Zinnov Podcast - GCCs Unfiltered Podcast

zinnov-podcast-gccs-unfiltered

There’s endless noise about GCCs. But rarely do we ask what truly matters. GCCs: Unfiltered cuts through the chatter. No scripts. No spin. Just candid conversations with leaders shaping the GCC story. Tune in now.

Episodes

  1. The Anatomy of Trust: How Lowe’s India Built Global Scale Ft. Ankur Mittal, Lowe's India

    May 20

    The Anatomy of Trust: How Lowe’s India Built Global Scale Ft. Ankur Mittal, Lowe's India

    16 million customers walk into Lowe’s stores every week. At that scale, small decisions have very large consequences. Inventory, supply chains, store systems, customer experience — everything has to work together seamlessly. Our guest today is Ankur Mittal, who leads technology for one of the world’s largest home improvement companies. Ankur oversees technology across omnichannel platforms, enterprise architecture, infrastructure engineering, and AI-led transformation — shaping the systems that power millions of customer interactions every week. In this episode of GCCs Unfiltered, Nitika Goel speaks with Ankur about what it really takes for teams to move from execution to influence — building trust, scaling leadership, and staying relevant as technology and business continue to evolve. 🎧 Tune in now.

    28 min
  2. Engineering the future of retail: Cracking the code with Balu Chaturvedula, Walmart Global Tech

    Apr 29

    Engineering the future of retail: Cracking the code with Balu Chaturvedula, Walmart Global Tech

    Operating at scale when industry fundamentals are shifting.  Walmart, one of the world's largest retailers, with 10,000 stores, operates under constraints most don’t. Speed creates risk. Scale creates complexity. Technology is reshaping competitive advantage.  In this episode of GCCs Unfiltered, Nitika Goel, Managing Partner & CMO, Zinnov, sits down with Balu Chaturvedula, SVP & Country Head, Walmart Global Tech, the leader managing this scale, on what it takes to move an organization of this size when fundamentals are changing.  A few patterns emerged during the conversation:  Culture determines whether you move or get stuck.  Most organizations have the technical capability to transform. What blocks them is whether people believe they can contribute, and whether their work feels relevant as everything changes. Without that, even the best strategy becomes a liability.  Speed, scale, and trust work as a system.  You can optimize for two, but the third matters more than you think. The fastest organizations aren’t pushing speed alone; they know where trust must hold, and where to move faster.  Purpose becomes the decision-making framework.  At scale, especially with AI reshaping roles, clarity on why matters more than clarity on how. It separates pragmatic decisions from reactive ones.  Capabilities vs. features change how you operate.  Building once for the entire organization requires different architecture, governance, and leadership. Most don’t make this shift. Those who do move at a different pace.  Global centers are either core or peripheral.  This is no longer about location. It’s about whether you drive business outcomes. That shift is already underway.  This is what determines which organizations stay competitive, and which don’t.  Tune in now.

    31 min

  3. Mar 24

    Why the Next Generation of GCC Leaders Need Portfolio Careers  Ft. Ruchika Panesar, NatWest Group

    How do you lead at scale when growth is no longer the hardest part — but judgment is? In this episode of GCCs Unfiltered, Nitika Goel speaks with Ruchika Panesar, CDIO, Group Functions & Country Head – India, NatWest Group, about building enterprise leaders inside one of India’s most established banking GCCs. They discuss: • Moving from delivery excellence to enterprise impact • Building T-shaped leaders at scale • Creating systems thinking across 18,000+ professionals • Innovating in a regulated banking environment • Why judgment, learning agility, and humility define the AI era A must-listen for GCC leaders, digital transformation teams, and enterprise builders.

    40 min
  4. How Great GCC Leaders Think Ft. Pratik Nath, Epsilon India

    Feb 12

    How Great GCC Leaders Think Ft. Pratik Nath, Epsilon India

    For years, GCCs grew by adding people. That playbook is broken. In this episode of GCCs Unfiltered, Pratik Nath, Managing Director, Epsilon India, is in conversation with Nitika Goel, Managing Partner and CMO, Zinnov, about what actually drives relevance in today’s Global Capability Centers, and what quietly holds most of them back. Pratik has seen GCCs from the inside: as an engineer, a product leader, and now as a managing director with global accountability. His view is simple: ownership matters more than scale, and leaders who confuse activity with impact are already falling behind. This conversation examines the uncomfortable questions: Why running operations well is no longer a leadership win Why global remit is earned, not assigned How AI is changing what engineers and leaders are hired for Why mediocrity will disappear faster than most GCCs expect If you lead a GCC or influence one, this episode of GCCs Unfiltered cuts through buzzwords to explore the mindset shifts, tough calls, and cultural changes required to move GCCs from operations to ownership, in an AI-driven world. Listen to the episode now.

    37 min

  5. Jan 6

    Boundless: Rethinking Leadership, Culture & Capability in GCCs Ft. Sheenam Ohrie, Broadridge India

    When does a GCC earn the right to be trusted with core business work? When it consistently delivers reliability, takes ownership of outcomes, and proves it can run critical business operations, not just build solutions.  In this episode of GCCs Unfiltered, Sheenam Ohrie, Managing Director, Broadridge India, joins Nitika Goel, Managing Partner & CMO at Zinnov, to unpack how GCCs move from execution roles to positions of enterprise trust. Drawing on Broadridge’s long-standing journey in India, the conversation examines why running the core business matters before pursuing transformation, how unlearning the “they vs us” mindset enables deeper integration, and what leadership accountability looks like beyond titles or hierarchy. Sheenam also reflects on the broader responsibility that mature GCCs carry in shaping talent, partnering with academia, and contributing to the ecosystem. Tune in to hear the full episode.

