First Movers or Fast Followers: Who will decide the future of GCCs? Ft. Niladri Ray, Flexera

Nitika: Welcome to the latest edition of Zinnov’s podcast, GCCs Unfiltered — a podcast where we cut through the noise and get down to what means business. I’m your host, Nitika Goel, Managing Partner and CMO at Zinnov, where we challenge the status quo, one unfiltered conversation at a time.

Today, I’m in conversation with Niladri Ray, who has led complex transformations across the financial services and the enterprise tech space. From building AI/ML-driven organizations at Broadridge to now scaling Flexera India Center, he’s operated at the intersection of global delivery, deep tech, and of course, leadership development.

In this episode, we’ll talk about what it takes to build a truly differentiated GCC, and whether India’s talent story is losing its edge, whether leadership is ready to take the next challenge head-on, and what are the blind spots that nobody wants to admit as we travel through this journey.

Thank you, Niladri, for being here. We’re very excited to have you be part of this episode of Zinnov’s GCCs Unfiltered.

Niladri: Thank you, Nitika, and thank you so much for having me here.

Nitika: Yeah, I’m going to ask you a bunch of questions, and I hope you make them as honest, real, and unfiltered as possible. To start with, we hear the word GCC — if you open a paper or a digital publication, you see the word GCC in every alternate article. Is this hype, or is this something anchored in reality?

Niladri: That’s quite a start question. To be honest, I think we’re in a bit of a ginormous hype cycle. Between AI and GCC, you should probably ask ChatGPT version five which one is running first on the hype cycle. So yes, we are on an unprecedented hype cycle on these two.
Part of it is founded on real facts. Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat (2005) talked about boundary-less ways of working. And the fact is: 1,700+ GCCs and counting; AI spends translating to trillions of dollars and still counting. So there is fact behind the madness. But separating the facts and the faff is the wall in between — a chasm everybody’s trying to cross to be real — and that’s something we should double-click on in this conversation.

Nitika: You’re a student of history and literature, so I’d love your perspective. Are GCCs truly autonomous or in that “portfolio leadership” phase of maturity we often talk about?

Niladri: I’m reading two fascinating books. One is The Economics of Algorithms, which talks about the limitless possibilities of where we’ll go with AI and agents. The other is The Unaccountability Machine by Dan Davies — it talks about “accountability sinks”: if decision loops are done by systems and they go wrong, especially in regulatory contexts, who takes accountability? Organizations have to design operating DNA around that.
There’s also Stafford Beer — principles of applied cybernetics — and the VSM, the Viable System Model. He said organizations are like non-human intelligence personas. He laid out five parts: Operations; Coordination; Control; Intelligence (adaptive intelligence); and Policy (culture/identity). Everything is baked into these five, and people embody these personas. I could be a frontline engineer cranking through an operational problem (O), and also be in a hackathon automating a process tied to an industry problem (I).
The point is: find models that let people interplay and interoperate regardless of geography. That’s the double-click on what a future-ready organizational model looks like.

Nitika: Is there a first-mover disadvantage if you can learn from others’ mistakes in an AI-first world?

Niladri: I don’t think so. You have the adoption curve — early adopters, the middle, and laggards. OpenAI just launched a consulting business; the minimum ticket is USD 10 Mn and they already have contracts. The “human in the loop” becomes even more important.
Whether the chicken or the egg came first — earlier adopters do have an advantage, but not one that prohibits others from leaping ahead. You’re as strong as your foundations. At Flexera, we’ve focused on foundations: fail fast, build levers that tell you what’s working, focus on ways of working — build organizational muscle that’s second to none.

Nitika: On Flexera specifically – with a strong foundation and an AI-native posture – is the India GCC an execution arm, a strategic decision arm, or a combination?

Niladri: We’re a top-decile, private-equity-backed organization in a unique spot between the world’s leading technology buyers and technology sellers/resellers. We exist to maximize value from unparalleled visibility into an organization’s IT estate.
The world isn’t fully cloud-native; there are still critical processes on mainframes and midrange systems. Many bolt AI on top with varying success; others rewire the whole thing.
Aspirationally, we believe we have the world’s best data: whether you’re a buyer (Cloud, SaaS, AI) — licenses, utilization, wastage, optimization; or a seller releasing bundles, pricing — what’s used vs. wasted. We sit at that intersection. From the board and CEO down, our North Star is unlocking value because there’s unprecedented wastage.
Two communities that didn’t traditionally talk — ITAM and Cloud/FinOps — are converging. Our GCC is positioned to maximize that. I believe we’ve earned a seat at the table as a trusted partner to the CEO and leadership team to do what I call “1+1=3.” Many GCCs are great at 0→1; the unlock is 1+1=3 — we’re doing meaningful work toward that.

Nitika: What thinking muscle, teams, and beliefs do you need to drive this?

Niladri: India is blessed with fantastic talent. Two parts:
First, context. You can be an ace programmer, but without understanding business context, you won’t go far. People who spend time — beyond role definitions — understanding what customers use or don’t and what’s driving the voice of the customer for their customers, build the X-factor.
Second, owning outcomes. GCC or not, every business exists for outcomes. When you synthesize org goals with delivery outcomes down to the leaf level — and every individual knows how they contribute, aligned with sales vectors — there’s no ambiguity about whether you’re creating business value.
One of our values is “keep score.” We track whether we’re driving value faster or slower across the globe, not just India.

Nitika: Is that a PE thing or Flexera’s DNA?

Niladri: It’s a best-in-class framework — like FinOps has best-in-class frameworks. They’ve existed; you need to apply them in the right context. You’ll fall and fail — that’s fine.
We also drive hackathons globally from India. Part of my mandate is: success isn’t just India’s success; it’s how the entire operation plays together and knocks it out of the park.

Niladri: On the control/territory question: metrics matter. There’s a thin line between vanity metrics and value metrics. With the “AI will do everything” hypothesis — when there’s a production issue, which AI do you blame? That’s where the rubber hits the road.
The central part is governance. Organizations can decentralize, but you need control loops and feedback loops to learn. The best customer-obsessed companies won’t celebrate a release until there’s real production run, usage, no issues — and even if there are issues, the culture asks: what did we miss? Close the feedback loop.
Ensure transparency in reporting; clear metrics to see bottlenecks; mechanisms to communicate, review, and act.

Nitika: In global leadership meetings, have you said “let’s give this to India”? How does that land?

Niladri: A younger me has done that — and survived. Today, I don’t lead with that. Delivery should speak for itself. If you’re good enough, work will come to you. We focus on the best outcome and the vector that drives it.
Flexera’s GCC is designed as a catalyst lever. We’re part of the fabric — some parts we drive, some we’re driven, some we relay — our magic is connecting the dots.

Nitika: You’re known to connect dots. How can a GCC leader build that muscle?

Niladri: Practice. Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours. Engineers are 10x with tools — 100x with context. The hardest part is bringing customer context down to the teams that ship product.
Hackathons, customer days, workshops design fungibility so teams learn from each other. Bring customers (and partners who represent customers) together — the picture clicks.
We recently ran a customer-partner event from India — huge success — demos from the actual builders. Customers said, “We want more of this.” Global evangelists flew in. Create co-location muscle and show end-to-end interaction — customers ask for more. That’s where we are now.

Nitika: What’s the uncomfortable truth about talent readiness? There’s “1.9M” talent yet people struggle to hire a handful of high-quality folks — and you love your talent. What’s the formula?

Niladri: First, the talent is already ready — which is why companies are doubling down on India as strategic hubs and centers of excellence. It’s fact-driven.
Second, attrition gets overplayed. If you’re not good enough, people will leave. Happy teams make happier customers, and happier customers drive shareholder value — simple math. If you bet on India, you’re riding the Indian tiger — ride it happily; don’t get off mid-way.
Great GCC leaders are multilingual — abstract India context; speak the voice of the customer, the CEO/CPO/CTO, and the business. You’re the beacon for the voice of the business in India and vice versa.

Nitika: Are GCC leaders ready for the next generation of India talent?

Niladri: I think they’re ready — but there’s demand–supply asymmetry. The amount of unlearning and relearning now required is high. This isn’t an easy job — you have to think 24×7 and 360°.

Nitika: What’s one bet Flexera is taking on its India center that would’ve felt risky a few years ago?

Niladri: Customer-centricity. We’re launching our first Customer-Partner Council (a variant of our global CABs). I’m proud we built the muscle for it. Decision-makers and influencers are now in our time zone. In several key accounts, decision-makers are here — and they want to work directly with India.

Nitika: If Flexera India’s GCC disappeared tomorrow, what would happen?

Niladri: We’re trying to make Flexera India indistinguishable from the rest of the world. Whether we’re here or not, the company should maximize outcomes. That requires a lot of background work — and you’re only as strong as your weakest link. We’re identifying weak links and fixing them so that regardless of location, we’ve built enough muscle memory to seize opportunities and knock them out of the park. That’s the focus.

Nitika: What keeps you up at night?

Niladri: We have a passionate executive leadership with a 200% commitment to excellence. In a cross-border setup, you have to be available in some form. It’s a fluid industry — opportunities and risks — and calibrating those comes with the seat at the table.
What keeps me awake is ensuring we over-communicate, show up when the team needs me, keep an eye on what’s moving the needle, and make the right decisions based on data — which means building the right processes. I measure my week by whether I taught something and learned something. If seven days go by with zero learn/teach, that’s a bad week.

Nitika: Rapid fire: the most controversial opinion you hold about the GCC model?

Niladri: Stop calling it a Global Capability Center. It’s worth far more. Calling it that undersells the value proposition it can create.

Nitika: Most controversial view about GCC leaders?

Niladri: No free lunches. No pain, no gain.

Nitika: If the GCC model didn’t exist tomorrow, what happens to India’s talent ecosystem?

Niladri: Indian talent will find ways to prosper — GCC or no GCC. But for every GCC to show value, it has to be one better than the last — responsibilities and accountability are only going up.

Nitika: What does unfiltered success look like for your GCC in three years?

Niladri: Flexera is on its path to being the true data-driven leader in transforming how businesses look at their entire IT estate end-to-end and make informed decisions. Between hybrid, on-prem, and cloud — knowing where spends are and allocating costs — it’s a lot of work, often non-differentiating for most businesses. Very few can take a crack at it — we believe we can and will. We’re already a market leader; we’d like to be the undisputed leader in making the art of the impossible possible.

Nitika: And for you, personally?

Niladri: I believe every human has a secret nerve of excellence. Nobody wants to be average. You’re only as strong as your weakest link. The more people realize the “1+1=3” in themselves and connect that to organizational and industry North Stars, the better. If we can move more people across the adoption curve to say “this is my story” — and it resonates with customer and industry success — that’s success for me.

Nitika: Thank you so much, Niladri. I enjoyed it thoroughly — I’m going to pick up the two books you mentioned. It was a pleasure having you on GCCs Unfiltered, and I look forward to many more conversations.

Niladri: Thank you so much, Nitika. Lovely talking to you — a pleasure to be here.

Nitika: Thank you. Thanks.