Around 500 GCCs in India see growth plateauing: Report
About 25% of the GCCs in India have hit a roadblock in terms of growth plateauing and this primarily due to certain structural inefficiencies, says a report by UnearthIQ and Embark.
Global capability centres (GCCs) continue to show strong momentum in India with the presence of 2,000 such units but around 500 of them have hit a growth plateau, according to a study.
A study done by UnearthIQ and Embark called “The Great Plateau: Why GCCs are Unable to Reach their Full Potential”, said these GCCs have not been able to move the ladder from a cost efficiency centre to one that delivers value.
The study noted that around 30% or about 140-150 GCCs, established after 2020, have already plateaued. Combined with an estimated 360–370 GCCs established before 2020 facing similar challenges, the total number of plateaued GCCs in India is approaching a meaningful count of 500-520.
"The plateau is not a sign of failure but it is a sign that the GCC model in India has reached an inflection point. Most GCCs are built to scale delivery. Few are designed to sustain relevance. The difference lies in design strength and execution discipline,” said Gaurav Vasu and Shail Maniar, Co-founders of UnearthIQ.
According to these co-founders, much of the focus has been on developing playbooks for setting up GCCs, while very little investment has been made in identifying frameworks and interventions to fully realise their potential.
The signs of growth plateauing are these GCCs are seen primarily as cost levers rather than value creator, business impact flattening even as headcount grows; slower decision-making due to added governance layers; attrition among high performers; and effort being absorbed by legacy systems while AI and platform work stalls at the pilot stage.
The report noted that plateauing is often driven by structural factors rather than operational performance alone. Execution-focused mandates, limited leadership autonomy, weak alignment with evolving enterprise priorities, underinvestment in AI and platform capabilities, and fragmented technology and data foundations are preventing some GCCs from moving to higher-value roles within the enterprise.
The report said as enterprise expectations shift from cost efficiency to business impact, ownership, and innovation, not all GCCs are evolving and maturing at the same pace.
Embark Co-founder & CEO Aravind Maiya said those GCCs which get the foundational choice right early which include governance model, talent strategy, and technology backbone to scale.