Building a High-Performing GCC: Strategy, Talent, and Governance Essentials

Quoting recent NASSCOM figures, the scale and impact of Global Capability Centers (GCCs) in India are nothing short of transformative. Today, with over 1.9 million professionals driving breakthrough innovation and operational excellence, these centers are reshaping their parent organizations and the industries to which they belong! Technology, financial services, retail, and healthcare sectors worldwide are feeling the ripple impact of India’s thriving GCC ecosystem.

What is even more striking is where this journey is headed. Industry forecasts suggest that by 2030, India will be home to more than 2,400 GCCs. As a collective, they are expected to command a market size approaching $100 billion and will generate over 4.5 million jobs. This is a strategic leap in both scale and strategic relevance.

With momentum building rapidly, the question for global enterprises is clear: How to build a high-performing, AI-First GCC that future-proofs your business and delivers sustained enterprise value? The answer lies in designing a GCC ecosystem that fits both today’s business priorities and tomorrow’s ambitions, one that is anchored in strategy, talent, and AI-driven governance.

What Makes GCCs Perform?

High-performing GCCs are the result of intentional design, which means mapping their journey to a structured maturity curve. Most leading organizations pass through four evolutionary stages: Set-up, Stabilize, Scale, and Transform.

The actual differentiator comes from orchestrating strategy, talent, and governance at each step. When executed well, GCCs move beyond being mere cost-centric support arms and become strategic enterprise partners. This evolution allows them to actively shape core transformation agendas and drive the business forward.

The various stages of setting up successful GCCs are explained below.

Stage 1: Laying the Foundation for a Successful GCC Setup

The first stage is about establishing presence, credibility, and alignment. GCC leadership is focused on securing buy-in from global stakeholders and setting up core processes.

Strategic priorities in this stage include:

• Clearly articulating the GCC charter linked to enterprise drivers (efficiency, agility, digital enablement).

• Establishing GCC operating or engagement models such as BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer), or Modular, as per the enterprise objectives.

• Defining preliminary governance blueprints to ensure oversight and compliance.

Talent Imperatives:

• Recruiting for foundational skills in IT, operations, or finance.

• Building a compelling employer brand early to attract entry-level and mid-level talent.

• Designing onboarding programs that align employees with enterprise mission and GCC charter.

Governance Anchors:

• Laying focus on operational metrics (SLA adherence, turnaround times).

• Ensuring regulatory compliance, cybersecurity hygiene, and risk management right from day one.

For instance, a BFSI GCC set up in Bengaluru started with a mandate to reduce processing costs by 30%. By clearly linking its charter to enterprise cost-transformation goals, it won rapid buy-in from the global CFO, creating a solid foundation for future scaling.

Stage 2: Achieving Operational Excellence

Once the center is established, enterprises move into the Stabilize phase, where the focus shifts from set-up to performance and integration.

Strategic priorities in this stage include:

• Moving from transactional execution to process optimization and standardization.

• Building niche Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in areas like analytics, cybersecurity, or DevOps.

• Positioning the GCC as a change engine within the value chain.

Talent Imperatives:

• Investing in structured learning and development programs to upgrade employees from execution to problem-solving roles.

• Introducing mentoring frameworks and rotational programs for career visibility.

• Minimizing attrition through culture integration and employee engagement initiatives.

Governance Anchors:

• Upgrading KPIs to go beyond just delivery, which is bringing in efficiency and process improvements.

• Enhancing reporting cadences with the parent company through quarterly business reviews and outcome-driven dashboards.

• Embedding early risk frameworks to mitigate operational disruptions.

Stage 3: Expanding Mandates and Building AI-Driven Capabilities

The Scale stage is where GCCs transition from being seen as execution centers to being recognized as enterprise capability leaders. Here, the GCC begins to expand both horizontally (multi-function) and vertically (up the value chain).

Strategic priorities in this stage include:

• Expanding functional scope from one vertical like finance to multiple functions like IT, R&D, digital marketing, etc.

• Taking on end-to-end product/platform ownership, including roadmaps and delivery outcomes.

• Driving AI-enabled GCC transformation to align global business priorities with local execution excellence.

Talent Imperatives:

• Recruiting for advanced digital skills like AI/ML engineering, cloud-native development, and design thinking.

• Building leadership pipelines with succession planning and global leadership exposure.

• Institutionalizing upskilling frameworks for constant recalibration against emerging tech stacks.

Governance Anchors:

• Moving governance to business impact metrics like customer NPS improvement, time-to-market, and revenue influence.

• Negotiating for greater decision-making autonomy with the HQ (capability funding, talent investments).

• Establishing robust ESG and compliance governance in line with global standards.

Let’s say an auto-industry GCC scaled from SAP support to end-to-end EV battery R&D and simulation modelling, establishing itself as an enterprise innovation partner making direct product impact.

Stage 4: Becoming a Strategic AI-First Enterprise Partner

The final stage of maturity sees the GCC evolve into a transformation partner that co-authors enterprise strategy, owns global mandates, and contributes to top-line growth.

Strategic priorities in this stage include:

• Taking ownership of global innovation pipelines and enterprise transformation charters.

• Embedding agile, product-centric operating models with customer-first design principles.

• Driving enterprise resilience, acting as a full-fledged capability hub for crisis continuity.

Talent Imperatives:

• Transition into domain-led talent ecosystems with deep expertise in industry-critical areas (e.g. fintech security, MedTech AI models, retail supply chain digital twins).

• Positioning the GCC as a destination employer for high-end digital, R&D, and leadership talent.

• Continuing global talent rotation, expanding bench strength for enterprise-wide roles.

Governance Anchors:

• Shifting governance from oversight to strategic partnership, with joint ownership of global KPIs.

• Embedding innovation governance frameworks that track patents, IP generation, and co-innovation outcomes.

• Institutionalizing enterprise trust, where the GCC is seen as an autonomous yet fully aligned growth engine.

Let’s illustrate it with this example: a leading retail GCC in India co-leads the global omnichannel strategy for its parent, driving e-commerce platform design, AI personalization engines, and data-driven supply chain reconfiguration, essentially acting as the organization’s primary hub for digital transformation.

The Leadership Equation: Strategy + Talent + AI-Driven Governance

Across all four stages, the levers of strategy, talent, and governance, act as a binding potion for GCC evolution.

• Strategy ensures direction and linkage with enterprise goals.

• Talent builds the differentiated capabilities.

• Governance formalizes trust, alignment, and enterprise credibility.

These factors work together to bring maturity and ensure a GCC moves from set-up to stability, and even from stability to global transformation leadership, seamlessly.

High-performing GCCs are today enterprise transformation engines delivering both efficiency and innovation. When all the 4 stages, Set-up, Stabilize, Scale, and Transform, are achieved, GCCs become indispensable enterprise partners.

Step into the Future of AI-First GCCs

As enterprises accelerate their AI transformation, GCCs are becoming AI-first ecosystems, integrating autonomous decisioning, data mesh architectures, and agentic AI frameworks to power enterprise innovation. The next generation of GCCs will support transformation and co-create digital IP, AI models, and global innovation strategies.

Organizations that act now by embedding AI-driven governance, talent modernization, and next-gen operating models will define the future of global delivery.

At Enablr™, we work with enterprises to conceptualize, launch, and scale next-generation, AI-first GCCs. We design them for agility, innovation, and sustained business impact.

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