Cost Center to Center of Excellence - Evolving Labour Market and the Next Generation India Leadership

GCCs in India

Over the last two decades, Global Capability Centers (GCCs) in India have evolved from “Cost Centers to Centers of Excellence”. Global Capability Centers (GCCs), also known as captives, have changed from just saving costs to becoming advanced hubs that drive innovation and digital transformation for global businesses. In India, GCCs now are playing a crucial role in redefining what organizations can do, ensuring smooth business operations, and speeding up digital changes. These centres go beyond basic tasks, offering extra services like analytics and design, in the process making them essential for their parent companies. In brief, when can state, the following has been the transformational journey of the Indian GCCs – 

Doers —> Optimizers —> Enablers —> Thinkers (i.e., from Doers to Thinkers)

Workforce in GCCs

This change in the work brief of GCCs has also resulted in an evolving labour force for the GCC market in India. Skills required for roles in GCC leadership differ significantly from those in traditional enterprise leadership, demanding proficiency in managing both commercial and technical aspects. Hence, candidates with a techno-commercial background are consistently favoured for GCC positions. In such a scenario, talent remains a key competitive edge, companies need to prioritize talent by rightly investing in their skills and development. The overall cost per FTE in GCCs is on the rise, expected to climb from the present US$29,100 to US$37,760 by 2030. This escalation is attributed to GCCs broadening their services, emphasizing innovation and knowledge-based capabilities, thereby incurring higher costs.

Through rapid urbanization, improved education systems, young demographics, government backing, and extension into the tier 2 and tier 3 cities, a proficient new age workforce has been created, but with the rising human capital cost, talent retention becomes critical and for that senior leadership plays a very decisive role. According to various industry reports, 2024 is poised to witness over 60 CIOs and SVP leaders, all based in India from various GCCs, leading their functions at a global level. Presently, India-based GCCs harbour a workforce exceeding 5,000 professionals holding global roles, with an anticipated expansion to reach 30,000 by the year 2030, solidifying its position as a crucial player in the global business arena. So, in the coming times, Indian GCC leadership will have to play an important role in driving the ship not only at the local but also at the international level. 

Is India ready for this kind of high-growth Global Leadership?

As per the study done by Odgers Berndtson India, there is a high calibre talent pool of N-1 level leaders available across the business lines in the GCC sector in India. The majority of them have substantial experience in the areas of operations and delivery, process excellence, business and digital transformation, analytics, change management, finance, risk and governance. They also have exposure to technology, for the enablement purpose. Leaders have had a track record of bringing about change, impact and innovation during their career journey in operations, processes and people management. Many of them have worked in multiple cities in India and abroad and have experience in handling diversified multi-location large teams both in domestic and international regions. On average most of the senior leaders have worked for 3-4 GCCs in their career journey, having exposure to both early and matured stage organisations. Many profiles reflect having a consistent run with their current organisations. The next generation leaders i.e. the N-1 level, with an entrepreneurial mindset, armed with functional skills and professional degrees are ready for bigger opportunities, which gives them a chance to bring about change, drive and build teams at the Global level. The average work experience of these leaders is in the range of 20 to 30 years and are in the age bracket of 45-55 years, most of them are in the prime stage of their careers. Based on the given template, the future looks very bright and strong. 

Bring it on 2030, India's next-gen GCC leadership is ready!