How Publicis Sapient sees India’s GCCs driving the future of enterprise innovation
GCCs in India have evolved from the stage of cost arbitrage and now set their goal on driving the agenda of innovation arbitrage, according to Publicis Sapient India MD.
The Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India are undergoing a major transformation, evolving from cost saving outposts to become hubs of innovation for global enterprises. Once seen primarily as centres for cost arbitrage, GCCs in India have climbed steadily up the value chain.
“Their (GCCs) ambition has started to change and the real unlock will start once they start to leverage in what we call as innovation arbitrage,” says Sanjay Menon, Managing Director, Publicis Sapient India, in an interaction with Enterprise Story.
A digital technology services company, Publicis Sapient helps enterprises in adopting these platforms. It also has a segment that is focused on GCCs.
India is now home to over 1,800 GCCs, employing more than 1.9 million professionals. The evolution of GCCs in India began with the idea of cost arbitrage, where certain standardised processes were outsourced, which led to operational efficiency. Later, there was a slow move towards shifting complex functions such as product development and R&D to their Indian centres, marking a transition from operational roles to capital-intensive strategic investments.
This evolution has been supported by the return of experienced professionals from global markets and a growing entrepreneurial mindset within enterprise technology talent.
As Menon notes, “Today we have a wide set of enterprise level entrepreneurial talent who are experienced, and that can actually drive innovation.”
The rise of GCCs has also led to a cultural shift in India. Employees are no longer seen as external support but as someone who actually understands the ethos of the company and takes ownership of their work. They are also fully integrated with the business goals of the enterprise, which means the technology solution or services they deliver are actually creating an impact.
Menon says, gone are the days when GCCs in India were more like an outpost. Today, they are an important pillar for the enterprise. “More and more GCCs are now comfortable with this idea as there are greater proof points that it is actually working,” he remarks.
Nasscom, in its report “India GCC Landscape Report - The 5 Year Journey” along with Zinnov, noted that more than 50% of GCCs have moved up to portfolio and transformation hubs, with 40% CAGR in global roles and women leadership roles in the last five years. Almost 90% of the GCCs operate as multi-functional centers, supporting technology, operations, and product engineering. ER&D GCCs have grown 1.3 times faster than the overall GCC growth rate, indicating a shift towards higher-value and more complex work to India.
“Earlier, GCCs were largely seen as a tech story. But today, they are much integrated as they understand their customers and how they want to create value,” says Menon.
Today, GCCs in India have the requisite attributes to drive the innovation engine from the country. These include having the right kind of talent, capabilities, perspective, and a leadership that is not leading in terms of hierarchy but has the edge to drive the innovation agenda.
In the present context, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a central focus for enterprises across industries, whether they are technology companies or not. And for GCCs, AI is something which is top on their agenda.
According to Menon, the GCC employee base in India have the requisite AI skills and the orientation that is required to make the change. “We see AI as a tremendous opportunity which is a kind of a generational level change,” he remarks.
According to Nasscom, India has a talent pool of over 120,000 AI/ML professionals and over 185 dedicated AI/ML Centres of Excellence (COEs) helping build specific use cases. The more mature GCCs are further developing expertise in full-stack development. This shift has led to an environment where learnability is increasingly valued, prompting GCCs to bring a change in their talent matrix.
The outlook for India’s GCC segment is bright, with projections indicating that revenue could reach $100 billion by 2030 from the present level of over $65 billion.
Menon believes GCCs in India are fast evolving into integral parts of global enterprises driven by a unified focus on innovation.
Edited by Megha Reddy