远角落。
“Cash is not going to become a reason for success or failure,” he says. “What will define our success and failure will be our ability to differentiate.”
“资金不会成为成功或失败的原因，”他说，“决定成功与失败的将是我们实现差异化的能力。”
It has been a tumultuous journey from a Bangalore bedroom to a multibillion-dollar business. But Sachin and Binny, as they are widely known in-side the company and by the public, remain close, or even closer. “[In] a lot of start-ups, the founders after three or four years have very different points of view,” Binny says, speaking later by phone from Bangalore. “One common thread that holds us together is the grand ambition we have for Flipkart.”
从班加罗尔的一间卧室成长为一家数十亿美元的公司的历程并不平坦。但萨钦与宾尼——如同在公司内部以及为公众所熟知的那样——仍保持着密切的关系——甚至成了更铁杆的盟友。“（在）很多初创企业，三、四年之后，创始人之间就会产生很大的分歧，”宾尼后来从班加罗尔通过电话说道，“维系我们在一起的主线是我们对Flipkart抱有的宏伟雄心。”
The two agree that Sachin is an intuitive, creative thinker, who sees the big picture, while Binny is more practical and detailed-oriented, and that their skills are complementary: “At different times, we have needed different skills,” says Binny. “At times, we needed to think big, and at times we needed to really execute. We’ve been able to look at what is needed and let the right person take the calls accordingly.”
两人一致认为，萨钦是一名有直觉力和创造力的思考者，能够统揽全局，而宾尼更加务实，注重细节，他们的技能具有互补性：“在不同时期，我们需要不同的技能，”宾尼说。“有时我们需要有大思维，有时我们需要专注于执行。我们能够看到需要什么，然后让合适的人担当重任。”
Initially, the co-founders worked side by side, with just a few employees. When investors demanded a formal designation of CEO, they analysed their respective strengths and weaknesses, and Sachin took the job. “We would have both been very happy with the other person doing it,” he says.
最初，两位联合创始人在工作中不分彼此，手下只有几名员工。当投资人要求他们指定一名正式的首席执行官时，他们分析了各自的优势和劣势，并让萨钦出任首席执行官一职。“不论两人中谁担任这一职务，我们都会非常高兴，”他说。
The frantic pace at which Flipkart ad-ded sellers and customers brought chal-len-ges, including communication breakdowns. “What emerged was that the left hand wasn’t talking to the right,” says Binny.
Flipkart增添卖家和顾客的迅猛速度带来了挑战，包括沟通不畅。“出现了自己人沟通不畅的问题，”宾尼说。
They began having dinner together midweek, to ensure they remained in sync. “When we reached 100 people, we said, this is becoming too big — we need to talk more often,” says Sachin.
他们开始在周三共进晚餐，以确保能够保持同步。“当我们的员工达到100人时，我们说，公司变得太大了——我们需要更经常地交流，”萨钦说。
The recent job switch was a consensus decision taken after long consideration. Flipkart had reached a scale where it needed more clarity over who was the final authority on operational issues. “Everybody — investors and employees — saw us as being one entity almost. We saw the need to have one clear voice on the operating side,” says Binny.
两人近期的职务调整是一项经过长时间考虑作出的共识决策。Flipkart已经达到的规模意味着，对于运营事项需要更清晰地界定谁是最终权威。“大家（投资者和员工）几乎都把我们视为一个整体。我们知道运营方面需要一个清晰的声音，”宾尼说。
But they also felt they must look outwards to address wider policy issues in the Indian tech and start-up ecosystem, and to manage relations better with investors and other partners. Flipkart’s long-term prospects, especially being able to hire the best people, depend on a range of factors beyond its own operations, they believe: from the quality of local engineering colleges to government policies to the professionalism and prospects of other Indian start-ups.
但他们也认为，必须放宽眼界，应对印度科技及创业生态系统中存在的更广泛的政策问题，并且要更好地维护与投资人及其他合作伙伴的关系。Flipkart的长期前景——特别是能够招揽到最优秀的人才——取决于公司运营范畴外的一系列因素，他们认为，这些因素既包括地方理工学院的质量、政府政策，也包括印度其他初创企业的专业化水平和前景。
Trying to influence the broader clim-ate for the business will be Sachin’s responsibility. “We believe Flip-kart cannot be successful just by focusing on ourselves,” he says. “If the whole ecosystem becomes attractive, the whole world will start coming to us . . . emp-loy-ees, engineers, investors, partners.”
萨钦将肩负起试图影响整体营商环境的责任。“我们相信，Flipkart无法仅靠专注自身而获得成功，”他说，“如果整个生态系统变得更具吸引力，全世界都会来找我们……雇员、工程师、投资人、合作伙伴”。
The co-founders do not think alike on every issue. Disagreements are thrash-ed out privately, or within a close circle, and resolved through reason and persuasion, they say. “We yell at each other all the time, but that is part of the process, when we are brainstorming or dis-agreeing,” says Binny.
两位联合创始人并非在每件事上都想法一致。他们说，他们之间的分歧通常在私下或小范围内抛出，并通过理性分析、说服彼此来解决。“我们经常彼此大喊大叫，但那是我们进行头脑风暴或者出现分歧时，解决过程的一部分，”宾尼说。
Both have used some of their new wealth to invest in Indian tech start-ups trying to tackle some of India’s pressing social and economic challenges. “The only way to really lift the standard of living in the country is by start-ups with innovative local solutions to the local problems, leveraging technology in different ways,” says Binny.
两人都拿出了一些新获得的财富投资于印度的科技初创企业，这些企业正在尝试解决该国一些紧迫的社会和经济挑战。“唯一能够真正提升这个国家生活水平的途径就是依靠初创企业——以不同的方式借用科技的力量，为当地问题寻找创新的当地解决方案，”宾尼说。
Yet Sachin is worried by the rivalries he sees in some young start-up teams, with individuals vying for the limelight rather than focusing on developing their businesses.
然而，萨钦对他看到的一些年轻创业团队中的恶性竞争现象有些担忧，在这些团队中，一些个人热衷于争夺个人名利，而非专注于发展企业。
“We never bothered about who is the CEO or who is not the CEO, or ‘are you talking to the press more than me’,” says Sachin. “We are so focused on business success all this stuff doesn’t really matter. But in some of the early-stage investments I’ve made, people are already talking about this stuff.”
“我们从不为谁担不担任CEO或者‘你接受的采访比我多’而感到烦恼，”萨钦说，“我们如此专注于企业成功，以至于名利对我们根本无所谓。但在我作了早期投资的一些公司中，有人已经在谈论名利了。”
