Tech Mahindra appoints Santosh Jha to steer GCC push amid industry-wide shift

The transfer marks a strategic push by the Pune-based agency to develop its GCC vertical, as the corporate builds out a consulting-led providers portfolio and seeks to increase past its core telecom enterprise.

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Jha, who joined Tech Mahindra in March as senior vice-president, was earlier govt director at tech providers agency, TEKsystems. At KPIT, the place Jha spent a bit greater than seven years till 2015, he final served as a director and head of gross sales and enterprise improvement. His appointment comes as a part of a broader management reshuffle inside the firm’s GCC apply.

Jha replaces Ram Ramachandran, who beforehand led the GCC vertical and was nation head for India, Middle East and Africa. Earlier this month, Ramachandran moved to a brand new function heading specialist gross sales. His place as nation head has been taken over by Sahil Dhawan, a long-time Tech Mahindra govt and former KPIT govt himself.

Country heads for every GCC consumer will now report back to Jha, who’s in flip anticipated to report back to Dhawan, mentioned one of many three individuals cited earlier.

An e mail despatched to Tech Mahindra in search of feedback went unanswered.

Chasing GCC progress

Jha’s appointment aligns with a broader development amongst India’s top-tier IT service suppliers, that are more and more prioritising their captive centre companies. 

Cognizant Technology Solutions was the primary among the many massive companies to call a brand new GCC head, appointing Sailaja Josyula to the function on 1 April. Wipro Ltd adopted with the appointment of Sandeep Dhar on 9 May, whereas HCL Technologies named Kiran Cherukuri to the same place per week earlier.

Read this | Captive concerns: Why Cognizant has called out the risk from GCCs

Each agency has taken a special strategy. Cognizant and HCLTech have relied on long-time insiders to steer the enterprise, whereas Wipro and Tech Mahindra have turned to exterior hires to steer their GCC methods.

India is the world’s largest hub for world functionality centres, with round 1,760 such centres throughout the nation, greater than half of them primarily based in Bengaluru, in accordance with {industry} physique Nasscom. That quantity is anticipated to rise to 2,200 by March 2030, with a complete market dimension projected at $105 billion.

GCCs are sometimes back-end tech and enterprise assist centres that multinational firms arrange in India, with staffing and operations usually dealt with by third-party IT service suppliers. These suppliers earn income by worker provisioning, infrastructure, and typically revenue-sharing preparations.

Read this | What lies ahead for GCCs in India after a pivotal year

“The innovation begins in-house and is augmented through the service supplier partnership. This means suppliers need to align extra consultatively with their purchasers, which explains why companies like Tech M(ahindra), Infosys, Cognizant and Wipro are all appointing GCC leaders to cement these symbiotic partnerships,” mentioned Phil Fersht, chief govt, HFS Research.

Tech Mahindra, underneath chief govt Mohit Joshi, is betting on the GCC enterprise as considered one of its key progress levers. During the corporate’s post-earnings analyst name on 24 April, Joshi mentioned the corporate is “constructing out particular options for GCCs, hiring new GCC management underneath Sahil (Dhawan), and dealing on options that go all the way in which from construct, function and switch to… supplementing them on their variable capability.”

To assist this technique, Tech Mahindra launched a devoted consulting arm, TechM Consulting, on 4 November 2024. It additionally rolled out its revamped GCC providing, the ‘SST Next-Gen GCC Offering’, on 1 April this yr, in accordance with two inner memos seen by Mint.

These initiatives fall underneath the broader Strategic Solutioning and Transformation (SST) staff, which Joshi introduced as a part of a three-year roadmap to enhance profitability and income progress. The SST staff will give attention to massive offers and work throughout all of Tech Mahindra’s {industry} verticals.

Also learn | The boutique consulting firms powering India’s next GCC boom

Tech Mahindra’s pivot comes at a time when the corporate is underneath strain to revive progress. The agency reported $6.26 billion in income for the fiscal yr ended March 2025, marking a second straight yr of decline, and a 0.21% drop from the earlier yr.

“We anticipate Jha to convey a recent perspective on how we will work with GCCs,” mentioned the particular person cited earlier. “The firm is present process structural modifications in the way it approaches this enterprise, and this can be a key transfer in that route.”