An evening with Ms Mamatha Madireddy
Introduction
On May 23, we had an insightful session by Ms Mamata Madireddy, head of the HSBC Global Service Centres in India. In the 2025-26 budget, the Honourable Finance Minister spoke about a national framework for GCCs for tier 2 and tier 3 cities. This shows how important GCCs have become for our economy. Indeed, they are playing and will continue to play an important role in contributing to Viksit Bharat.
About Ms Mamatha Madireddy
Ms Mamatha Madireddy is the Managing Director & Head of HSBC Global Service Centres (GSCs), India. She brings 28 years of experience across the Banking and Financial Services industries. In her 23 years with HSBC, Ms Madireddy has worked across diverse domains. Prior to joining HSBC, she was with HDFC Bank.
An inclusive leader, Ms Madireddy sponsors several diversity initiatives at the GSCs and mentors many women. She also serves as the Sustainability Lead for HSBC Global Service Centres.
Ms Madireddy is the Honorary Vice Chairperson of United Way of Hyderabad, Chair of the NASSCOM GCC Council, and a member of the NASSCOM Executive Council. She was the first to lead HYSEA's Women Leaders Forum during 2021–22. She is on the Board of Directors of India’s first BFSI Consortium. She is also an Executive Council Member of the Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC), where she leads the Women’s Forum.
Ms Madireddy won the CXO BFSI Women Achiever Award at the CXO BFSI Automation Summit & Awards 2021.
Ms Madireddy is also an acclaimed Indian classical dancer and has represented the country at various international festivals.
What is a GCC?
GCC refers to a captive, or an offshore centre of a multinational company, that operates in India for many reasons: for managing business operations, driving innovation, enabling digital transformation.
On why India is the GCC capital of the world
India is called the GCC capital of the world. About 17% of the world's GCCs are in India. This is mainly because of the availability of talent. Globally, we account for about 28% of the world's STEM workforce and 23% of the world's software engineering talent.
In the GCC space, both India and China rank high on maturity. But India has a far more affordable, scalable English-speaking workforce, with an open innovation ecosystem.
On the growth of GCCs in India
The growth of GCCs in the last 5–6 years has been phenomenal. Today there are more than 1,700 distinct GCCs in the country, and about 3,000 individual units. (HSBC is one GCC but there are 6 different locations in the country, and each of them is a unit.) And these GCCs have been growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 4.6% since 2019. Some 1.9 million professionals are employed in Indian GCCs today. This number has been growing at about 6.3% CAGR over the last 5 years. Today it is a $64.6 billion industry. Out of this $36.4 bn comes from engineering and R&D and other complex value adding work. The revenue is growing at about 9.8% CAGR.
Today, the GCCs have become innovation engines and strategic growth hubs for the parent enterprise. What we are seeing is India's evolution into the world's preferred capability destination.
GCCs largely started off with the Americas. So, over the last 5 years we have seen a 27% increase in the number of GCCs from the Americas. Companies like PepsiCo, Airbnb and Micron are significantly deepening their footprint in the country.
EMEA region saw a 40–41% growth in the same period. But we have seen the highest growth in the last 5 years in APAC, a 65% increase in the number of GCCs from 85 to about 140 today. These include well-known companies like Toyota, NAB, MFG. Thus, India is becoming a truly global GCC hub and is today supporting multi-region enterprises.
Diversification across sectors
We are also seeing a diversification across sectors. GCCs historically, have been very heavily biased towards BFSI. But today we are also seeing GCCs in Pharma, Entertainment, Life sciences and Automotive. Warner Brothers has a GCC in Hyderabad. McDonald’s opened a GCC in Hyderabad a few months black. Who would have imagined that one day, global marketing campaigns would be designed in Hyderabad for MNCs?
By 2030, according to a Nasscom Zinnov report, we will see a massive leap both in terms of scale and the strategic relevance. The $64.6 billion industry today is expected to cross $100 billion by 2030. The 1,700 plus GCCs today are expected to be anywhere between 2,100 to 2,200 by 2030. And the 3000+ GCC units are expected to cross 4,300 by 2030. The 1.9 million workforce today will touch between 2.5 and 2.8 million by 2030.
Along with the increase in numbers, we are also seeing a big shift towards high end capabilities like engineering, analytics, AI. We are also seeing a lot of leadership roles moving to India.
