Pre-GCC planning isn’t one-time meetings or a high-level feasibility plan. When done properly, it’s an organized plan that spans a period of time — usually lasting between 8 and 16 weeks that provides concrete, action-ready outputs in six areas.

Domain 1: Strategic Alignment

The most frequent GCC failure is a confusion to what GCC is designed to accomplish and what the business that it is a part of actually requires from it. Planning for the GCC ahead of time starts with answering an incredibly simple question What business issue does this GCC solve and what is the best way to determine if it’s solving it?

This involves interviewing key stakeholders across the roles that the GCC will be serving and mapping the existing process issues as well as defining operational metrics for the GCC’s target and setting up a 3-year value realization plan before any hires are made.

Domain 2: Operating Model Selection

There isn’t a universally accepted GCC operating model that is universally correct. The ideal choice will depend on the risk-appetite of the business as well as its budget, timeline and long-term goals.

• Model of Captive: Enterprise owns the entity and employs the team and oversees every aspect of the operation. Most control; the highest set-up complexity and expense.
• Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT): A specialist partner builds and operates the GCC for an agreed period (typically 2-3 years), then transfers ownership to the enterprise. It reduces the risk of early stage failure; it requires careful contract structure.
• Managed by a partner A partner is able to retain the operational control on a regular basis. Low commitment; suited for areas where the business does not require direct control over talent.
• Hybrid: Combines private ownership of strategic functions along with partners in the management of commodity functions. It is gaining popularity with mid-market businesses.

Model selection for operating must be made in the Pre-GCC phase — not after the entity is registered and leases have been signed. Modifying models during set-up can be costly and can be disruptive.

Domain 3: Compliance and Legal Readiness

The Indian regulatory environment for foreign-owned enterprises is well-structured however, it requires a skilled navigation. The pre-GCC compliance process covers the choice of type of entity (Private Limited vs. LLP or Branch Office), foreign direct investment (FDI) approval requirements as well as transfer pricing frameworks GST registration, compliance with labour laws in the state of choice as well as data localisation requirements in the context of the Indian Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA).

Enterprises should also know the specific requirements for licensing. A thorough explanation of the process can be found in our article: how to get an GCC licence within India. Making this mistake can cause months of delays and a huge legal fees.

Domain 4: Talent Assessment

A city that has a lot of general IT talent may not be necessarily the ideal city to host your GCC. The pre-GCC talent assessment is more in-depth by mapping out the specific skills that the GCC requires, comparing the demand and supply of the skills required in cities of interest and analyzing salary data by the role and level of seniority, evaluating attrition rates in similar GCCs and establishing an accelerated hiring strategy that is based on the local market for talent.

A GCC which is planning to recruit 200 Python data engineers in the city in which fifteen GCCs are already in the race to hire the same pool of talent will be faced with a completely different time-to-hire as well as a different cost model than the budgetary model.

Domain 5: Cost-Benefit Analysis and ROI Modelling

The financial modeling for pre-GCC needs to be precise but not direction-based. It must include costs for setting up (entity registration office fit-out IT infrastructure, the initial hiring) and operating costs that are steady-state (salaries benefits, salaries as well as technology, real estate and management overhead) and cost of transition (knowledge transfer cost, duplication of running expenses as the business ramps up) and a reasonable timeframe for breaking even versus the expense of the job on the domestic market.

Companies that rely on the high-level ’60 percent cost savings assumptions, without developing an bottom-up model often find that the actual savings are more like 30-40%. This is still important, but not as much as the board of directors approved.

Domain 6: Governance and Leadership Design

A GCC that is not clearly defined governance framework will drift. Governance design for pre-GCC includes the structure of reporting that is shared between GCC and the parent company as well as the authority and role that the local GCC management team, the escalation pathways for strategic and operational decisions as well as performance measurement frameworks and the approach to cultural integration which will stop GCC from becoming an isolated entity. GCC in becoming an independent off-shore unit instead of being an integral element of the business.