01 · Decision guide
Decide what the centre will own
Describe the capabilities you want in India, the business outcomes they support and who can make decisions locally. Separate launch scope from later ambitions. A centre responsible for product engineering needs different leadership, access and operating arrangements from a team delivering a narrow support process.
- Name the global sponsor, India leadership responsibilities and escalation path.
- Identify the work moving to India and the work staying with existing teams.
- Compare an owned centre with a scoped offshore delivery engagement before choosing the operating model.
02 · Decision guide
Create a readiness and dependency map
Work backwards from the first team’s ability to operate. People need approved roles, hiring ownership, equipment, secure access and onboarding. The workplace needs its own readiness plan. Entity, finance and specialist compliance work should have named professional owners rather than being treated as administrative details.
- Foundation: entity and professional-adviser coordination, agreements and approvals.
- People and place: role sequencing, hiring, workspace, equipment and employee experience.
- Operations: HR processes, finance coordination, systems access, service expectations and reporting.
03 · Decision guide
Budget for the operating model, not just salaries
Build a scenario with explicit assumptions for team size, hiring sequence, leadership, office choices and systems. Include one-time setup and recurring costs separately. Test slower hiring and later readiness: these can change when value arrives. Use current quotations and professional advice for local obligations; this guide is not a legal or tax checklist.
- One-time: setup advice, recruitment, workplace readiness, equipment and system implementation.
- Recurring: compensation, facilities, platforms, management, professional support and operating services.
- Uncertainty: hiring delays, rework, parallel operations and exchange-rate assumptions.
04 · Decision guide
Launch in increments and govern the transition
A first operating cohort can reveal gaps before the centre grows. Agree what must be ready before each stage, who signs it off and how unresolved dependencies are escalated. Measure quality, delivery and employee readiness alongside headcount.
- Before launch: validate access, support routes, onboarding and ownership with the first team.
- During stabilisation: review hiring, service quality, outstanding risks and dependency changes.
- Before scaling: confirm leadership capacity and repeatable processes, then expand the mandate.
Bring this to the conversation
A brief that makes discovery useful.
Prepare the following at a high level. No confidential records are needed for an initial discussion.
- Business mandate and sponsor
- Capabilities and target team size
- Preferred locations and working-hour overlap
- Launch assumptions and existing India presence
- Professional partners, systems and ownership gaps
Experience and product fit
Explore the work behind the approach.
India LaunchPad is ACV’s service for coordinating the setup journey. GCC Vector supports exploration and planning; Conduit for GCC offers GCC Head and CHRO product journeys. Product use and service delivery are scoped separately, so you can choose the support that fits your stage.