By Vandhna Babu
We have witnessed a massive surge of GCCs in India, with the total number of GCCs growing to 1580+, having a workforce of over 1.66 mn. The overall market size of GCCs in India crossed USD 46 bn in FY2023, growing at a CAGR of over 11%.
GCCs are at an inflexion point today and transitioning to transformation hubs because they are building niche competencies, they are a sandbox for global leadership, they are able to monetize services and expanding into newer work and getting a bigger chunk of work across the value chain.
Growth of GCCs in India are driven by scale, innovation, delivery excellence, and leadership and this has been at the heart of GCCs’ evolution in the last 2 decades. But delving deep into the growth pillars of GCC growth in India throws light onto the following points.
- India’s Engineering Prowess – Engineering R&D continues to be the leading growth pillar for GCCs in India. Out of the over 1580 GCCs, over 1440 are ER&D GCCs. In addition, out of the total GCC workforce of over 1.66 mn, approximately 695,000 are ER&D GCC workforce. In addition, ER&D GCCs in India are also more mature and undertaking activities across the value chain end to end.
- GBS Powerhouse – Indian continues to be a Global Business Services (GBS) powerhouse, with over 960 GCCs having functional shared services model. Over 110 organisations also have HR COEs in India. Primarily HR, IT, Finance and Accounting are key functions driving workloads in GCCs with a matured shared services model or GBS model.
- Winning the Digital Age – Over 210 GCCs possess AI/ML capabilities in India. In addition, GCCs are also adopting a Cloud-first strategy and are expected to invest over USD 450 Mn by 2024 towards driving intelligent automation.
- A Sandbox for Global Leadership – GCCs in India have become a sandbox for global leadership, with over 5000 global roles existing in Indian GCCs, 18% of which are women leaders. These global roles are expected to grow to over 20,000 by 2030.
- Masters of Networked Globalization – GCCs in India are not just concentrated to Tier 1 cities, rather expansion to tier 2 and 3 cities are also being leveraged to achieve cost reductions of 25-30%.
- India’s New Talent Code – GCCs in India host multi-generational workforce across boomers, Genx, Millennials, and Gen Z. In addition, they are also embracing newer work models such as gig workforce, focusing on varied motivators such as work-life balance, compensation, culture, diversity, equity, and inclusion among others.
- India’s Journey to Sustainable Value – For GCCs in India, sustainability has become a key imperative and is no longer a good-to-have boardroom agenda. Indian GCCs are intertwining sustainability with their business practices and processes to drive innovation, develop sustainable products, adopt circular economy principles, and provide value to their customers.
Indian GCCs have already built domain expertise and capabilities and are contributing significantly to the overall growth and success of the organizations. The next phase of growth is going to be an exciting one with the transformation from a portfolio to transformation hub is right around the corner.