Decades back GCCs (Global Capability centres) were largely viewed as shared support centres helping their parent organizations in operations. Not any longer, as we enter 2020s. GCCs in India are driving business growth for their Global businesses through their contributions in operational efficiency, innovation, and market expansion. By leveraging India’s talent pool, technology capabilities, and favourable business environment, GCCs have become invaluable assets that propel their Global parent forward to achieve their goals. As the global business landscape continues to evolve, GCCs in India will play an increasingly strategic and partner role in driving innovation, competitiveness, and sustainable growth.
To understand and appreciate the role of GCCs, let me take you through’ few examples:
Enabling Market Expansion and Customer Engagement:
GCCs play a strategic role in enabling market expansion and customer engagement for their parent organizations. Large US based Retailers have established GCCs that focus on e-commerce, digital marketing, and customer experience. These GCCs leverage India’s expertise in technology and data analytics to develop personalized solutions, drive customer engagement, and expand market reach.
Large US based Retailer’s GCC collaborated with its global teams to develop a Platform with a cashier-less shopping experience that uses computer vision and machine learning algorithms to track customer purchases. By leveraging India’s talent pool in computer vision and artificial intelligence, the development centre contributed to the development of advanced algorithms and sensor technologies, enabling seamless and frictionless shopping experiences for customers.
US based large Apparel giant collaborated with its global teams to develop and launch a loyalty program offering personalized deals, discounts, and rewards to customers. Leveraging India’s expertise in data analytics, machine learning, and customer segmentation, the centre developed algorithms to analyse customer purchase behaviour, preferences, and trends, enabling Target to offer targeted promotions and incentives that drive repeat purchases and customer engagement. This initiative helped Target to strengthen customer loyalty, increase sales, and differentiate its brand in a competitive retail market.
Like above there are quite a few case studies among India GCCs to demonstrate their contribution to business growth of parent organizations. This won’t be possible without the deep domain knowledge and technical expertise.
Unlocking Operational Efficiency:
One of the key ways GCCs contribute to business growth is by unlocking operational efficiency and driving cost savings for their parent organizations. For instance, key multinational IT services companies have established GCCs that streamline global operations, optimize processes, and enhance productivity. To achieve operational efficiency, it is absolutely paramount that India teams understand the business model, end to end processes to finer details, challenges and so on. By leveraging India’s talent pool, process and technology capabilities, these GCCs have implemented innovative solutions that improve efficiency across various functions, from IT operations to finance and accounting.
US based large IT services company’s Global Business Services division collaborated with their global teams to implement robotic process automation (RPA) solutions for finance and accounting processes. By automating repetitive tasks and streamlining workflows, India GCC helped its parent organization achieve significant cost savings and operational efficiencies, enabling faster decision-making and resource allocation.
The GCC has collaborated with its parent and US based large Engineering manufacturer’s global teams to develop advanced manufacturing processes for aerospace components. Leveraging GCC’s expertise in materials science, additive manufacturing, and precision engineering, the centre optimized manufacturing techniques, improved product quality, and reduced production costs for critical aerospace components. These innovations enhanced efficiency and competitiveness in the aerospace industry, driving business growth for their Aviation business.
Driving Innovation and Technology Adoption:
GCCs are driving innovation and technology adoption within their parent organizations, helping them to stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly evolving business landscape. Key US based large Technology companies have established GCCs that focus on research and development (R&D), technology innovation, and product engineering. First and foremost, these GCCs understand the business goals and technology roadmap to execute the same. India centres collaborate with their parent organizations’ global teams to develop cutting-edge technologies, drive product innovation, and enhance customer experiences.
GCC of US based large technology company has collaborated with its global teams to develop popular cloud computing platform that powers a wide range of applications and services. Leveraging India’s expertise in cloud computing and distributed systems, IDC played a key role in developing cloud platform’s Infrastructure, services, and management tools, driving innovation and scalability for businesses worldwide.
In US based pharma major, the India R&D centre collaborated with its global teams to develop a novel treatment for a rare genetic disorder. Leveraging GCC’s expertise in bioinformatics, medicinal chemistry, and clinical research, the centre conducted preclinical studies, optimized drug formulations, and facilitated clinical trials, leading to the successful development and regulatory approval of the new drug. This breakthrough not only expanded company’s product portfolio but also addressed unmet medical needs and contributed to the company’s revenue growth.
India’s thriving Eco-system has become powerful enabler for GCCs
In India multiple factors have come together creating and enabling positive and breeding environment for Global Capability centres. These enablers are built over long and sustained period of time. Let me throw some light on these factors.
