From support hubs to the core, GCCs take lead in biz outcome, leadership

India's GCCs are evolving into strategic hubs, producing CXO-level talent as leaders drive global innovation, operations, and transformation from centres in the country

American home improvement retailer Lowe’s last year elevated Ankur Mittal, its managing director of India operations, as also its chief technology officer. In his new role, he is responsible for the omnichannel platforms, enterprise architecture strategy across a portfolio of applications and capabilities, corporate services technology, information technology (IT) operations and infrastructure engineering. 

The North Carolina-headquartered Lowe’s is not the only one witnessing a shift in the operations and relevance of global capability centres (GCC). 

Navneet Kapoor of Maersk joined the Danish shipping company as the head of its shared services centre in India before taking on the role of an executive vice-president and chief technology and information officer (CTIO). And, Ashish Grover, chief information officer of Chilean retailer Falabella, was the managing director of the company’s India technology centre before taking over the larger role in 2021 and relocating to Santiago. 

Lalit Ahuja, cofounder and chief executive officer of ANSR, which helps multinationals set up GCCs in India, explained the phenomenon. GCCs have morphed into the main enterprises, become contextually empowered, driving business outcomes, and are no longer viewed as cost centres, unlike a decade ago, Ahuja said. As the centres matured, so did the senior executives who emerged as enterprise leaders, he added. 

In fact, India’s GCCs are rapidly evolving from support hubs into strategic nerve centres, shaping the next generation of enterprise leaders. As they take on critical roles in operations, lead large-scale projects, and drive decision-making for their parent organisations, GCCs are producing CXO-level talent with increasing frequency. 

With a strong focus on advanced technologies — artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and generative AI (GenAI) — GCCs have become the proving ground for global CIOs and CTOs. And the transformation from cost centres to core enterprise engines is underway, executives and analysts pointed out. That has resulted in GCC site leaders being elevated to roles such as global chief information officers and chief technology officers, even as they continue to be based, in many cases, out of India. It indicates how vital these centres have become to the parent company’s operations, according to people tracking this segment. 

“One of my advantages was that I started as the chief technology officer for the ecommerce division, which was a global role,” said Grover, CIO of Falabella. “I was also the MD, which meant setting up the India technology operations. That means being on the ground and getting to know the broader domain of the company and being exposed to the bigger picture,” he said. 

Since Grover was heading the ecommerce division, he tried to build a strong impactful team in India and Chile, working across cultures that he says put him in good stead now when he works from the headquarters. 

Mittal of Lowe’s shared his experience to emphasise the empowering of GCCs and its executives. “Prior to the pandemic, we did not have self-checkout at many stores, though it still accounted for 25 per cent of the transactions. We built a team in India to focus on this, started with small proofs of concept and it eventually got rolled out to all stores. That now makes up about 65 per cent of the transactions with an error rate of a tenth of what it was previously.” 

LaIitha Indrakanti, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover Technology and Business Services India, summed it up. “A bird’s eye view of many operations across different geographies is shaping the leadership qualities of GCC leaders when they step into a broader role which makes their ability to differentiate and contribute much more.”

 

Smooth Transition

  * GCCs have become more aligned with parent companies with no separate mission and vision

 

* CTO and CIO are some of the critical roles that are now being filled up by executives who have headed GCCs

 

* Resilience and cultural adaptability are some of the key traits that firms look for in senior executives

 

* Senior leadership roles are still emerging and expected to grow in the coming years