At MachineCon 2024, Shikha Miglani, Co-Founder and CEO of Saarthee, delivered a compelling keynote address on building high-performing and impactful Global Capability Centers (GCCs). Miglani highlighted the increasing importance of GCCs, projecting a 140% growth by 2030, resulting in 2,400 centers and the creation of 4.5 million jobs.
Shikha outlined Five Key Ingredients for Building Successful GCCs:
- People, Process, and Framework:
- Strategic Hiring and Team Composition: Shikha underscored the significance of hiring the right talent and intelligently composing teams. Drawing an analogy from the movie “Moneyball,” she illustrated how strategic team assembly can yield exceptional results without incurring high costs.
- Frameworks and Standards: She emphasized the necessity of establishing robust frameworks and standards to ensure consistent and high-quality outputs across all operations.
- Innovation:
- Purpose-Driven Innovation: Miglani cautioned against innovating merely for the sake of it, advocating instead for innovation driven by strong business use cases and areas of passion and expertise.
- Case Study – Saarthee’s AI Innovations: She cited Saarthee’s AI-powered training simulator, developed from profound domain knowledge in voice analytics and customer experience, as a testament to impactful innovation.
- Strategic Thinking:
- Alignment with Parent Company: Miglani stressed the importance of GCC leaders forging strong connections with the leadership of the parent company, comprehending their roadmaps, priorities, and pain points.
- Cascading Strategic Mindset: She advised that this strategic mindset should permeate through teams, encouraging them to focus on return on investment (ROI) and business impact.
- Soft Skills:
- Effective Communication and Storytelling: Miglani highlighted the critical role of communication skills, the ability to tell a story, and a problem-solving mindset in driving success.
- Making Data Meaningful: She urged GCC teams to transform data points into compelling narratives that drive decision-making and strategic insights.
- Passion:
- Inspiring Leadership: Leaders who are passionate about learning and working with people can inspire creativity and enhance employee satisfaction, fostering an environment of continuous improvement and innovation.
The Role of AI in GCCs
Shikha Miglani also addressed the transformative role of AI in driving innovation and automation within GCCs. She mentioned several AI initiatives Saarthee is currently developing, including AI Centers of Excellence, Generative BI, Voice & Audio GenAI, Improved Sales Engagement & Predictive Intelligence, Operational Efficiencies & Strategic Automation, Call Center Training & Onboarding, Data Standardization & Normalization, and AI Algorithm Training leveraging NLP techniques. These initiatives focus on advancing AI technologies, automating data analysis, enhancing audio capabilities, personalizing sales strategies, optimizing business processes, improving call center performance, ensuring data consistency, and training AI algorithms to understand human language.
Conclusion
In her closing remarks, Shikha Miglani encouraged GCC leaders and teams to remain authentic and true to themselves while pursuing innovation. She envisioned GCCs evolving beyond mere implementation centers to becoming thought leaders capable of developing cutting-edge technologies, such as large language models. Throughout her keynote, she shared personal experiences and anecdotes, illustrating her points and underscoring the potential of GCCs to transform not only their parent organizations but also the broader geographies in which they operate.
This address provided a comprehensive blueprint for building high-value, quality, and impactful GCCs, positioning them as engines of innovation, growth, and thought leadership in the global business landscape.
Shikha Miglani, CEO of Saarthee has over 20 years of experience in analytics, technology, and consulting. Under her leadership, Saarthee has delivered advanced analytics solutions, from data engineering to AI. Named Woman to Watch 2023 by Women in Cable and Telecom-Philadelphia. Shikha is known for her strategic, fearless leadership and empathetic mentorship.