    34 min

  6. 12/22/2025

    People, Place, Purpose: The New Work Equation Ft. Amit Ramani, Awfis Space Solutions Ltd.

    GCCs are evolving. Workspaces should too. In this episode of GCCs Unfiltered, Amit Ramani, Chairman & Managing Director of Awfis Space Solutions Ltd. joins Nitika Goel, Managing Partner & CMO at Zinnov, for a candid conversation on how Global Capability Centers are reshaping the modern workplace. From the early days of GCCs being cost-focused back offices to today’s human-centric capability hubs, the discussion unpacks why culture, workflows, and employee experience now drive workspace decisions. Amit offers a pragmatic take on AI’s real role in office design, the growing importance of distributed and Tier-II city work models, and a future where offices adapt dynamically to how people work - individually, collectively, and collaboratively. Tune in to hear the full episode.

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

    10/22/2025

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

    India’s GCCs have mastered execution. The next leap is integration - building centers indistinguishable from the global enterprise itself. In this episode of GCCs Unfiltered, Niladri Ray, Country Head, India and VP –Engineering, Flexera, joins Nitika Goel, Managing Partner & CMO, Zinnov, for an unfiltered look at what it takes to build a truly differentiated GCC. From navigating the hype around AI and GCCs to embedding governance, context, and customer centricity, Niladri unpacks the mindset shifts needed to turn a Global Capability Center into a true catalyst for the enterprise. The conversation also explores how leadership readiness, not talent availability, will define India’s next leap; why understanding business context is the ultimate differentiator for engineers; and how proximity to customers is changing the role of GCCs forever. Conversations like this are at the core of GCCs Unfiltered, a new podcast series from the Zinnov stable that takes the signal out of the noise - bringing you unfiltered conversations with leaders shaping the future of global capability centers. Tune in now to hear the full episode.

    31 min
  8. The Policy, the Push, the Potential Ft. Dr. Ekroop Caur, IAS, Government of Karnataka

    09/28/2025

    The Policy, the Push, the Potential Ft. Dr. Ekroop Caur, IAS, Government of Karnataka

    What does it really take for India to stay the GCC capital of the world? Talent, policy, or something deeper? In this episode, we unpack the answers with unfiltered clarity. In the third episode of GCCs Unfiltered, Nitika Goel is in conversation with Dr. Ekroop Caur, IAS, Secretary to the Government, Department of Electronics, IT, Bt, S&T and Skill Development, Entrepreneurship & Livelihood, Government of Karnataka. Together, they explore how Global Capability Centers in India are evolving from cost-driven captives to hubs of innovation, leadership, and value creation. The discussion spans the role of talent versus policy, the state’s push for industry-driven skilling programs, the growing impact of AI adoption in governance and business, and why Karnataka continues to lead as the GCC capital of the world. Tune into GCCs Unfiltered, the Zinnov podcast series that takes the signal out of the noise on GCCs, talent, and innovation.

    32 min
  9. Breaking the GCC Echo Chamber Ft. Deepak Visweswaraiah, Pegasystems India

    09/18/2025

    Breaking the GCC Echo Chamber Ft. Deepak Visweswaraiah, Pegasystems India

    What would break if your GCC isn’t there tomorrow? In the second episode of GCCs Unfiltered, Deepak Visweswaraiah, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Pegasystems India, joins Nitika Goel, Managing Partner & CMO, Zinnov, to explore that very question. With more than half of Pega’s product engineering driven from India, the center is enterprise-critical. But as Deepak points out, scale is only part of the story - it is leadership, culture, and systems thinking that keep a GCC truly relevant. This candid conversation goes beyond the usual talking points. Deepak and Nitika unpack the risks of echo chambers, the hubris that fast growth can create, and why culture isn’t garnish but the operating system. They also dig into the future of AI in GCCs, emphasizing the need to move past pilots and add-ons to embedding AI directly into platforms, products, and decisions. GCCs Unfiltered is a Zinnov podcast series that takes the signal out of the noise. Through conversations with leaders who have lived the GCC journey, the series cuts through hype and headlines to reveal the trade-offs, blind spots, and leadership choices that shape the next phase of Global Capability Centers. Tune in now.

    40 min
  10. Beyond the Hype: What Will Truly Define GCCs in 2030 Ft. Rohit Kaila, Head of Technology and Site Leader at Wayfair India

    09/02/2025

    Beyond the Hype: What Will Truly Define GCCs in 2030 Ft. Rohit Kaila, Head of Technology and Site Leader at Wayfair India

    For years, Global Capability Centers have been boxed into the same tired lens: cost, headcount, and scale. But that view misses the bigger story. GCCs Unfiltered, a new series from the Zinnov podcast stable, brings conversations that cut through the noise with leaders who’ve built and rebuilt capability centers across cycles. This isn’t about vanity metrics; it’s about what works, what fails, and what will shape the next decade of global capability building. In the first episode of GCCs Unfiltered, Nitika Goel, Managing Partner & CMO at Zinnov, speaks with Rohit Kaila, Head of Technology and Site Leader at Wayfair India. From Bell Labs to Walmart to Wayfair, Rohit has seen the GCC story unfold at every stage and here, he talks candidly about scaling with purpose, navigating AI’s disruption, and why the very definition of growth needs a rethink. If you want an insider’s view of how global companies are really building from India - not just the headlines, but the hard trade-offs and bold bets,  this is the episode to start with. Tune in now to GCCs Unfiltered.

    31 min
  • 10 Episodes

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There’s endless noise about GCCs. But rarely do we ask what truly matters. GCCs: Unfiltered cuts through the chatter. No scripts. No spin. Just candid conversations with leaders shaping the GCC story. Tune in now.

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