Present times: New GCC setup is back in vogue. Everybody pays a visit to India, scouting for office spaces and announces bold ambitions to turn India into their nerve center of AI and innovation hub and what not ! Meanwhile, a NASSCOM research predicts lofty head count additions until 2030. Everybody claps, clicks, cuts the ribbon of a shiny new office at that fancy IT district.

5 years hence: Somewhere in the Boardroom of a North American / European MNC, the big boss asks, “Where are we?” Translation: Where’s the money?

Innovation must equal profit. A GCC not meeting the sacrosanct Captive Critical Mass (CCM) – the internal billing from cumulative billing that negates its year-to-date expenditure suddenly starts to look like a problem child.

A GCC that doesn’t pay for itself is a burden. Like a piece of sugary and sticky candy stuck between the teeth – it’s annoying and needs to go.

If the lesson from early entrant GCCs from the manufacturing sector is anything to go by, there is a lot to learn for the new kids on the block. History will repeat for those who refuse to learn from it.