What if the biggest reason a GCC fails has nothing to do with talent or technology—but the city you choose?
Companies worldwide are investing heavily to build in India and other emerging markets, yet nearly 40% of centers underperform in the first two years due to one overlooked factor: a poorly planned location strategy. Choosing the wrong city can quietly drain productivity, inflate costs, and slow down transformation long before anyone realizes.
Whether you're expanding a mature function or setting up your first global capability center, the location decision is far more strategic than most leaders expect.
Expanding into India or other emerging markets to build a world-class GCC is no longer just an operational choice—it's a transformative business decision. Yet, even the most sophisticated companies misjudge their location strategy and encounter challenges that could have been prevented with the right foresight.
In today's hyper-competitive environment, influenced by talent scarcity, geopolitical shifts, and the ai revolution, companies need to evaluate their approach more rigorously than ever. Setting up a GCC is not simply about choosing a city; it's about designing a sustainable operating model that supports scale, innovation, and future-proofing.
Below are the six most common mistakes companies make when designing their location strategy—and how to avoid them.
The most fundamental mistake many leadership teams make when building a GCC is reducing the entire location strategy to real estate availability and commercial rental costs. While infrastructure matters, building a high-performance centre requires evaluating deeper strategic layers.
A GCC is meant to drive efficiency, innovation, and long-term capability building—not just cost savings. Many organizations still treat the process as if they're setting up a captive unit, focusing primarily on physical space rather than strategic alignment. This leads to short-term decisions that fail to support future expansion, advanced technology stacks, or multidisciplinary teams.
A strong location strategy considers talent density, senior leadership availability, university ecosystems, market maturity, and the alignment of local strengths with global business goals. Your office can be perfect—but if the talent is not available, the GCC will underperform.
Another frequent pitfall in GCC planning is focusing only on current hiring requirements, rather than long-term scalability. Companies often get attracted to cities that offer short-term cost advantages but lack depth in niche skills such as cloud engineering, cybersecurity, AI/ML, product engineering, or digital transformation.
A recent KPMG‐NASSCOM study highlights this challenge clearly: over 72% of GCC leaders identified talent availability and capability as their single biggest priority area—far more important than real estate or operating costs.
In evaluating your location strategy, consider not just talent availability today, but whether the city can support your tech roadmap for the next decade. The rise of global in house centres has intensified the competition for niche tech talent, and the wrong location can limit future expansion or drive up hiring costs.
This is where evolving workforce ecosystems matter: universities, startup clusters, research institutions, and emerging technology communities. If these are absent, your GCC may stagnate.
Many companies begin building their GCC without fully understanding state-wise incentives, regulations, IT policies, and labour compliances. This oversight can directly impact operating costs, speed of setup, and future expansion plans.
These regulatory frameworks can differ dramatically between Indian cities, and ignoring them often leads to legal delays or loss of financial advantages.
According to a KPMG India report, regulatory clarity and state-specific tax incentives have become one of the top decision drivers for GCC location selection, with companies increasingly evaluating states on compliance ease, tax benefits, and policy support.
As companies evolve toward Global business services and high-value digital innovation models, these considerations become even more critical.
Many organizations overlook the broader ecosystem that shapes the long-term success of a GCC. Proximity to airports, global connectivity, domestic travel networks, and local infrastructure all influence business agility.
Overlooking these elements can impact leadership mobility, stakeholder engagement, and the ability to attract senior professionals. As the competition intensifies for building advanced technology hubs and a strong gcc hub identity, ecosystem maturity plays a defining role in long-term success.
Every GCC has a different purpose—engineering, operations, R&D, product development, AI, support services, or a mix of functions. Yet many companies replicate an existing playbook without recognizing that their location strategy should reflect the unique capability blueprint they envision.
This often leads to:
If your GCC is required to drive innovation and product excellence, the same location that works for shared services might not work for a high-performance engineering centre. With the rapid evolution of factors of globalization, companies need to adapt their approach instead of copying models from other regions.
