EY survey flags limited global leadership roles in Indian GCCs

Indian global capability centres (GCC) have limited leadership presence in India, barring the financial services ones, which is a roadblock towards greater maturity and ability to strategically influence decision making for the parent organisation, an annual survey by EY shows.

 

Out of the GCCs surveyed, 80 per cent reported less than 10 per cent of leadership roles based locally, underscoring the need to accelerate leadership localisation for greater strategic influence. Only 7 per cent reported senior leadership roles of 25-50 per cent being based out of India.

 

It should be a cause of worry because over the years, the maturity curve of the GCCs have been tied to undertaking more critical workloads, increased ownership of end-to-end global processes, adding value beyond the traditional cost arbitrage, and leading global strategy by having a seat at the decision-making table. That, however, has not been the case for most GCCs.

   

“The number of global roles remains limited, with a smaller set of leadership positions in India that currently have a global mandate. The influence is limited to a handful of GCCs, which are largely representative of the industry,” said Arindam Sen, partner and GCC sector leader -- technology, media and entertainment and telecommunications at EY India, said in an interaction.

 

“It is just one or two roles and not large scale ones like 10-15, which is a relevant size and shows that the GCC is maturing. Leadership at these centres is still concentrated at the N-2 or N-3 levels. We expect this to shift toward more N-level roles over the next three years.”

 

The maturity curve has become a key talking point this year. Enterprises are looking at their GCCs to evolve from being delivery engines to becoming strategic value creators. This means co-owning global business outcomes, influencing enterprise strategy, and enabling transformation, rather than just supporting it.

 

But the situation is different on the ground. GCCs can enable those transformations only when they reach a certain level of maturity. And that means having process and product ownership, which gives them the natural ability to influence the transformation, which experts say only 10 per cent of the current crop of GCC has.

 

When asked what is holding back the appointment of leaders in India, Sen said, “A mix of factors are at play. Part of it may be linked to leadership readiness, but some of it also has to do with how individual companies approach decision-making. The transition would depend on how much empowerment these centres gain over time. Moving leadership here effectively means shifting it from elsewhere, and companies that have done so have gone through a trust-building process and identified the right people. For most others, that transition is still underway.”

 

The survey also says the GCCs are taking on deeper enterprise roles, with 92 per cent centres aiming to deliver value beyond cost arbitrage and manage end-to-end processes for global enterprises (87%) over the next 12 months. Moreover, critical responsibilities are being driven from India GCCs, including global strategy leadership (45%) and leadership pipeline development (35%).  

 

A report from BCG, earlier this year, highlighted just 8 per cent of the Indian GCCs fall in the category of top performers, while 66 per cent are classified as average performers and 20 per cent as above average.