Building GCCs that last: The strategic imperatives for India’s new centres

At first glance, Global Capability Centres in India appear to be a clear success. Multinational companies have tapped into deep talent and significant cost advantage. Yet a closer examination reveals a more uneven reality. While many centres have delivered value and accelerated innovation, others continue to fall short of the value creation their leadership originally anticipated.

India is no longer an offshore destination. It’s the largest GCC ecosystem in the world. As of 2026, the country hosts well over 2,100 GCCs, accounting for roughly 60% of all GCCs globally, employing around 2.4 million professionals and generating nearly $100 billion in export revenue.

This scale reflects more than growth. It signals a structural shift in how global enterprises distribute work, decision-making, and innovation. Yet despite this maturity, industry conversations reflect a divide. Some GCCs continue to expand in relevance and influence. Others struggle with limited impact, constrained roles, and a muted strategic voice.

A marker of GCC maturity

A recent post by the global CEO and chairman of a leading investment bank attracted significant attention. It offered a useful benchmark for what a mature, strategically integrated GCC can look like.

• India-based promotions in Bengaluru / Hyderabad were mentioned in the same breath as promotions across the firm’s other major regions: the US, Europe, and APAC.

• The announcement signalled that senior leadership roles are being created in India on par with established global locations, not as an extension of a back-office model.

• The same organisation has also hosted its global board meeting in India, reinforcing the country’s role as a strategic enterprise location rather than only a delivery hub.

The difference between the two comes down the set of deliberate choices organisations make early and reinforce consistently.

Mandate determines relevance

The original GCC construct was rooted in cost-arbitrage and labour efficiency. Today, the centres that matter are those explicitly tasked with driving outcomes aligned with the parent company’s strategy: product innovation, digital transformation, advanced analytics, and global process redesign.

Significant number of GCCs now manage end-to-end processes including transformation/change mandates, not an operational detail but a statement of trust. Without this shift, India centres risk remaining a service hub. With it, the GCC becomes a global decision-making and innovation node.

Global career paths – no onshore or offshore bias

In mature GCCs, career progression is not constrained by geography. Leadership roles are filled based on capability, impact, and business need—not by whether the talent sits onshore, offshore, or at headquarters. The fact that the corporate headquarters is in the US does not automatically mean the Managing Director or senior leadership roles must also be based there.

A hallmark of mature GCCs is that they create genuine global career paths. India-based leaders are entrusted with enterprise responsibilities, global mandates, and senior decision-making roles on the same basis as leaders in any other major office.

Continue to self-disrupt

Mature GCCs do not rest on past success. They continuously challenge their own operating model by adopting new technologies, improving ways of working, and redesigning processes—even when this impacts headcount or changes the existing scope of work. For example, a leading banking GCC has embarked on a plan to reduce the effort required to perform work by 40% over three years by leveraging AI and re-deploy that capacity towards next-generation roles and higher-value work.

GCC is just a moniker; they operate like any other office

Underperforming GCCs often operate under overly centralized control from headquarters, where even routine decisions require multiple approvals. This slows execution and reduces ownership.

High performing centres operate on a model of trust and accountability. Decision rights are aligned with expertise and proximity to the work. Teams are measured on outcomes not activity. Governance focuses on strategic alignment, risk, and resource allocation, not control.

In mature GCCs, the India centre is treated like any other office in the global network. Policies, benefits, workplace experience, and ways of working are aligned with enterprise standards, so employees experience the same level of inclusion and opportunity as their counterparts elsewhere.

For instance, most of the mature GCCs across financial services now operate as an extension of global HQ with GCC just being external moniker, internally they are referred to as India office akin to their US / Europe or Japan office.

Build front office context from day 1

It is critical to build intentional exposure to the business given from day 1. GCC employees are given opportunities to build front-office context, understand customer needs, travel onshore, meet business stakeholders, and participate in short-term secondments. Similarly, leaders and employees from headquarters are encouraged to spend time in India, with such secondments seen as valuable accelerators of enterprise understanding and leadership growth.

Innovation cannot be symbolic

Many GCCs mistake innovation visibility for innovation impact. Hackathons and innovation weeks create momentum, but they do not substitute for embedded capability, core work stays transactional. The strongest centres design innovation into daily work.

These GCCs are structured to deliver value continuously rather than execute in a linear, transactional rhythm. This means employees are responsible not just for delivery, but for outcomes. For example, a product analytics team in a leading tech GCC may not only run reports but also own predictive models, test hypotheses, and refine solutions in real time.

To move ahead of traditional R&D hubs, GCCs need to embed experimentation into delivery teams, setting up internal labs for emerging technology, partnering with local startups and universities, and make innovation a standing agenda item.

(The author is leader, GCC Markets, EY India. Views are personal.)