In an exclusive interview, Anand Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, EQ, India, gave insights into the Indian GCC. During the discussion, Ramakrishnan delved into the strategies and actions that have been instrumental in the evolution of the Indian GCC.
The interview was a deep dive into the groundwork that Equiniti India has been laying to embrace the future, marking the transition to a full-fledged GCC 4.0. The emphasis on innovation, collaboration, and adaptability emerged as key themes, signifying the Indian GCC’s pivotal role in the company’s continued growth and global influence.
Excerpts below:
How has foresight and agility propelled Equiniti India into GCC 4.0?
India’s growth as the top destination for global competency centres has continued unabated for nearly two decades. Equiniti, a leading provider of professional shareholder, pension, and remediation services in the UK and the US, ventured into this vibrant ecosystem in 2014, opening a centre in Chennai to bring outsourced technology and operations in-house. Since then, Equiniti India has been on an accelerated path to realize its vision of a transformation hub for the parent company, with two centres across Bangalore and Chennai. According to the latest Nasscom Zinnov research, the conversation today centres around GCC 4.0, which will go beyond a transformation hub to serve as a value driver for the parent company. EQ India is one of the few GICs that are on this path.
How can the Indian GCC of a global firm evolve into a transformation and value-creation partner for HQ?
The importance of clarity of vision cannot be overstated. The factors for success are in place for any firm that sets up a GCC in India: cost, talent, a strong ITeS legacy, and a globally recognized start-up ecosystem. Given this, the distinguishing factor that will help an Indian GCC pull away from the 2.0 and 3.0 categories of serving as a satellite office or a portfolio hub into a strategic partner to the parent is the vision from the parent and India’s leadership.
In our case, this vision played out in the form of a fast-tracked journey. From our initial days as an operations back-office, we matured into a portfolio hub within two years handling people services marketing and sales support, business operations, and finance shared services. The accelerated pace continued thereon with the establishment of cybersecurity frameworks of an international standard, the creation of Centres of Excellence that anchored areas of expertise for the organization, Lean and Six Sigma programs, and a forward-looking talent strategy that supported diversity, personalized career growth, and well-being. Currently, a quarter of Equiniti’s global workforce operates in India demonstrating the importance of India to the company’s future plans.
Every GCC and its parent must leverage ecosystem strengths and learnings and align them with strategic priorities to evolve India into a true partner. The multinationals that are now setting up GCCs in India are illustrating this by setting up centres with advanced capabilities almost from the beginning.
How have you been laying the groundwork to transform into a full-fledged GCC 4.0?
The GCC of the future will be considerably different from what it is today. It will help deliver the transformation agenda, solve business problems, and enable profit generation rather than just saving costs. NASSCOM Zinnov research recommends that a GCC develop niche capabilities, cultivate global leadership, monetize services, and venture into untapped frontiers.
Our financial services CoE (Centre of Excellence) is bringing company-wide finance processes onto a single platform as a part of a transformation effort. From India, we are building solutions on the cloud that are secure, compliant for highly regulated markets, and can be customized for international clients. We are moving some of our core shareholder operations from the US to India to further drive transformation. Each new step we take is focused on value creation and customer-centricity, so we can work shoulder-to-shoulder with our global colleagues to serve our customers better.
