Your India Center Exists. It Is Not Working.
High attrition, unsustainable compensation, no operational infrastructure, knowledge trapped in two people's heads. You built the entity, hired the team, opened the office. Now it needs to actually work. We come in, diagnose the problems, fix the foundation, and build the operational engine you were promised.
Trusted by industry leaders
Six Signs Your India Operation Has a Foundation Problem
These problems do not fix themselves. They compound. If three or more describe your situation, the foundation needs work before you scale further.
Attrition Is Eating Your Investment
You are hiring at market rate or above, but people keep leaving within 12-18 months. Each departure takes institutional knowledge with it. You are paying to train the same roles repeatedly.
Compensation Is Unsustainable
You are offering 40-80% above market to attract talent, and it still feels like you are losing the bidding war. The cost advantage that justified India in the first place is eroding.
Knowledge Lives in Two People's Heads
If your India site lead and one senior engineer both left tomorrow, you would lose 80% of the operational context. Nothing is documented. Nothing is transferable.
US and India Operate as Two Companies
The India team builds what they are told. They do not challenge, do not contribute ideas, and do not feel like part of the company. The cultural integration never happened.
Compliance Is a Spreadsheet, Not a System
PF filings, ESI, professional tax, POSH training, Shops and Establishments. You know these things need to happen. You are not confident they are happening correctly.
You Cannot Show ROI
Leadership asks what the India center is delivering, and the best you can do is point to headcount and cost per seat. There is no story about capability, quality improvement, or strategic value.
From Diagnosis to Operating Rhythm
This is not a six-month consulting engagement that produces a 200-page deck. We assess in weeks, build a fix plan, and execute. You see operational changes within 60 days.
GCC Operating Assessment (Weeks 1-3)
We spend time on-site and with your US leadership. We audit: org structure and reporting lines, compensation vs. market benchmarks, attrition patterns and exit interview data, compliance posture across all statutory requirements, HR and payroll processes, IT infrastructure and security, cultural integration practices, and leadership pipeline. The output is a scored assessment across 8 dimensions with a prioritized fix plan. Not a deck. An action plan. We also assess your center's AI readiness: whether your operations are structured to adopt AI tooling, or whether process debt and knowledge silos will block it.
Quick Wins (Weeks 3-6)
There are always things that can be fixed immediately: compliance gaps, payroll errors, missing documentation, broken onboarding, compensation band misalignment. We fix these first because they build credibility with your India team and demonstrate progress to your US leadership.
Structural Fixes (Months 2-4)
The harder work: restructuring the org if it is top-heavy or missing layers, rebuilding the hiring process to stop overpaying for talent, implementing proper HR and compliance infrastructure, building documentation and knowledge management systems, designing retention programs that do not depend on compensation alone.
Operating Rhythm (Months 3-6)
An India center that works has a rhythm: monthly business reviews, quarterly planning, regular town halls, manager development cycles, structured 1:1s, performance management, and clear escalation paths. We install the operating system, then coach your India leadership to run it.
Expansion Readiness (Month 6+)
Once the foundation is solid, scaling becomes straightforward. Add a second city through our COPO model. Expand into new functions. Grow headcount without growing problems. This is where the original promise of India operations starts to deliver.
GCC Operating Assessment (Weeks 1-3)
We spend time on-site and with your US leadership. We audit: org structure and reporting lines, compensation vs. market benchmarks, attrition patterns and exit interview data, compliance posture across all statutory requirements, HR and payroll processes, IT infrastructure and security, cultural integration practices, and leadership pipeline. The output is a scored assessment across 8 dimensions with a prioritized fix plan. Not a deck. An action plan. We also assess your center's AI readiness: whether your operations are structured to adopt AI tooling, or whether process debt and knowledge silos will block it.
Quick Wins (Weeks 3-6)
There are always things that can be fixed immediately: compliance gaps, payroll errors, missing documentation, broken onboarding, compensation band misalignment. We fix these first because they build credibility with your India team and demonstrate progress to your US leadership.
Structural Fixes (Months 2-4)
The harder work: restructuring the org if it is top-heavy or missing layers, rebuilding the hiring process to stop overpaying for talent, implementing proper HR and compliance infrastructure, building documentation and knowledge management systems, designing retention programs that do not depend on compensation alone.
Operating Rhythm (Months 3-6)
An India center that works has a rhythm: monthly business reviews, quarterly planning, regular town halls, manager development cycles, structured 1:1s, performance management, and clear escalation paths. We install the operating system, then coach your India leadership to run it.
Expansion Readiness (Month 6+)
Once the foundation is solid, scaling becomes straightforward. Add a second city through our COPO model. Expand into new functions. Grow headcount without growing problems. This is where the original promise of India operations starts to deliver.
You Do Not Need to Start Over
Companies often assume that if the India operation is not working, the answer is to shut it down or switch vendors. That is usually the most expensive option.
12-18 months to rebuild from scratch. New entity, new team, new systems, new institutional knowledge.
3-6 months to stabilize operations and install the operating infrastructure that was missing from the start.
Full setup costs again, plus the sunk cost of everything you already built. Knowledge destruction is the hidden expense.
Targeted investment in the gaps. You keep your entity, your team, and the institutional knowledge they have already built.
Gone. Every process, every workaround, every client-specific insight your team learned walks out the door.
Preserved and structured. We document what your team already knows and build systems so it does not depend on individual people.
This Service Fits If
You have an India entity and team but the operation is underperforming against the original business case.
You set up through a vendor and now want to bring operations in-house, but the transition is stalled or failing.
Attrition is above 25% and you cannot identify a single structural cause.
Your India center has grown past 50 people but still operates like a 10-person team: no management layer, no processes, no operating rhythm.
A new Head of India or CTO has been hired and needs a partner to rebuild the foundation without losing the existing team.
