KUALA LUMPUR – Several former top executives and managers of embattled Lazada have started unofficial support groups to help recently retrenched colleagues in Southeast Asia.
The retrenchment is affecting all six markets in the region – Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
Luca Suino, who was Lazada’s senior vice-president for category management, called on the laid-off employees to share their former positions in Lazada and their CVs with him on his LinkedIn page.
As of press time, 64 former employees have shared their details, with at least 36 coming from Malaysia.
Similarly, Arun Kumar, who was Lazada’s head of search and recommendations from April to December 2022, created a WhatsApp group to help circulate the CVs of affected Lazada employees, who were nicknamed “Lazadians.”
Arun started the initiative with Lazada’s vice-president and head of traffic from February 2022 to September 2023, Gerald Young.
It was reported that one-fifth of Lazada’s top executives were given the boot in a series of lay-offs, including its CEO for the Malaysian market, Alan Chan, and chief logistics officer P. Sunil Singh.
It is also understood all of Lazada’s chief marketing officers in Southeast Asia were laid off.
On Wednesday, a source told Scoop that Lazada Malaysia’s marketing team would receive the short end of the stick, with lay-offs possibly reaching 90%.
The source also said news of the lay-offs came merely a week after Lazada opened a new floor in its office here, to cater to a growing workforce.
It is understood that only certain employees received calendar invitations for their meeting with the human resources department, while others were left in the dark, as information on the retrenchment was only conveyed verbally. – January 5, 2024