GCCs: THE MULTIPLIER EFFECT

GCCs are serving as dynamic multi-dimensional contributors that enable parent organizations to achieve results and scalability in an agile manner and maintain long-term growth.

- AYUSHMAN BARUAH

Global capability centers (GCCs) in India have gained significant traction in the last 5-10 years, due to rapid repositioning and acceptance as a model that has gone beyond deliver- ing cost benefits and into the realm of creating strategic assets and IP for the parent organization. The first wave of offshoring started in the 1990s with what were then called cap- tives, which in nomenclature quickly evolved into GICs or global in-house centers. These were typically big in- vestments by Fortune 100-500 com- panies that were not experimental. Instead, they came with investments in physical and digital infrastructure, dedicated parent management teams and elaborate local leadership teams, championing futuristic organizations.

“One of the leading characteristics of GICs hence was investing in capabil-ity ahead of demand. Considering the amount of integration and change involved, GICs consciously invested in senior operations leaders ahead of the curve with an eye on the future,” said Alvarez & Marsal, a management consulting firm.

During 2005-15, GICs began to engage in a higher order of activities. Services shifted from back-office to more strategic skills such as sales enablement, request for proposal (RFP) support, strategy, research & analytics, pricing, risk management and compliance.

Then, GCCs took on a completely new meaning in 2020 with the onset of Covid-19 pandemic. Businesses that had traditionally resisted digital transformation were suddenly forced to adapt, testing their readiness to function in a fully remote paradigm.

This is where the foundational resilience built by GCCs over the years through business continuity planning (BCP), site strategy, cloud computing, and data centers, paid off significantly. Also, with the onset of technologies like Generative AI, GCCs also began enabling/accelerating the introduction of cutting-edge prod-ucts and services to the market.