Getting the context
How serious is a GCC along the entrepreneurial journey, comes with the understanding that GCC is an ecosystem holding the future developments of your business, brand, revenues, growth and people.
Think of it which is as sensitive as a country's Nuclear Research Center. Though not to that extent, but at least in terms of employee overlaps between you and other companies - you cannot afford to have your GCC-associated employees to discuss even 1 byte of data about what's happening inside there. GCC is as good as your company's conscience, the mind, the master brain - hence you cannot afford to allow others to read your mind, do you?
GCC-as-a-Service (GaaS)
Key Indian IT Players & GaaS Providers:
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Accenture: Accenture’s ANSR acquisition to reshape enterprise innovation and business strategy
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Infosys: Has a dedicated GCC practice (Project Altius) and a dedicated leader for its GCC business.
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Wipro: Wipro has named industry stalwart Sandeep Dhar as the Global Head of its GCC practice.
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HCLTech: Appointed a dedicated head for its GCC business.
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Tech Mahindra: Actively expanding its GCC offerings.
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LTIMindtree: Offers GaaS via its BlueVerse ecosystem for building innovation hubs.
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Cognizant: Scaled its GCC services under a new Global Head.
Stop doing whatever you are doing and first setup your micro GCC; or take GCC-as-a-Service to begin with. Go for micro GCC if you aspire to have your own full-fledged GCC in future. "Capability overhang" is a reality set to hit Indian companies from all industries very soon. Yes, your employees brought ChatGPT, Claude or other AI Tools into your value chain. If you don't streamline "talent orchestration" through a GCC-like model, these efforts will fizz out like thin air passing out through a defunct balloon. You don't need a GCC for AI Agents, Agentic Automation etc. Your primary purpose of a GCC should be to bring your organization's capability to a globally sustainable level with the vast usage of AI for 2 main reasons - Stay ahead of your customers / users / consumers; and ensure continuous optimization of profits. Remember that guy who posted fake damaged-food photos to fool Swiggy / Zomato and went on to claim refunds? That's an indicator of potential "capability overhang" among these brands.
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Reason 1: Control over intelligence, not just labor
Every industry is becoming a thinking industry. Data, automation, AI, compliance logic, customer signals - these are now core organs, not accessories. A GCC (or Micro-GCC, or GCC-as-a-Service) lets an entrepreneur internalize critical intelligence instead of renting it piecemeal from vendors who also serve competitors. This is about sovereignty over how your business learns, decides, and improves. Firms that don’t own this layer end up fast, cheap, and replaceable - until they aren’t fast anymore.
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Reason 2: Structural resilience in a volatile world
Markets now wobble by default: talent shortages, cost shocks, regulation shifts, tech resets. GCC models convert fixed fragility into modular strength. You can scale up, down, sideways, or reinvent functions without tearing the company apart. That flexibility isn’t operational convenience - it’s survival math. Businesses that can reconfigure themselves cheaply and repeatedly outlive those optimized only for yesterday’s efficiency.
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Reason 3: Stock markets reward operating systems, not just outcomes
Modern markets increasingly price predictability, scalability, and data maturity - not just quarterly profits. A GCC signals that the company has an internal engine for analytics, automation, compliance, and forecasting. This reduces execution risk and earnings volatility, which markets quietly love. Over time, this shows up as valuation multiple expansion, not because revenues magically spike, but because the business looks less like a gamble and more like a machine.
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Reason 4: Competition can copy products; they struggle to copy reflexes
Features, pricing, even talent can be replicated. What’s hard to clone is a company that senses market shifts early and responds faster. A GCC sharpens those reflexes - real-time insights, faster experiments, quicker pivots. While competitors debate, you iterate. While they outsource thinking, you compound it. The edge isn’t dramatic disruption; it’s relentless, quiet outlearning - and markets tend to crown those who adapt first and apologize later.
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Overview
Taken together, GCCs act like a force multiplier: investors see lower risk and higher optionality, while competitors feel like they’re always half a move behind. In the long run, that gap widens without making noise - which is how durable advantages usually behave. GCCs are not about geography or cost arbitrage anymore. They are about owning cognition and engineering adaptability. In a future that rewards organisms over monuments, this is less a strategy and more an immune system. However, India will remain to be the most preferred geography for GCCs to operate given their ability to centralize globalization, instant mitigation of risks stemming from single-geo GCC ops and the carryforward of all benefits which entrepreneurs receive by working with Indian talent.
