From term sheet to first 100 FTEs in 180 days: a week-by-week GCC setup playbook for Pune and Bangalore

TL;DR

A 100 FTE GCC in Pune or Bangalore is achievable in 26 weeks (180 days) from term sheet to live operations, with a 95% probability if four decisions are made by week 4: legal entity vs managed model, anchor leadership hire, real estate anchor and IT stack. Miss any of the four and the timeline slips by an average of 11 weeks. This is the week by week playbook, distilled from 18 builds we ran or advised on between 2023 and 2026.

Setting up a GCC in India is not technically hard. There are 14 things that have to happen in roughly the right order, and roughly 30 supporting workstreams. The hard part is that almost every parent organisation starts the workstreams in the wrong order, sequences hiring before leadership, signs real estate before knowing seat count, and discovers in month four that IT decisions made in month one were wrong. The playbook below is the order that works.

Weeks 1 to 2: convergence and the four foundation decisions

• Week 1: term sheet signed with setup partner, project charter approved by parent CXO, joint steering committee constituted
• Week 2: four foundation decisions made: (a) Direct vs BOT vs GaaS model, (b) target city (Pune or Bangalore), (c) leadership profile and search firm engaged, (d) draft IT and security model agreed with parent CIO and CISO

Weeks 3 to 4: entity and real estate kickoff (parallel tracks)

• Week 3: if Direct model, file ROC for entity incorporation; if BOT or GaaS, partner entity activated. Bank account application initiated. Statutory registrations (PF, ESI, GST, PT, Shops and Establishment) filed in parallel.
• Week 4: real estate shortlist (3 to 5 options) walked with parent. LOI on shortlisted option. Fit out partner shortlisted. Capacity model finalised (seat count, growth buffer).

Weeks 5 to 8: leadership and architecture

• Week 5: GCC Head shortlist (3 candidates) presented. Parent CXO interviews scheduled.
• Week 6: GCC Head offer rolled. Notice period typically 60 to 90 days, so this person joins in week 14 to 16. Critical to lock by week 6 or the entire plan slips.
• Week 7: real estate signed. Fit out partner mobilised. IT, network and security architecture frozen with parent CISO.
• Week 8: HR Business Partner and Finance Controller offers rolled. These are the two roles you need before GCC Head joins, to hold the fort.

Weeks 9 to 12: hiring engine starts, fit out underway

• Week 9: function leads (3 to 4) shortlist presented. Hiring partners (RPO and search) onboarded.
• Week 10: function lead offers rolled. Office fit out at 30%.
• Week 11: first batch of mid-level managers (8 to 10) shortlisted. Statutory registrations confirmed live.
• Week 12: first 5 to 8 mid-level managers offered. IT infrastructure procurement complete. Office fit out at 60%.

Weeks 13 to 16: critical mass build

• Week 13: GCC Head joins. First all-hands with parent CXO via video.
• Week 14: function leads join (subject to notice period). Office fit out at 90%.
• Week 15: first mid-level managers join. Office handed over and security cleared.
• Week 16: office go-live. First 15 to 20 FTEs in seats. Knowledge transfer from parent begins.

Weeks 17 to 22: scale hiring against go-live

• Week 17 to 18: hiring velocity ramps to 8 to 12 offers per week. Analyst layer build begins.
• Week 19 to 20: 50 FTEs in seat. First parent process taken live (typically a low risk, repeatable workflow).
• Week 21 to 22: 70 to 80 FTEs in seat. Second and third parent processes go live.

Weeks 23 to 26: stabilise and certify

• Week 23 to 24: 90 plus FTEs in seat. SOC 2 or equivalent audit kicked off. Business continuity drills.
• Week 25: 100 FTEs in seat. Quarterly business review with parent CXO.
• Week 26: go-live certificate issued. Operating cadence transitioned to steady state governance.

The four decisions that decide whether you ship

• Operating model (Direct, BOT, GaaS): if undecided past week 4, the entire entity and IT track stalls
• GCC Head profile and offer: if not locked by week 6 with a sub-90 day notice period, plan a 60 to 90 day slip
• Real estate anchor: if shortlist not walked by week 4, fit out compresses and quality suffers
• IT and security architecture: if parent CISO has not signed off by week 8, statutory go-live cannot proceed

The five most common reasons GCCs miss the 180 day target

• Parent legal review of MSA takes 8 to 12 weeks because of unfamiliar Indian clauses (set up parallel India legal review in week 1)
• GCC Head profile is too senior or too parent country specific, narrowing the pool (hire from the Indian GCC pool, not from the parent country)
• Real estate negotiated for too low a seat count, requiring a second move at month 9
• IT model assumes parent VPN to every laptop, which Indian last mile bandwidth cannot support reliably for 100 FTEs (use a virtual desktop or zero trust model)
• Hiring velocity not staged: trying to hire 100 in 8 weeks burns recruiters out and drops offer-to-join ratios below 60%

Pune specific accelerators

• Hinjawadi and Kharadi have ready-to-occupy Grade A inventory that compresses fit out to 8 weeks
• Maharashtra single window for GCC entities above 200 FTE can close statutory registrations in 21 days
• Lower attrition means lower offer-to-join slippage, which protects the hiring timeline

Bangalore specific accelerators

• Deeper leadership pool means GCC Head shortlists arrive 2 weeks faster
• Mature vendor ecosystem (RPO, IT, fit out) reduces ramp friction
• Higher attrition means you must over-offer by 15 to 20% to net the target headcount

What to do this week if you are at term sheet

Lock the four foundation decisions in two CXO meetings (not five). Engage your setup partner on a fixed fee basis, not time and material, so their incentive matches yours. Insist on a weekly steering review with traffic light reporting on the four critical paths. If you would like our 26 week Gantt template populated with vendor and statutory dependencies, request it via the enquiry form on this page.