Context
Over a five-year period, the organization’s India Digital Hub (IDH) scaled rapidly—from a small delivery team to a multi-hundred-person operation supporting digital products, shared services, centers of excellence, and business units globally. Despite this growth and strong execution capability, leadership recognized a growing disconnect.
While IDH was delivering reliably, it was not being consistently perceived as a strategic asset within the enterprise. Decision rights remained centralized, innovation was fragmented, and reporting emphasized operational health rather than enterprise impact. Leaders within IDH expressed a clear aspiration to move beyond “order-taking,” but lacked a shared narrative, visible ownership against enterprise priorities, and structured global sponsorship. The inflection point was clear:
Scale and execution maturity alone were no longer sufficient to secure long-term relevance or influence.
The Challenge
Three interconnected gaps had begun to constrain IDH’s evolution:
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Narrative Gap: The story of IDH was operationally sound but strategically underwhelming—focused on activities, not outcomes aligned to enterprise goals.
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Ownership & Empowerment Gap: Governance and decision rights were centralized, limiting speed, accountability, and leadership confidence.
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Visibility & Influence Gap: Innovation, capability building, and stakeholder engagement existed in pockets but were not systematized or made visible at an enterprise level.
Leadership needed a reset—one that reframed IDH’s role not as a cost-efficient delivery arm, but as a capability hub aligned to the company’s long-term digital and business strategy.
The Intervention: Leadership-Led Narrative and Strategy Reset
A practitioner-led leadership workshop was designed to help the IDH leadership team rewrite its story—from the inside out.
The intervention combined three elements:
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Enterprise Context & Strategic Tie-In Leaders were grounded in the organization’s six long-term enterprise priorities through 2029, including customer centricity, digital growth, aftermarket differentiation, sustainability, margin expansion, and modern digital foundations. The explicit question posed was: “Where does IDH meaningfully contribute to each of these—and how is that visible today?”
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Candid Leadership Diagnosis Pre-work included one-on-one interviews with key leaders across India and global teams. These surfaced hard truths: strong technical depth and commitment, but weak strategic articulation; high delivery credibility, but low enterprise influence; and innovation energy that lacked structure, funding, and sponsorship.
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Narrative Re-Authoring Exercise Leadership teams were asked to critically evaluate the existing IDH pitch and re-write it as if presenting to senior enterprise stakeholders. The focus shifted from “what we do” to “what we enable”, from headcount growth to capability creation, and from internal metrics to business outcomes.
Key Insights
The leadership engagement surfaced several defining insights:
- Execution strength was high, but under-leveraged because it was not framed against enterprise priorities.
- Innovation existed, but in silos, often showcased during executive visits rather than embedded in operating rhythm.
- Reporting lacked strategic storytelling, making IDH appear as a function being measured, not a contributor shaping outcomes.
- Stakeholder engagement was tactical, resulting in mixed perceptions and limited advocacy at senior levels.
- There was a strong appetite for growth and relevance among IDH leaders, coupled with frustration around limited empowerment.
These insights created the foundation for a clear call to action.
The Shift: From Delivery Metrics to Enterprise Value
The leadership team aligned on a future state where IDH would operate as a strategic capability platform, not just a delivery center. Key elements of this shift included:
- Aligning IDH contributions explicitly to each of the six enterprise strategic pillars
- Institutionalizing value-based reporting, translating delivery metrics into business impact narratives
- Creating structured mechanisms for innovation tracking, funding, and reuse
- Establishing a stakeholder engagement framework to actively manage trust, influence, and sponsorship
- Elevating leadership visibility through India-led reporting, enterprise forums, and global planning participation
This was not positioned as a transformation program imposed externally, but as a co-owned trajectory—requiring local ownership in India and active global sponsorship.
Outcome
The engagement culminated in a reframed IDH narrative and a clear transformation roadmap:
- A unified articulation of IDH’s role as a capability hub aligned to enterprise growth, not a cost center
- Clear next steps to embed strategic reporting, innovation visibility, and stakeholder engagement
- Leadership alignment around empowerment, accountability, and enterprise relevance
- A renewed sense of confidence and purpose among IDH leaders to shape—not just support—the digital agenda
Most importantly, the conversation shifted from “How big is IDH?” to “Why does IDH matter?”
Why This Case Matters
This case illustrates a challenge common to many scaled digital hubs and GCCs: execution maturity without strategic visibility eventually caps impact. Through a leadership-led narrative reset, the organization was able to reconnect capability, ambition, and enterprise relevance.
It reinforces a critical lesson for global enterprises:
The future of digital hubs is not defined by cost, size, or activity—but by trust, ownership, and demonstrated value against enterprise strategy.
About Bridgepath:
Bridgepath Innovations is a practitioner-led advisory firm specializing in Global Capability Center (GCC) strategy and transformation. We help enterprises design, build, and scale high-impact centers that go beyond cost to deliver innovation, capability, and strategic value. Our approach is grounded in real-world execution, not theory — enabling organizations to unlock the full potential of their global talent ecosystems (https://www.bridgepathinnov.com)