1. High Tech Talent Pool: India boasts a large and diverse talent pool across various domains, including engineering, technology, finance, and analytics. IT revolution blossomed in 90s/2000s has created vast and diverse technology talent pool in India’s IT services companies which has become favourite hunting ground for GCCs. In fact, for a decade or so GCCs hired only experienced professionals from India’s IT services companies. While GCCs today started hiring freshers from college campus, however bulk of the experienced IT professionals are hired from IT services companies only. The GCCs have capitalized on this talent pool by recruiting skilled professionals and investing in training and development programs to enhance their capabilities further.
2. Investment in Infrastructure: Over the years, GCCs have made significant investments in infrastructure, technology, and facilities to support their operations and growth. Tier-1 cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune & NCR boast huge and well-established campuses across the country. State-of-the-art office spaces, advanced IT infrastructure, and collaboration tools have enabled GCCs to scale up their operations efficiently.
3. Strategic Partnerships with Academia, Startups & IT services Cos.: GCCs often collaborate with local universities, research institutions, and industry bodies to access talent, foster innovation, and stay abreast of industry trends. Strategic partnerships with academic institutions and technology startups have facilitated knowledge exchange, research collaborations, and talent development initiatives. Many of these GCCs established full-fledged COEs (Centre of Excellence) established in universities across the country which help to shape up the talent according to business requirements.
GCCs encourage and work with startup eco-system in finding innovative solutions for their business problems. India being the place for world’s 3rd largest Startup eco-system presents innumerable opportunities to pick and choose according to GCC’s need.
There is also 3rd player in IT services companies. Global corporations have been engaged with Indian IT services companies for decades for various IT requirements from Application development, maintenance, Infrastructure management, Analytics, Engineering services etc. With their own centres in India, sometimes they decide to judiciously distribute the work between GCCs and IT services companies based on their business approach,
4. Focus on Innovation: GCCs have evolved from being cost centres to becoming centres of innovation and excellence. By fostering a culture of innovation, experimentation, and continuous improvement, GCCs have developed cutting-edge solutions, patented technologies, and proprietary tools that drive business growth and differentiation for their parent organizations. They also conduct Hackathons from time to time to present problem statements and get the best and innovative ideas from Students and young professionals. With GCCs spearheading R &D and Innovation centres for many Global corporations, there several examples of products, platforms, solutions those have been made in India for the world whether it is an Aeroplane wings, Auto engines or new drugs in pharma.
5. Access to Global Markets: Many GCCs leverage their presence in India to access global markets and serve customers worldwide. By providing 24/7 support, multilingual services, and domain expertise, GCCs enable their parent organizations to expand their footprint, enter new markets, and deliver superior customer experiences globally. With huge English-speaking population, resources from India can address and cater to world’s need emphatically.
6. Operational Excellence: Already well-developed IT services Eco-system, innovative and fast-growing startups means Indian Talent are very much well versed with best practices, processes and world class standards. GCCs emphasize operational excellence, process optimization, and quality assurance to drive efficiency and productivity. By adopting industry best practices, standards, and certifications, GCCs ensure adherence to regulatory requirements, mitigate risks, and deliver high-quality services to their parent organizations and customers.
7. Leadership and Governance: Effective leadership, governance structures, and management practices play a crucial role in scaling up GCCs and achieving organizational objectives. Strong leadership teams with clear vision, and robust governance frameworks ensure alignment with the parent organization’s goals, drive strategic initiatives, and foster a culture of accountability and transparency. India is breeding ground for leadership pool. Backed by best-in-class institutes and tuned by established IT services eco-system India can boast deep leadership pool. You can notice the fact that Indian leaders are leading many global corporations across the world.
Overall, the scaling up of GCCs in India is a testament to the country’s growing stature as a global hub for technology, innovation, and talent. By leveraging India’s strengths in human capital, infrastructure, and business environment, GCCs have transformed into strategic assets that drive business growth, innovation, and competitiveness for their parent organizations across industries.
Looking into Future
Today GCC market is at $ 46m , 1.6m in resources going by best-in-class Q3CY23 report ( #1. ). GCC market is predicted to be at $ 110b, 4.5 m resources & 2400 centres by EY report ( #2. ) . With value proposition of GCCs well established, many Global corporations across the spectrum are looking at India to launch their centres. Infect the wave is moving beyond Tier-1 cities to Tier-2 cities like Indore, Nagpur, Coimbatore etc. Another driver is India itself is considered as huge market and it is expected to be world’s 3rd largest economy( #3 ) by 2030. Multiple global corporations have demonstrated how the product can be designed, produced and launched in India which can be replicated elsewhere.
As Global corporations gain from India’s IT eco-system, India’s economy as well would benefit a lot from this GCC mania, as global best practices, processes, domain expertise will jell and enrich Indian’ system better and better. Interesting time ahead, let us latch on to our seats as the momentum picks up.
