What pharma can learn from GCCs in other industries

Global capability centers (GCCs) have matured significantly over the past decade, transforming from back-office operations into strategic engines driving innovation, agility and enterprise value. Industries such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI); technology; and telecom have been at the forefront of this transformation, building scalable, efficient and high-maturity GCCs that serve as critical enablers of enterprise transformation.

However, in the pharmaceutical sector, the trajectory of GCCs is distinctly shaped by a unique blend of constraints and opportunities. Pharmaceutical GCCs operate in a more complex and regulated environment, requiring a fundamentally different approach to scale and maturity. Their operating landscape is characterized by high regulatory complexity, deep domain dependency, long innovation cycles and limited outsourcing potential, particularly in commercial and medical functions.

While there has been encouraging progress in areas like R&D and manufacturing—where GCCs have begun to demonstrate value—other domains such as regulatory affairs, medical affairs and commercial operations remain underleveraged. This stands in contrast to BFSI, where well-defined global regulatory frameworks (e.g., Basel Norms, IFRS) and a strong culture of process orientation have enabled the creation of highly standardized and scalable GCCs. Similarly, in the technology sector, low domain dependency, cloud-native infrastructure and rapid innovation cycles have allowed GCCs to thrive as agile, innovation-first environments.

For pharma GCCs to truly unlock their potential, their evolution must be tailored—not replicated. Learning from other industries is valuable, but a pharma-specific path forward is essential to navigating the sector’s scientific, regulatory and operational complexities effectively.

Pharma can’t simply replicate tech or BFSI models or their approach to GCCs. Instead, they must craft a distinct blueprint that balances innovation with compliance and domain expertise.

Pharma GCCs often face slower scale-up and limited adoption in commercial functions, unlike their BFSI and tech counterparts that benefit from global standards, automation and agile operating models. This gap stems from fragmented data ecosystems, diverse market requirements, regulatory complexity and historically decentralized commercial operations lacking standardization. However, rather than seeing these constraints as limiting, leading pharma organizations need to reframe their GCC strategy to create differentiated value.

Pharma must reimagine the role their GCCs play—not just as execution engines, but as drivers of innovation. One pharma company, for instance, positioned their GCC to become deeply integrated with the company’s core enterprise priorities by embedding AI-first strategies, investing in tech talent and developing globally scalable solutions in AI, cloud and automation. This GCC built and scaled AI-powered co-pilots to automate developer productivity, customer service and knowledge retrieval. It also led the development of multilingual large language models tailored for emerging markets and codeveloped generative AI capabilities now embedded across enterprise software products.

On the cloud front, teams in India oversaw innovations in edge computing platforms, optimized cloud-native architectures for regulated industries and built scalable DevOps automation pipelines that are now deployed worldwide.

The operating model piloted in India became a blueprint for global expansion, and a multibillion-dollar investment in local infrastructure further reinforced the center’s role in shaping next-gen platforms. The lesson is clear: investing in centers of excellence with domain and digital depth can shift pharma GCCs from cost centers to strategic enablers of enterprise transformation.

Building a talent strategy that bridges the digital-science divide is equally important to growth. As AI, automation and data analytics become core to pharmaceutical innovation, GCCs must move beyond traditional hiring models and invest in hybrid talent. Financial institutions have demonstrated the power of this approach by developing structured pipelines that cultivate talent with deep financial knowledge and engineering skills, enabling seamless collaboration between quant teams and data science units.

Similarly, global consulting firms have established capability hubs that rotate professionals across functions—such as strategy, data engineering and AI labs—creating a robust pipeline of cross-functional experts. For GCCs in the pharma industry, the opportunity lies in building similar mechanisms: structured internal mobility, role-based learning paths and partnerships with academic institutions to nurture hybrid talent at the intersection of data, domain and digital.

The ability to create global playbooks and replicate innovation at scale has been critical to enabling success in mature GCCs—particularly in the technology sector. For example, one major tech company’s India centers played a pivotal role in pioneering cloud-first and AI-driven initiatives that aligned closely with the company’s global transformation strategy. Developing a startup incubation model in India not only accelerated innovation locally but also served as a template for global rollout, enabling the organization to foster new businesses worldwide.

