Culture most vital aspect of how you run a GCC: Tesco's Mitra

We created a service model framework to streamline 700 Tesco processes to 10 Sumit Mitra CEO, Tesco Business Solutions

- Jas Bardia

Tesco Plc, one of the UK's largest retailers, was rocked by an accounting scandal and reported its worst annual loss in 2015. Its cash coffers were nearly empty, and there was a need to transform the business to get more cash.

Sumit Mitra, former BT Group managing director, was brought in by the British retailer in 2017 to head Tesco Business Solutions, the global capability centres (GCC). His sole mandate was to drive change. Today, the company has one of its oldest running GCCs in India and employs about 5,500 people at its Whitefield office in Bengaluru.

CEO Mitra spoke to Mint about Tesco's in-house centre and the work his company looks after for the parent firm (Tesco Plc). Tesco runs three other GCCs worldwide-in Budapest, Scotland, and Ireland-apart from the one in Bengaluru, employing up to 8,000 people, about 2.3% of its 338,000-strong workforce.

Edited excerpts:

What have been some of the defining trends of Tesco's GCC in India?