On some key themes
In terms of governance, compliance, cyber readiness, operational capability, the GCCs today are at par with global enterprises. And we are seeing a focus on further bridging the value gap and scaling leadership capabilities and accountability.
We are also seeing a symbiotic relationship between the GCCs and the third party service providers. Historically, the GCCs and Service providers were perceived to be in competition for the same business. Today, they are collaborating to drive faster delivery, ecosystem integration and co-create models for transformation.
There has also been an expansion of global, decision-making capabilities in the GCCs. Today, there are about 6,500 global roles in the GCCs. This number is expected to cross 30,000 by 2030. Another encouraging trend is the rise of women in global leadership roles. Around 2,019, the number was about 300. Today, the number is 1,100 plus. By 2030, that number is expected to reach 7,500.
Another lever driving the GCC transformation is the talent that India has for AI and machine learning. GCCs in India are establishing AI centres of excellence and embedding intelligence into core operations and decision making. AI in general and Gen AI in particular are being extensively used in the GCCs. As per the Nasscom Zinnov report, there are 500 GCCs in India who have already embedded AI capabilities into their operations. About 120,000 AI and ML professionals are working in the GCCs.
In short, India is no longer a place for cost arbitrage. GCCs are core and central to the global value chain of the organizations.
On the evolution of GCCs
The industry has gone through 4 stages of evolution.
Wave 1 was all about cost and took advantage of India as a cheaper place to do work. That is how most of the organizations which started 25–30 years back started as pure, low-cost service delivery centres.
In Wave 2, the GCCs started to become centres of delivery excellence. They moved away from being pure play support functions to more integrated delivery roles.
Wave 3: Most GCCs have gone beyond Wave 3. They own portfolios and drive digital transformation. In this phase, we have also seen the rise of global roles, increasing adoption of AI, new talent, and a shift towards more global business structures. Many GCCs are also moving into tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
Wave 4: This is where the GCCs will become true transformation hubs.
Not all GCCs follow the same maturity curve
Not all the GCCs entering India today are going through the whole maturity curve like some of the older GCCs. They are coming anywhere between Wave 3 or Wave 4 and driving innovation, transformation and re-engineering capabilities for the organizations.
On the next frontier
The next frontier for GCCs is about deepening domain expertise, becoming centres of innovation and digital transformation. It is about driving inclusive and sustainable growth. Sustainability is not a good to have or side goal for the GCCs anymore.
Decision making and global roles are coming to the GCCs. The key question is: Do we have the relevant talent? Is the talent coming out of the universities and colleges relevant for today and for tomorrow?
It is not just about hiring. It is about shaping skills for tomorrow. So GCCs are investing a lot in internal capabilities. They are also trying to create agile, cross-functional and Digital First mindsets and capabilities within the GCCs. Agility is no longer a good to have factor but an absolute necessity because roles are fluid. And we are also seeing a big cultural shift with a focus on aspects like collaboration and learning. There is a new emphasis on building leaders who understand global business, who can manage diversity across genders, generations, cultures.
So many GCCs are focusing on curating programs that can cultivate adaptive, inclusive and strategic thinkers. Each individual GCC is working on it. But it’s an industry wide topic as well.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are an absolute must in most of the organizations. DEI is being looked at as a growth driver, and not necessarily as a compliance agenda. The questions being asked are: How do we create a team that can thrive in a diverse culture? How do we incorporate inclusivity in our hiring, in skilling, in leadership and in the workplace culture?
Concluding remarks
The GCCs are forging partnerships with many universities to ensure reskilling and upskilling. Here the questions being asked are: How do we co-create the right talent ecosystem in the country? How do we partner with universities? How do we co-create the right curriculum? How do we ensure that graduates from the universities and colleges are ready talent available for the GCC organizations to hire from. In this context, there was a Nasscom GCC conclave in April.
So, in short, we must reimagine the future of GCCs. It is about relevance through reinvention, resilience through collaboration and responsibility through inclusive leadership.
How do we continue to be relevant? How can the GCCs constantly reinvent themselves? It is not about the what, but the how. How can the GCCs embrace new technology? How can they embrace Gen AI? How can they embrace agentic AI? How can they drive ESG initiatives? How can they build resilience through collaboration?
The GCC industry cannot afford to work in silos today. Resilience will truly come from connected ecosystems. So how do we collaborate, connect with startups, with competitors, academia and industry bodies. And how do we ensure that we create resilience in the GCC space?
