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Pinterest sacks techies for layoff tracker
CALIFORNIA: Pinterest is currently learning that when you pin your hopes on a quiet restructuring, your engineers might just have other plans. The social media giant has reportedly sacked a group of software developers who decided to take company transparency into their own hands by building an automated layoff tracker.
The drama began in late January when CEO Bill Ready announced a pivot toward AI that necessitated cutting 15 per cent of the workforce. While the bosses kept the specific list of who was getting the chop under lock and key, a few enterprising engineers decided to fill the information void.
They crafted a script that kept a hawk-like eye on internal Slack channels and company directories. The moment an account went dark, the tool logged it, effectively creating a real-time who’s who of the departed. It was a digital map of the company’s shrinking footprint, and leadership was not impressed.
By the following Friday, the creators of the tool found themselves on the wrong side of their own script. In a leaked recording obtained by CNBC, Bill Ready didn’t mince words. He branded the move as “obstructionist” behavior, suggesting that while healthy debate is welcome, actively tracking the exit of your colleagues is a step too far. “If you aren’t on board with the mission, perhaps you’d be happier elsewhere,” was the gist of the message delivered to the remaining staff.
Pinterest remains firm on the dismissals, with a spokesperson telling CNBC that the engineers “improperly accessed confidential company information” to identify the names and locations of those being let go. The company maintains that the tool was a violation of data security protocols rather than a harmless internal project.
However, the tech community sees it differently. Analysis from The Verge suggests this is part of a broader efficiency mandate sweeping through Silicon Valley. It marks a definitive end to the era of corporate transparency, replaced by a top-down leadership style where internal data is strictly guarded and employee-led monitoring is treated as a fireable offense.
As Pinterest works to strengthen its position against AI-driven advertising rivals like Meta, it seems the company is prioritising corporate discipline over employee-led initiatives. It turns out that at Pinterest, the only things leadership wants you to track are the latest home decor trends, not the HR department’s pruning shears.
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Ahmad Muneeb elevated to VP – HR centre of excellence at Zepto
MUMBAI: Zepto has elevated Ahmad Muneeb to vice president – HR centre of excellence, placing him at the helm of the company’s total rewards, executive compensation and organisational effectiveness as the quick-commerce firm powers through a high-growth phase.
The move follows his stint as senior director of the HR COE, where he played a central role in preparing the company for IPO readiness while scaling its people analytics capabilities. During this period, Muneeb helped align complex performance management structures with more streamlined and scalable employee experience frameworks.
In his new role, he will steer the design of total rewards strategies, executive compensation planning and organisational design, while also overseeing performance management, employee experience initiatives and people analytics programmes.
Before joining Zepto, Muneeb spent nearly three years at Meesho, where he held multiple rewards and HR business partner roles. Earlier in his career, he worked as a senior rewards consultant at Mercer, advising high-tech clients on compensation benchmarking, pay structures and talent-focused reward frameworks.
He began his hr journey at Cognizant, where he supported compensation programmes for nearly two lakh employees across India and worked on m&a compensation alignment and skill-based pay initiatives. Prior to moving into HR, Muneeb started his career as a software engineer at Netcracker, bringing a technical grounding to his people strategy work.
With a mix of consulting rigour, start-up agility and enterprise-scale experience, Muneeb’s elevation signals Zepto’s continued focus on building robust people systems as it races towards its next phase of growth.
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Dell names Aishwarya Sudhakar director of marketing intelligence
INDIA: Dell Technologies is doubling down on artificial intelligence in marketing. The company has elevated Aishwarya Sudhakar to director of marketing measures and intelligence engineering, tasking her with building an enterprise-wide framework for AI-led measurement and customer intelligence.
In the role, Sudhakar will oversee unified data strategy, advanced modelling and context engineering: areas increasingly central to how large technology firms link marketing performance to business outcomes. Her remit includes shaping scalable systems that support Dell’s next phase of AI deployment across marketing functions.
Sudhakar steps into the position after holding a series of senior roles at Dell, including AI lead for marketing orchestration, senior manager, and senior data scientist in customer insights. Across these roles, she led global teams working on large-scale machine learning models, data pipelines and customer analytics.
Before joining Dell, she began her career at Tata Consultancy Services as a systems engineer and later founded Oclor, a shopping discovery start-up, where she built end-to-end technology platforms. The combination of enterprise-scale data work and entrepreneurial experience has shaped her focus on product-led, engineering-first innovation.
As technology companies seek sharper attribution and intelligence in an AI-saturated market, Dell’s move underscores the growing importance of marketing measurement as an engineering discipline rather than a reporting function.
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Gaurav Pathak returns to Adidas in key accounts leadership role
GURUGRAM: Adidas has appointed Gaurav Pathak as director of key and field accounts, bringing back an executive who began his leadership career at the company.
In the role, Pathak will be responsible for deepening strategic partnerships and expanding key, field and export accounts, with a mandate to accelerate growth across the Indian market. The appointment marks a return to Adidas after nearly a decade across premium retail and footwear brands.
Pathak most recently served as head of retail and business development at Ecco, where he focused on partner-led growth, market risk mitigation and operational scale. Before that, he spent eight years at House of Anita Dongre Limited, rising to general manager and leading regional operations across western and southern India.
His earlier career includes a stint as regional sales manager for Karnataka at United Colors of Benetton India and a six-year run at Adidas, where he held sales leadership roles.
With competition intensifying in India’s lifestyle and footwear market, Pathak’s brief will centre on strengthening field execution while aligning large accounts with Adidas’s broader commercial priorities.
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