The best GCCs in India were built with a “purpose-first” mindset—aligning capabilities, leaders, markets, and talent pools before finalizing locations.
The harsh truth: companies that build a GCC purely for cost savings often end up being the ones that struggle the most.
India is no longer only a cost-arbitrage market. It is a global business hub, a centre for advanced tech, digital engineering, AI/ML, cloud, and product innovation. Yet many organizations still underestimate its ability to deliver global impact.
When leaders restrict their location strategy to cost considerations, they compromise on:
This is why the most successful GCCs today—from fintech to semiconductor to SaaS leaders—treat India as a strategic extension of their global organization.
They leverage India not just to save costs, but to innovate faster, scale smarter, and strengthen global business models.
India's rise as a powerhouse for Global Capability Centers is rooted in value creation—not cost arbitrage.
Avoiding the six mistakes above begins with making your location strategy a holistic, multi-dimensional business decision rather than a rushed administrative task.
Below is the recommended framework companies use when designing high-performing GCCs:
What will this center solve? Innovation? AI? Engineering? Customer excellence? Your location strategy must flow from your capability roadmap.
Map talent availability, niche skills, university output, experience distribution, compensation benchmarks, and leadership density.
GCCs evolve rapidly. A strong location strategy anticipates future skill needs—AI, cloud, DevOps, product, cybersecurity—and ensures a scalable ecosystem.
Partner ecosystems, cloud infra readiness, managed office capabilities, and digital infrastructure upgrade timelines must be evaluated thoroughly.
A city that cannot attract senior leaders cannot run a high-functioning GCC. Leadership density is one of the top three success factors in any location strategy.
Ensure compatibility with the city's IT policy, labour norms, data rules, and international compliance needs for smoother operations.
GCCs succeed when they operate as an extension of the global business—not as an isolated unit. Your location strategy should enable smooth collaboration across time zones and teams.
A GCC is a long-term strategic asset, not a short-term offshore unit. Companies that succeed treat location strategy as an enterprise-level priority—one that shapes talent, innovation, operations, and long-term competitiveness.
With India's rise in digital capabilities and product engineering strength, the opportunity is immense—but only a well-designed location strategy unlocks its full advantage.
Whether you're building a digital engineering centre, scaling AI functions, or creating a multi-function captive unit, the decisions you make today will influence your next decade of growth.
A thoughtful, future-ready location strategy helps you avoid missteps, attract the right talent, and build a GCC that thrives in a global business environment.
At Anlage, we deliver end-to-end GCC solutions—from strategy, location assessment, setup, talent, and long-term scaling.
Contact Us If you're exploring the next phase of your GCC journey!
Location strategy determines your access to talent, operating costs, leadership availability, ecosystem maturity, scalability, and long-term performance. A poor location choice can limit growth and innovation.
Key factors include talent availability, regulatory environment, connectivity, cost of operations, ecosystem maturity, infrastructure quality, and alignment with the GCC's long-term capability roadmap.
Tier 1 cities offer deeper talent pools and mature ecosystems, while Tier 2 cities offer cost benefits and emerging talent. The choice depends on the GCC's purpose, scale, and capability needs.
Yes. A mismatched location can lead to talent shortages, higher attrition, reduced leadership density, and increased hiring costs—directly affecting GCC performance.
Anlage provides end-to-end GCC solutions including strategy, location assessment, setup, talent acquisition, compliance, and ongoing operations to help companies build high-impact centers in India.
Gaurav Chawla, COO of Anlage Infotech, emphasized the transformative role of AI-powered analytics in HR at the 5th Edition of the GCC Summit 2024. Highlighting predictive analysis and smart tool utilization, he shared how these technologies can cut hiring cycle times by up to 60%, driving greater efficiency. The event took place at GMR Aerocity Hyderabad.
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