You are a PE operating partner evaluating a portfolio company's India operations and need an independent assessment.
A Financial Services Firm Turned 30% Attrition into a Stable 100-Person Center
A US-based financial services company had an India operation with 60 people, 30% annual attrition, and no HR infrastructure. Compensation was 50% above market but retention was getting worse, not better. There was no India-based leadership, and every decision routed through the US.
Reliable Group conducted a 3-week operating assessment, identified 14 structural issues, and prioritized 5 for immediate action: compensation band restructuring, onboarding redesign, compliance infrastructure build, management layer hiring, and documentation of tribal knowledge. Within 4 months, attrition dropped below 15%. Within 8 months, the center had grown to 100 people with two India-based managers running day-to-day operations.
Three Ways to Start
GCC Operating Assessment
Standalone diagnostic. On-site + remote.
- Scored assessment across 8 operational dimensions
- Prioritized action plan with 30/60/90-day milestones
- Compensation benchmarking against current market data
- Compliance gap analysis
Best for: Companies that want an independent assessment before committing to a fix plan.
Foundation Rebuild
Full engagement. Assessment + execution.
- Everything in the assessment, plus hands-on implementation
- HR and compliance infrastructure build
- Org restructure and management hiring
- Operating rhythm installation (reviews, planning, performance management)
- Knowledge documentation and process standardization
Best for: Companies that know the foundation is broken and want it fixed.
Advisory Retainer
Post-stabilization support.
- Monthly operating reviews and coaching for India leadership
- Quarterly talent market intelligence and compensation benchmarking
- On-call support for escalations, compliance questions, and growth planning
- Access to RG's India infrastructure for expansion (COPO for second city, additional functions)
Best for: Companies that have stabilized and want a trusted partner for the next phase.
Frequently Asked Questions
If three or more of these describe your situation, the foundation needs work: attrition above 25%, compensation 40-80% above market, knowledge concentrated in two or three people, India and US teams operating as separate companies, compliance managed on spreadsheets, or inability to demonstrate ROI to leadership.
The assessment takes 3 weeks, including on-site time in India and sessions with your US leadership. The output is a scored assessment across 8 operational dimensions with a prioritized action plan. Structural fixes are typically completed within 3-6 months.
Almost always better to fix. Starting over means 12-18 months to rebuild, full setup costs again, and total destruction of the institutional knowledge your team has already built. Fixing the foundation preserves your entity, your team, and their knowledge while addressing the structural problems in 3-6 months.
Compensation restructuring, onboarding redesign, compliance infrastructure build, management layer hiring, documentation of tribal knowledge, and installation of an operating rhythm: monthly business reviews, quarterly planning, performance management, structured escalation paths.
When This Service Is the Right Call
And when it is not. We would rather scope out than scope around.
Best fit
- You inherited an India centre in a transaction and need an independent read on what you actually own.
- The centre has been running for years and the cost story no longer improves.
- You suspect the vendor or the partner holds capability you thought you owned, and want that tested rather than debated.
- A board or sponsor has asked a question about the centre that the current reporting cannot answer.
Not a fit
- You have already decided to replace the incumbent and want a document to justify it. We will report what we find, which may not be that.
- You need execution capacity rather than a diagnosis. Scale and Transform, or a managed-service engagement, is the right entry.
- No one will give us access to the people doing the work. A diagnostic built only from management interviews is worth very little.
- The centre is under three months old. There is not enough operating history to assess.
Process and Responsibilities
Every line below is either yours or ours. Nothing is left to be assumed at kickoff.
| Activity | Your company | Reliable Group |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnostic scope | Agrees the functions, the sites and the questions to answer. | Proposes the scope and states what a given scope can and cannot conclude. |
| Evidence access | Provides access to people, process documentation, metrics, contracts and the incumbent relationship. | Reviews it, and reports where evidence was unavailable rather than inferring around the gap. |
| Assessment | Participates in validation sessions. | Assesses against defined dimensions and shows the scoring, so you can disagree with a specific score rather than the conclusion. |
| Improvement plan | Decides what to act on and owns the decisions. | Sequences the interventions by effort and effect, and names what would have to be true for each to work. |
| Execution | Chooses whether we execute, you execute, or a third party does. | Advisory ends at the plan. Execution is a separate engagement on separate terms, and we will say so rather than blur the two. |
What You Receive, and How Often
- Diagnostic scope statement
- What was in scope, what was not, and what the exclusions mean for the confidence of the findings. Written before the work starts.
- Evidence reviewed
- The documents, systems, metrics and interviews the assessment rests on, listed. Plus what we asked for and did not receive, which is often the finding.
- Assessment against dimensions
- Ownership and control, process maturity, management capability, talent and retention, governance and reporting, technology and data, and cost structure. Each scored against stated criteria rather than a single overall label.
- Findings with severity
- What is wrong, what it costs, and what happens if it is left alone. Ranked, with the uncomfortable ones included.
- Improvement plan
- Sequenced interventions with effort, expected effect, dependencies and a named owner for each. Written so another provider could execute it.
- Advisory versus execution
- The plan is an independent deliverable. If you engage us to execute, that is scoped and priced separately. If you engage someone else, the plan still works.
What Can Move a Date
Timing on this work depends on things neither of us fully controls. Naming them up front is how a plan survives contact with reality.
We report the stage we find against defined dimensions, with the scoring shown. We do not promise a move from one maturity level to another as an outcome of the diagnostic, because the diagnostic does not move it; the work that follows does.
Your India Operation Deserves Better Than What It Is Delivering
Book a 30-minute diagnostic call. We will ask you 10 questions, tell you what we think is wrong, and give you a realistic timeline to fix it. No slide decks. No proposals. Just an honest conversation.