Pharma can take a cue from this by building repeatable frameworks for high-impact use cases for their GCCs and scaling them across regions. Codifying successful approaches into modular playbooks can accelerate global consistency, reduce redundancy and amplify the value delivered across enterprise functions. In commercial operations, this playbook-driven approach can unlock significant value.

GCCs can develop templates for incentive compensation modeling, segmentation and targeting strategies, and omnichannel campaign measurement. By piloting these in select markets and scaling globally, GCCs can enable commercial agility while ensuring local relevance and compliance.

Finally, the need for modern digital infrastructure is urgent. Legacy systems slow down innovation, fragment data and increase compliance risks. GCCs in other industries have shown how cloud-native, secure and interoperable architectures can power both agility and control. For example, leading banks have replatformed their GCC operations by moving key workloads to the cloud, enabling real-time risk analysis and reducing data silos. In retail, one India-based technology hub played a crucial role in building microservices-based platforms that integrated supply chain and e-commerce systems, allowing for rapid response to customer demand shifts.

Technology firms have taken this even further. One major global tech company rebuilt its entire analytics backbone in India using a cloud-first strategy that enabled faster experimentation in AI and smoother global deployments. Pharma can draw from these examples and prioritize replatforming their GCCs to future-proof their operations, especially in regulated areas like R&D and regulatory submissions.

We’re no longer in a world where the pharma industry can think of GCCs as mere cost-saving hubs, and it’s not the first industry to look to GCCs for strategic gain. Here are three key principles for pharma to keep in mind when building out GCC capabilities:

1. Global leaders in technology, BFSI and telecom have shown how GCCs can evolve from back-office functions into strategic value creators. Their success is grounded in these key enablers:

• Clarity of vision: Creating a well-defined long-term roadmap with leadership alignment
• Culture of learning and integration: Retaining strong talent through continuous learning and a seamless connection with HQ and global teams
• Centers of excellence as innovation catalysts: Incubating next-gen capabilities and rapid piloting to validate business impact
• Global playbooks for scale: Systematically codifying success to replicate it across markets and functions
• Technology-driven transformation: Making bold investments in digital infrastructure and innovation to elevate enterprise value
• Cross-functional agility: Breaking down silos in the business functions to accelerate decision-making, foster collaboration and unlock exponential growth

2. However, pharma operates in a fundamentally different environment. It is defined by:

• High regulatory complexity with limited room for error
• Long innovation cycles across R&D and commercialization
• Deep scientific and clinical domain dependencies
• Fragmented, locally nuanced commercial models with limited standardization

These factors require GCCs in pharma to prioritize compliance, patient impact and scientific integrity in every aspect of their operating model. This makes directly replicating other industries’ models impractical.

3. Pharma GCCs must chart a distinct, pharma-specific path, informed by others but rooted in pharma’s own reality. The way forward includes:

• Centers of excellence with dual strength: Pairing scientific depth with digital-first capabilities to create differentiated value
• Talent models: Investing in cross-functional skills and rotating talent across data, digital and domain functions to foster agility and innovation; actively collaborating with academic institutions to codevelop curricula and create a pipeline of industry-ready, domain-savvy professionals
• Scalable playbooks: Building repeatable success frameworks across R&D, regulatory and commercial functions to drive consistency and speed
• Modern infrastructure: Embracing secure, cloud-first, interoperable systems to unlock scale while staying compliant
• Strategic repositioning: Evolving from execution arms to co-architects of enterprise innovation, fully embedded in driving the business forward

This is pharma’s moment to redefine the role of GCCs—not by simply following what other industries have done, but by being the architects of a new playbook that drives digital and scientific transformation from the front.

Success will require a deliberate strategy that blends domain depth, digital excellence and global scalability while navigating the sector’s regulatory and operational complexities. ZS can help accelerate this journey by combining deep pharma expertise with proven strategies to build future-ready GCCs.

Moreover, leveraging these drivers of growth will quickly become an imperative for companies that want to stay at the front of the industry. Applying the right strategy, technology and people to realize this opportunity is something that companies will want to start thinking about right now.