Global Capability Center (GCC), is one of the most impactful operating and service models. GCC is one of our foundational pilar in our new company Helix Executives (www.HelixExecutives.com) that we wrote about in a previous article (LinkedIn article). Our consultancy is built to help companies accelerate transformation, innovation, and efficiency — delivering not just operational improvements, but stronger profitability and strategic resilience. With deep experience in building strategies and delivering end-to-end services and operations, we support companies ready to scale to the next level — in the era of AI, digitalization, and new operating models like the GCC.

What is a Global Capability Center (GCC)?

Many organizations still hold untapped potential — trapped by fragmented services, disconnected innovation, or outdated ways of working.

A GCC addresses this by centralizing operational, value-enabling, and strategic services into one cohesive, future-ready model.

Unlike traditional shared services like GBS (Global Business Services), which focus primarily on cost reduction and transactional processing, GCCs are designed to:

• Deliver business value beyond efficiency
• Accelerate innovation
• Build critical internal capabilities
• Foster continuous adaptability and resilience

Typical GCC Services Span:

• Operational services (Finance, IT, HR)
• Value-enabling services (analytics, customer service, M&A integration)
• Strategic functions (innovation, corporate venture capital, capability development)

From Shared Services (GBS) to Global Capability Centers — What’s the Difference?

There are many models for shared services like Single function, Multi function etc. But we will focus on the more mature shared service models.

Global Business Services (GBS) – Cost Efficiency & Standardization

Global Business Services is an operating model that consolidates support functions (Finance, HR, Procurement, IT) into a unified service management framework. The focus is to deliver increased efficiency, improved quality, and leveraging digital tools like automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline the services delivered.

Why it matters: GBS delivers operational control, reduces cost, and improved process consistency across the enterprise.

Advanced or “Next-Gen” GBS – Value Creation

As GBS organizations mature, many evolve their offerings into value enablers. These models — sometimes referred to as “Digital Business Services / Integrated Business Services / GBS+” — go beyond efficiency to support business performance directly. Examples of services are customer services, business intelligence, advanced analytics, PMO, Quality/Compliance & Risk, M&A integration, supply chain and more, which leads to additional values like digital enablement, cashflow and working capital optimization, etc.

Why it matters: This builds the bridge between operations and business strategy — aligning internal services with enterprise goals.

Global Capability Centers (GCC) – Strategic Growth & Innovation

A GCC is more than just an evolution of GBS — it represents a fundamental shift in purpose and impact.

Rather than focusing only on operational efficiency, a fully developed GCC integrates business services with innovation, talent development, and transformation leadership under one model.

It acts as a dynamic hub (physical or virtual) for experimentation, innovation scaling, and leadership growth — enabling real competitive advantage, not just support functions.

Capabilities may include:

• Control tower for business oversight: For a large technology and defense corporation we established a control tower to visualize and track large programs, follow and track the cashflow, audit and risk levels, SLA’s etc. This could be consolidated at group level and individually for each company in the group, as well as for each service individually.
• Centers of Excellence (CoEs): Within a leading hygiene & health corporation we established CoE concept to boost in areas like AI, Service management, Automation and more to strengthen the focus, group experts, ensure faster delivery and agility, to support the company on the transformation journey as well as keeping the focus on company vital areas.
• Corporate venture capital (CVC) arms: We helped one of the world’s largest automotive manufacturers build and operationalize their CVC capability — from designing the investment framework, connecting to global innovation ecosystems, to supporting evaluation and selection of start-ups and growth-stage companies for strategic investment or acquisition. As a result, the CVC now drives several investments and acquisitions annually, fueling both innovation and growth.
• Innovation labs: We supported one of the leading transportation and defense companies in launching their first global Innovation Lab — enabling rapid development and commercialization of customer-centric solutions within just a few months. Beyond setting up the lab and its agile development cycles, we also co-developed their first New Venture Framework, successfully spinning off multiple ventures and embedding entrepreneurship into the group's innovation DNA.
• Learning academies: When a leading defense and technology organization set out to build a global learning academy, we led the creation, launch, and initial operations — from strategic design to implementation. The academy unified leadership development, technical upskilling, digital literacy, and innovation training into a single, scalable platform. We built modular learning programs, implemented cutting-edge L&D technology solutions, and embedded impact measurement practices — helping the organization scale critical capabilities to support continuous improvement, rapid innovation and sustained business growth.
• R&D functions: We have supported major global companies across manufacturing, transportation, and defense sectors in modernizing their R&D functions. This included consolidating fragmented innovation efforts into centralized frameworks, implementing digital R&D platforms, and introducing agile methodologies to accelerate development cycles. Our work helped clients cut product development lead times by 20–40%, boost innovation output, improve cross-functional collaboration, and increase the return on R&D investments — turning innovation into a more predictable and scalable growth engine.

Why it matters: GCCs drive competitive advantage by enabling faster scaling, building core capabilities internally, and unlocking access to global talent and innovation.

What are some of the Benefits of a GCC?

• Operational Efficiency: Process automation and consolidation reduce overhead by 20–40%. With AI individual processes can be 100% automated.
• Talent Development: GCCs are structured to attract and grow key capabilities — especially in areas like AI, digital, analytics, and R&D.
• Innovation Acceleration: Centralizing strategic innovation functions enables faster development and market-readiness.
• Global Agility: Organizations become more resilient and responsive to changing conditions.
• Sustainable Growth: A well-designed GCC becomes a long-term value engine — supporting transformation at scale.

Our Approach:

Depending on your ambition, we (Hans Frölich & Mohittin Milen Kourtev) have helped companies to design and scale these models — so if you are ready to review and deploy individual components like back-office optimization or corporate venture capital setup, all the way to full-scale Global Capability Centers, we have the experience and skills to support, from strategy to operation.

We offer a structured methodology to:

• Assess your current operating model
• Define your maturity level (GBS, GBS+, or GCC)
• Accelerate the design and deployment — with built-in capability transfer so your team leads the change

Whether you’re starting from scratch or refining a mature setup, the key is clarity of vision, rapid mobilization, and keeping internal talent at the center.

Where is your organization today?

• No formal structure yet
• Efficiency & Quality, shared services through GBS
• Value Enabler via GBS+
• Strategic Capabilities & Innovation in a GCC model

We’ll help you identify the gaps and move confidently toward your goal — with real-world cases and a practical roadmap.

If your organization is ready to evolve from efficiency-focused services to a strategic capability engine, we’d love to explore how we can help.

📩 contact@HelixExecutives.com | Read our previous article -> link

In our next article, we’ll zoom in on how industrial companies can scale innovation — from capability assessment to commercialization.