As GCCs become enterprise-wide transformation engines, leaders need to balance innovation with operational rigour. In an exclusive conversation with CXO Media, Debasis Panda, Senior Vice President, Operations and Head, TransUnion GCCs, explains how the transformative impact of AI on leadership models in the GCC compels leaders to embrace ‘augmented operating’ models.
Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India are expected to grow at 11–12% CAGR through 2029, with potential to accelerate to 14–15% if better aligned with global HQs. From your perspective, how are leadership models evolving to strengthen this GCC-HQ alignment and what role do local leaders play in driving global integration?
As GCC leadership models shift from operational oversight to strategic integration, GCC leaders have moved beyond operational roles to become functional leaders with end-to-end business accountability. This evolution has been driven by the need for tighter alignment with HQs, especially as GCCs transition into enterprise transformation hubs. Local leaders play a key role by acting as a cultural bridge — translating global mandates into locally executable strategies while feeding back market insights and innovation.
For example, the TransUnion GCC India is a global value centre with nearly a third of our global workforce and approximately 80 senior leaders based in India. These leaders work with their global teams to drive enterprise-wide transformation across 30 countries. They are focused on analytics, customer services, global operations and technology. Their role isn’t just the translation of global mandates into local execution; it’s to co-architect them and build platforms like the single intelligent data platform that powers our global strategy.
Traditionally, GCCs were cost arbitrage hubs. Today, they are evolving into value and innovation centres. How is this shift influencing leadership structures—are leaders in India being given more autonomy to shape global strategy and how are they balancing global vs. local mandates?
Today, GCC leaders’ co-own global product lifecycles, drive AI-led transformation and influence enterprise-wide strategy. Autonomy is balanced with accountability — leaders need to tailor execution to the strengths of the local market as well as ensure alignment with global KPIs. The emergence of ‘Global Process Owners’ and shared leadership models reflects this balance with faster, more integrated decision-making and innovation. We focus on collaboration to better understand the teams and markets we support.
When we speak of the TransUnion GCC India, we lead strategic global initiatives across many processes. These are not local pilots — they are global solutions, conceptualised and executed by our GCC leaders from India. They operate collaboratively but hold accountability for the global business.
With GCCs now housing over 1.9 million professionals in India, leadership is tasked with building future-ready talent pools in AI, digital engineering and cybersecurity. What new leadership capabilities are emerging as critical to nurture this specialised workforce?
The ability to balance technology fluency and people fluency is the key to a prepared workforce today. GCC leaders are now the talent architects who not only nurture specialised talent in artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity and digital engineering, but also empower legacy talent to embrace such capabilities.
We are encouraged to think about agile workforce planning, cross-discipline mentoring and ecosystem orchestration, not just the ‘how’ but the ‘why’. Structured mentoring is also seen as a strategic business priority, focused on more inclusive leadership decisions. We place equal emphasis on industry-academia partnerships to co-create future-ready professionals and build a skilled talent pool across India.
As GCCs increasingly drive enterprise-wide digital transformation for their parent organisations, what leadership frameworks are proving most effective to foster innovation and experimentation while maintaining operational excellence?
As GCCs become enterprise-wide transformation engines, leaders need to balance innovation with operational rigour. The most effective frameworks combine agile governance, design thinking and digital-first operating models. Leaders are adopting ‘dual-speed’ strategies — to run stable operations and incubate innovation pods simultaneously. Cross-functional squads, empowered decision-making, and fail-fast cultures act as key enablers. Leadership is also becoming more outcome-driven, with KPIs tied to innovation velocity, customer experience and business impact.
Since AI is now being integrated into talent management, decision-making and operational strategy, how are GCC leaders rethinking their roles-are we moving toward “augmented leadership models” where AI complements human leadership judgment?
The transformative impact of AI on leadership models in the GCC compels leaders to embrace ‘augmented operating’ models for enhancing productivity, improving risk management and better workforce planning. This doesn’t replace human judgment but complements it.
The emerging model blends human intuition with machine intelligence to support GCC leaders with enhanced data-driven decisions. For example, AI can help identify skill gaps and personalise learning journeys for employees. It thereby allows our leaders to make more informed, empathetic decisions related to their employees’ professional development.
In the post-pandemic era, GCC leaders must manage hybrid teams across geographies. What leadership traits are emerging as most effective in sustaining collaboration, productivity and innovation in this distributed model?
A hybrid workforce allows GCCs like ours to access a readily available, skilled talent pool across regions and geographies — with digital fluency, empathy and inclusive communication. Leaders are deeply invested in asynchronous workflows, collaboration tools and culture-building rituals to ensure trust-based team management. Such a distributed model is an enabler for GCCs to expand their presence and take on greater leadership responsibilities. It contributes to accelerated innovation, improved agility and brings decision-making closer to the customer.
We exemplify this trend in employee-driven, peer-led models such as TU Connect to create continuous learning interventions throughout our employees’ lifecycle and sustain engagement across our Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune operations.
Looking ahead, what new archetypes of GCC leadership do you foresee emerging—Chief Value Officers, Global Transformation Leaders or AI-augmented decision-makers? How should current leaders prepare themselves for this next wave of GCC evolution?
GCC leadership is increasingly focused on the ability to integrate AI into core decision-making, drive transformation across borders and deliver enterprise-wide value. To prepare, leaders must prioritise continuous learning, cross-domain expertise and systems thinking. Leadership development programs should also include AI fluency, global cultural intelligence and stakeholder management.
At the TransUnion GCC India, our leaders are embedding AI into decision-making — not just for external products but internal functions, including human resources (HR) and operations. Having said that, human oversight remains integral to all critical decisions. We invest in hands-on training through global capability expansion and with hackathons to support them on their leadership journey. Such an approach helps leaders to become future-ready — not only as a functional head but also as a value creator.
