With all the hype around ‘innovation and global capability centers’, understanding the scope and true impact of Global Capability Centers (GCC) is crucial for today’s technology leaders.

The GCC Model

A GCC is typically setup in an overseas lower cost location. But unlike the offshore centers of yesteryears whose only aim was to save costs, setting up a GCC today is a strategic move aimed at enhancing capability and capacity.

There is a high level of accountability and ownership as a successful GCC works towards the same set of business goals as the parent company. Everything from policies, processes, values, and culture are aligned between the two units.

GCCs vs Outsourcing

Outsourcing gets lower costs, but you also lose control over people and operational efficiency as there is not ownership of the outsourced operations. More importantly, you do not have employees that are aligned with your business objectives.

GCCs provides a better model with quality, speed, and innovation without sacrificing control and culture.

What makes a GCC successful

A strong business location, access to talent, and the right local partners. For e.g. India has broad and deep talent expertise across industries and domains such as technology, analytics, digital and business functions. It offers the right mix of cost and capability that can be truly transformative for a company, however, setting up and scaling in a new country is not easy especially for companies with limited global experience.

The right partner can help evaluate your current capabilities and operations and assess the GCC opportunity. A partner can also significantly reduce the time in setting up the GCC as they already have the resources necessary for setting up a center. Finally, for a GCC much like any strategic initiative, it is imperative for senior leadership to own and drive the GCC.

We would love to hear your thoughts or questions on this topic. Email us at [email protected] to start a conversation.