Ultimately, GCCs won't be judged by the technology they have built but by the role that they play in the communities. Inclusive leadership and technology are both needed to reimagine where we want to take the GCCs to.
Q&A
Ms Madireddy began her career with HDFC Bank. She joined HSBC as an Assistant Manager in September 2001, leading a team of 25.
Ms Madireddy’s career has been about taking calculated risks. From mortgages, she moved into credit operations, business management, the COO function and managing global teams. Today, she is the leader of the Indian GCC. Ms Madireddy has moved into domains she had no prior idea about. At times she had self-doubt. But the zeal to learn and pick up transferable skills has kept her going.
Ms Madireddy feels that growth is not always vertical. It can also be zig zag. Lateral growth is about picking up new skills.
Ms Madireddy tells her team that it is ok to make mistakes. But we should keep trying out new things. Not trying is the biggest mistake we can make.
We have only so many hours in a day. Balancing personal and professional life is a challenge. It involves ruthless prioritization. Sometimes work takes precedence and sometimes personal life. It is about planning for every day. We should hold ourselves accountable for what we need to deliver. It is also about communication, transparency and managing expectations.
To perform effectively, we must also build a supportive ecosystem around us. There must be people rallying around us and supporting us. We should also be helping others. Networking and relationship building are all pervasive.
Ms Madireddy has an 18-year-old son who has just finished grade 12. So, for the last one month, she has worked from home to give moral support to her son at a critical stage of his academic career.
What drives Ms Madireddy are a few basic questions: Am I a better person today than yesterday? Am I doing better quality work? Am I adding more value? Can I do a part of my boss’s work and get ready for my next role? Am I learning something today? Am I enjoying my work? Am I contributing to the community?
Ever changing technology: This has an impact on roles, skills and capabilities. For example, due to Gen AI, transaction monitoring work has become more judgmental and less analytical/operational. Changing technology can be compared to changing the tires of the car during a high-speed race. It is about performing while transforming.
Geopolitics: There is a need to develop resilience to deal with the unknowns. We should be able to respond to a crisis like the way we did during Covid.
Global leadership roles: Strategic roles involving decision making, P&L management, end-to-end product development are moving into GCCs. There is a need to develop and groom leaders.
There is a need to partner with universities and industry bodies to make a 5 X impact collectively. There is a need to reduce the time to production for freshly recruited graduates. Today, it takes about 8-10 months for them to be productive. We must make students more relevant to the needs of the industry.
The BFSI consortium is working with colleges to change the curriculum- domain/technology/behavioural (collaboration, team player, speak up, thinking outside the box). Some of the key topics identified for providing additional inputs are: Payments/ securities/technology/behaviour. The consortium has even introduced internships. We must scale up these initiatives and extend them to other sectors like pharma.
Industry academia collaboration has started but there is still a long way to go for institutionalization. The heartening feature is that universities are open to collaborating with industry.
The following leadership attributes are critical.
Resilience: During a crisis, we should be able to respond effectively. Reaction is knee jerk. Response is thought through and measurable.
Challenge the status quo: People should be able to speak up and think laterally.
Calmness: In tough situations, leaders must remain cool and calm.
Navigating change: Leaders should be able to take their teams along during times of rapid change.
Stakeholder management: It is important to take different stakeholders along.
From doing to value articulation: Story telling is a critical skill. Even if we do good work, our job is not complete unless we can communicate the impact we have delivered to the organization.
The skills needed in GCCs are not fundamentally different from other sectors. Core academics is a given. In addition, GCCs are looking for people who are flexible, agile and adaptable, who can question and challenge the status quo. They should be able to stretch themselves and volunteer for additional work. They should be ambitious and yet practical and realistic as only so many promotions are possible in a year. They should accept that growth is not always vertical. It can also be zig zag.
The biggest challenge is inclusion. We need policies to enable inclusion. For example, gender diversity falls after a certain experience band. This is because women drop out after having children. So, HSBC has approved 6 months of maternity leave and an additional one year of work from home option. This means that the mother can be with the child for 18 months.
There must also be workplace adjustments in physical infrastructure for people with disability.
The cultural dimension is also important. People must be sensitized to what they can and cannot say. Workshops and awareness sessions can be great enablers.
HSBC has launched special initiatives to support the LGBTQ community. June is celebrated as the pride month. People sign up for being allies. They walk on the road carrying big flags.
However, there is no compulsion on people to be an ally. It is voluntary. So, it is all about policies, optics and culture.