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Agile Mumbai 19-20 Sep 2025 | How I learnt that GCCs are not Captive ODCs by Avinash Rao
- 1. GCC, not Captive ODC:a story of alignment, value creation and organization building A V I N A S H R A O A G I L E M U M B A I
- 3. Many, many yearsago … when dinosaurs roamed the earth • A little bit of history
- 4. Offshore Development Centers •Indian IT grew with Offshore Development Centers (ODCs)
- 5. Offshore Development Centers •Indian IT grew with Offshore Development Centers (ODCs) • We attribute this to cost arbitrage (1:4 then, but really 1:3 with other transactional costs)
- 6. (underestimated) Superpowers • Theability to break work down (WBS) • Quality as Conformance to Specifications
- 7. (underestimated) Superpowers • Theability to break work down (WBS) • Quality as Conformance to Specifications • Hence the perception that Indian teams ’do as told’ (but they got paid for exactly that)
- 8. GCCs • Captives, GlobalCapability Centers
- 9. GCC – MixedViews
- 10. But … whyGCCs? • Incentives problem • Alignment problem
- 11. Incentives • Who wouldyou promote? • Someone making a client successful • Someone bringing in additional business I would take interviews to prove my commitment!
- 12. Alignment • Why isalignment important, if what you are delivering is Conformance to Specifications?
- 14. Hence, GCCs • Incentives •Alignment • Arbitrage
- 15. A GCC Story •North American products company. • Investor from the US, pumped in multi-million USD. • Planned to open a development center in Bangalore.
- 16. Finding an IndianPartner • There are several players who set up GCCs in India • Believed that aligning culture was more important than speed
- 17. Bad past experiences •Indian employees in the US • “I know someone who sets up … “
- 18. Finding an IndianPartner (not vendor) • The search for the right person to lead the GCC took 8 months. • 100+ candidates. • How can we trust this person we hire? • 5 reference calls of an hour each.
- 19. A decision treefor Belief Level Alignment • We made a decision tree – what branches do we nurture? • What anti-patterns do we avoid? • Which twigs do we trim? • With that we were (somewhat) confident of having alignment.
- 20. Minimum everything –start small, learn and grow • Low paid up capital • WeWork • Learn and Grow, Plug and Play, or Cut and Run?
- 21. How hard isit to set up a team, right? • Hired Product Managers to understand Products to be co-developed • Went to IIM • Then QA • Went to IIT • Then developers …
- 22. But … wecould not get developers! • What! In Bangalore? • ”We want 10X developers” • Now, we had discussed “top” developers
- 23. Inspite of theprep, a culture shock (well #1) • I was aware of the problems with supposedly 10X developers • Investors were shocked at how much they cost in India • Isn’t everything 0.3 to 0.4 of the US? • True top talent in India is expensive!
- 24. IIT / NIT •Easier to hire fresh grads • No experience – great at tech • However: no culture of handholding in the US • “India is more nurturing than the US” is BS … then what explains the behavior?
- 25. Understanding then aligningthe Mental Model • There was a definite timezone penalty • (and for a company that had primarily been in the same timezone)
- 26. Help Alignment –Lets visit each other
- 27. Help Alignment –Lets visit each other • This caused REAL issues – almost led to us becoming a GCC horror statistic
- 28. Help Alignment –Lets visit each other • Why? • Employees don’t clean up after them selves. • Put chairs and leave them out. • The IN employees are so entitled! • (well, maybe a little bit)
- 29. The self-concept • ProudBlue Collar Heritage • How our clients are people who work with their hands - that shows in not leaving a mess for others to clean. • If you don’t understand and respect what they do, how can you build for them? • At the same time, Indian movers and cleaners were not potential customers (whatsapp is free)
- 30. Mind The Gap •Over time, in the US a certain “type” had self-selected into the company • It took the same self-selection in IN – but this loss of people led to bad word of mouth, and experienced people started declining IN offers
- 31. Settling down • Wetry to minimize known-unknowns • But it’s the unknown – unknowns • Part of it is the lack of self awareness
- 32. Lessons • We don’trealize our implicit modes of work until challenged • Took 6 months of daily calls! “belief level alignment” needed • Models of organization
- 33. More lessons • Aswe settled down, decided to sell in India – profit center • Premium product in India! This changes the understanding of the value of the product. • For an Agile audience, also HOW we decide to build – and the role of Product in India
- 34. What are webuilding?
- 35. Epilogue • Unknown –unknowns WILL be uncovered. • Learning via mistakes impact the relationship • Awareness of the risks help.
- 36.