GCC competitive advantage

Why GCC operating models offer a new competitive advantage

Photographic portrait of Kunal Ghatak
Kunal Ghatak

Partner, Global Business Services, EY India

5 minute read 15 May 2026

As GCCs mature, their operating models determine how they drive capability building, faster decision‑making and business transformation.

In brief

  • GCCs are evolving from execution centers to strategic engines, shifting from centralized models to hybrid and autonomous hubs with broader ownership.
  • As GCCs mature, service delivery, talent, governance, real estate, partnerships and AI advance in tandem, enabling faster decision-making and deeper enterprise impact.
  • Organizations now select GCC models based on autonomy and transformation goals, with hybrid and autonomous structures leading innovation and AI‑led growth.

Global Capability Centers are changing. What were once cost‑efficient execution arms are now becoming strategic co‑pilots and, in some cases, autonomous hubs. Many GCCs work closely with business teams to drive strategic initiatives and enterprise transformation, while others retain a tighter execution focus.

This evolution is driven by three forces: Digital and process advancements, rising pressure on local teams to scale with fewer resources, and a maturing global talent market capable of end‑to‑end ownership. As a result, organizations are making more deliberate choices about leadership empowerment and decision rights within their GCCs. There is no single right answer — the outcomes depend on operating‑model choices around authority, autonomy and accountability.

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A model-wise view

Extended office

The extended office is the most traditional GCC construct. It is designed primarily for cost‑efficient, standardized delivery under close headquarter, region and business unit oversight. Strategy, budgets, technology choices, and policy decisions remain centralized, while the GCC focuses on execution at scale.
 

Leadership empowerment is limited, governance is centralized, and success is measured largely through cost-efficiency and SLA adherence. This model continues to be relevant for risk‑sensitive, transaction‑heavy work and for organizations at an early stage of their GCC journey.
 

Best suited for stable operations, regulatory‑heavy functions and early‑stage GCCs.
 

Hybrid office

The hybrid model represents a deliberate shift toward shared ownership. Headquarters hold strategic direction, while GCCs assume greater responsibility for execution excellence, process redesign and selective innovation. Decision rights are distributed, supported by dual reporting structures and joint GCC governance frameworks. This model is the preferred choice across industries. At EY Conclave 2025 in Pune, 68% of GCC leaders indicated a preference for hybrid models, signaling a clear pivot toward agility without fully decentralizing control1.
 

Best suited for organizations balancing control with speed, scaling digital and analytics capabilities, and innovating with ambitions for collaborative growth.
 

GCC-owned / managed model (autonomous hub)

In the GCC-owned or managed model, the center operates as an autonomous value hub with end to end ownership across delivery, talent, budgets and innovation. GCC leadership reports directly to enterprise leadership and is accountable for outcomes, not just capacity.
 

These GCCs go beyond service delivery to drive continuous improvement, incubate enterprise capabilities, and shape global transformation agendas. This represents the highest level of maturity and leadership empowerment.
 

Best suited for enterprises pursuing AI led transformation, product and platform ownership and global capability leadership.

The GCC maturity journey

This differentiation in the choice of operating models is driven by a core set of strategic levers — service delivery, governance, talent, real estate strategy, partnerships, change management and AI adoption or readiness — which we explore in the next section. These are not independent trends; they are tightly coupled to the operating model.

GCC operating model: Models to levers

Service delivery effectiveness 

Extended offices prioritize predictable, cost efficient execution against HQ defined workflows, measured through cost and service line agreements (SLA) compliance. Hybrid GCCs improve effectiveness by locally redesigning processes and sharing accountability for outcomes, delivering gains in cycle time and quality. Autonomous hubs take this further by owning end to end services and linking performance to enterprise key performance indicators (KPIs), such as customer experience and working capital impact. As maturity increases, service line agreements evolve from volume based to value based metrics emphasizing reliability, responsiveness and exception handling.

Example: A Hyderabad BFSI GCC operates as an autonomous hub, supporting 60+ countries and 10 million+ monthly transactions with full end‑to‑end ownership.

Recruitment and talent strategy design

Extended office GCCs hire primarily for execution depth and scale efficiency. Hybrid GCCs blend domain expertise with automation, analytics and process improvement skills. Autonomous hubs design intentional capability portfolios with a strong emphasis on techno‑functional leadership and product‑oriented roles.

Example: A mature Japanese tech GCC is scaling as an autonomous hub, with US$100 million investment, thousands of hires and end to end product ownership.

Smart real estate and workplace strategy 

Real estate evolves from seat based capacity planning to enabling higher value delivery. Extended offices optimize density and compliance. Hybrid GCCs introduce collaboration zones and joint command centers. Autonomous hubs design spaces for solution design, operations oversight and secure global collaboration. Increasingly, real estate is viewed as a lever for productivity and talent, rather than merely a cost line item.

Example: A global retail giant — have evolved to include advanced physical environments, including full scale store mock-ups and simulation zones that enable teams to visualize, test, and refine end to end service journeys.

Partnerships with startups

Partnership models mirror autonomy levels. Extended offices engage startups tactically for narrow pilots. Hybrid GCCs run co innovation programs under enterprise sponsorship. Autonomous hubs institutionalize ecosystem partnerships through dedicated labs and long term alliances, accelerating time to value and scaling innovation faster.

Example: An Indian automotive GCC operates as a hybrid/autonomous hub, partnering with 90+ startups and driving 10+ joint GTM models in mobility and AI. 

Ease of change management 

Extended offices rely on HQ led direction. Hybrid models use shared objectives and key results (OKRs) and governance forums. Autonomous hubs embed change through local ownership, outcome based KPIs and rapid decision cycles.

Example: An Indian HR tech GCC has scaled into an autonomous hub with end to end product, engineering, and AI governance ownership enabled by rapid, local decision cycles.

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What does this mean for GCC leaders? 

GCC maturity is no longer linear; it is structural. Operating models define the ceiling of influence and value creation. Enterprise outcomes increasingly depend on how leaders activate levers across service delivery, talent, real estate, partnerships, change readiness and AI adoption. Extended offices remain essential for stability and risk‑sensitive execution, while hybrid models are becoming the default, balancing global control with local speed. Autonomous hubs mark the frontier, with end‑to‑end ownership across delivery, talent, transformation, and the AI operating layer. As AI adoption scales, mature hubs are moving beyond execution to actively shape enterprise direction through deeper capability ownership and faster decision‑making.
 

Contributors:

  • Kirti Gupta, Senior Manager, Business Consulting, EY India
  • Anjali Sunil, Senior Consultant, Business Consulting, EY India
  • Shobana Muralidharan, Senior Consultant, Business Consulting, EY India

Summary

The GCC differentiator is not talent or tools in isolation, but coherence between strategic ambition and operating design. GCCs that intentionally align their operating model, including AI adoption maturity, with the level of autonomy they seek, and shape governance, capabilities and culture accordingly, progress beyond incremental optimization. This alignment enables enterprise wide impact, faster innovation, and AI driven agility. Without it, even well resourced GCCs risk plateauing, delivering efficiency gains but falling short of the strategic value and transformation outcomes that enterprises expect.

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    About this article

    Photographic portrait of Kunal Ghatak
    Kunal Ghatak
    Partner, Global Business Services, EY India
    A seasoned leader with extensive experience across various industries and functions in the design, implementation and enhancement of Global Capability Centers across Asia, Europe and Africa.
    Related topics
    Consulting
    Growth
    Technology
    AI
    Digital

    EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients.