Transforming a 5,000-People Back Office into a Global Capability Center
- GCC
- 5000+ Employees
- South India
- European Retail Giant
Client Overview
A leading European retail giant operated a 5,000 + employee outsourced back office in Bangalore for more than a decade. As part of its global transformation agenda, the parent company aimed to convert this unit into a strategic Global Capability Centre (GCC) that could deliver value beyond transactional processing.
- GCC
- 5000+ Employees
- South India
- European Retail Giant
Transformation Goal
To transform the cost-effective global back-office into a high capability and high value generating GCC, with the potential to fuel the growth of the Retain Giant’s business globally.
- People Capability: Financial Systems & Processes, Data Analytics & Technology
- Employee Strength: 5000+
- Talent Mobility: Global
Business Challenge
The airport’s legacy culture and operating style posed major risks to large-scale expansion:
- Strategic & Operational Challenges
- Transactional, cost-centric approach
- Bureaucratic processes with a command and control structure
- Measurement metrics around efficiency, cost and productivity
- Hierarchical decision making
- Cultural Challenges
- The biggest barrier was mindset and culture.
- Shift from a transactional outsourcing mindset to a value-creating GCC identity
- Build deeper connection with the retail brand, its customers and internal stakeholders
- Understand evolving internal customer expectations from UK headquarters
Engagement Objectives
Planet Ganges was brought into design and facilitate a full-fledged cultural transformation to enable business outcomes.
- Assess the current culture and mindset across all levels
- Define the desired culture aligned to global expectations
- Identify old behaviours to shed and new behaviours to embrace
- Reorganise teams to meet internal customer needs
- Coach leaders to role-model and drive culture transformation
- Build a clear strategic roadmap for GCC evolution
Approach & Methodology
Planet Ganges implemented a structured, multi-phase transformation:
01
Conducted an organisation-wide OCAI culture assessment
- Measure current vs. desired culture across 5000+ employees
- Understand expectation differences across Org levels
- Align around an intentional culture
02
Analysed data across levels to map specific mindset shifts required
- Identify extent of gaps across levels
- Determine distinct approaches for different levels
- Ascertain readiness for change
03
Facilitated culture workshops to define the required behavioural transformation
- Engaging top leadership in an intimate setting
- Engaging multiple layers through a Large-Scale Intervention (LSI) with 500 employees (10% of workforce)
- Coaching support to select leaders to enable transition
04
Defining & implementing future success behaviours
- Evangelizing future behaviours
- Integrating into company’s people processes
- Integrating into talent hiring processes
Results in 18 Months
- A renewed vision for the GCC and a 2-year change roadmap
- Significant cultural and mindset shift within 12 months
- Strong leadership alignment and role-modelling
- New career pathways enabling movement of talent to the parent organisation
- Team structures and KPIs aligned to GCC’s strategic goals
- Employee satisfaction increased from 73% to 94%
- Attrition reduced from 18% to 7% due to stronger engagement and growth
- Back office transformed into a strategic capability engine for the retail major
- India GCC reinvented as a talent incubation centre for Global requirements
Client Testimonial
Planet Ganges is a prominent player in Business Transformation, delivering tailored interventions in Organisational Culture, Climate, and Leadership Capability.