GCC consulting, from people who have built GCCs.

Advice on setting up, scaling or fixing a Global Capability Centre: a centre a company owns and staffs itself to run global work such as engineering, finance, analytics or operations, rather than outsourcing it. In practice an engagement covers some combination of location and entity, the operating model and mandate, leadership and talent, and the transition once the centre is live. You will see the same work called GCC advisory, GCC setup consulting, or simply consulting for GCCs. The labels differ, the four decisions underneath do not.

There are three common shapes. Global firms usually quote a fixed fee for a defined study, and the number scales with the seniority you are buying. Build-Operate-Transfer providers price per seat or per head with a transfer fee later, so the real cost is in the transfer terms rather than the monthly rate. Practitioner engagements like ours are priced per consultation or per mandate. Our expert honorarium range is $200–$500 an hour; the client quote adds the matching, screening and engagement work on top, and we state it in full before anything is booked. Be wary of any firm that will not put the post-go-live cost in writing at the start.

Not always. If your company already runs an Indian entity, has someone senior who has done it before, and is clear about what the centre will own, you can run the build yourself, and 2,399 of the centres we track are captives the company owns outright, against 21 recorded as Build-Operate-Transfer. Outside advice earns its place on the decisions that are expensive to reverse: the city, the entity and tax structure, and the first leadership hire. If the answer is that you do not need us, we would rather say so.

Entity incorporation and the first office are usually a matter of months. Reaching a stable operating rhythm takes longer, and earning a real mandate takes longer still: of the centres we track that were founded before 2015, 69% have reached Gen 3 or Gen 4 maturity. Anyone quoting you a single timeline is describing incorporation, not capability.

It depends on the work and the seniority you need, not on a ranking. Bengaluru has the deepest pool and the fiercest competition at 1,384 centres. Hyderabad is growing fastest and is unusually strong in pharma and life sciences. Pune and Chennai sit in between with engineering and manufacturing depth, and Delhi NCR concentrates on financial services and professional work. We publish the base data for each city rather than a recommendation, because the right answer is genuinely specific to you.

Ownership. In a GCC the people are your employees, the IP is yours, and the mandate can grow into work you would never hand to a vendor. In outsourcing you buy an outcome from someone else’s organisation. The economics look similar in year one and diverge sharply after that. The longer explainer is here.

We are not a firm with a bench to keep busy. You get a named practitioner who has run the thing you are asking about, for a specific question or a defined mandate, and we tell you when the honest answer is that you do not need us. We also publish the underlying data rather than keeping it behind a proposal: the 4,641 centres in the database, the city breakdowns and the research are all open on this site.

Yes. India is where the depth is (2,533 of the centres we verify), but the database covers 4,641 centres across 44 countries, and our practitioners have built and run capability outside India too. Tell us the market you are considering and we will be straight about whether we can help.

Public capability profiles are anonymised. Applications are private; applying does not publish your name, employer or contact details. GCCPROs reviews your full identity and credentials privately. Clients receive a limited capability profile that excludes your name, contact details, LinkedIn URL, employer names and ID documents. A distinctive career history or voice can still be recognisable; this is not a promise of complete anonymity.

No. This is the honorarium range offered for selected expert engagements, before applicable deductions. Client quotes include expert time and the agreed matching, screening and engagement services. Taxes, preparation and cancellation terms must be stated in the quote.

Our default is no recording, transcription, publication or AI training. Any exception requires separate, explicit consent and a defined purpose, access policy and retention period.

The profiles illustrate capability areas rather than available individual consultants. Select the experience you need and submit a project brief. Our team will confirm fit, availability, permitted topics and a client quote before any engagement is booked.

Start with a specific question. If implementation support is needed, scope a consulting project or fractional mandate with agreed deliverables, fees and responsibilities. Fractional leadership typically requires a named appointment with the expert’s consent.