Hi {{firstname|everyone}},
One pattern I keep seeing with multi-site businesses is that EBITDA does not collapse overnight. It erodes quietly.
A new site opens. A few local hires feel necessary. Finance support grows slightly to keep things running smoothly. Reporting becomes a bit more customised for each location. None of it feels wrong in the moment.
But a year or two later, the business is bigger and somehow less profitable. And EBITDA is thinner than anyone expected, even though revenue looks healthy.
When I sit with leadership teams at this stage, the problem is rarely the front line. It is almost always the back office.
This is where GCCs get misunderstood. Too often they are pitched as a cost play. I see them differently. Done well, a GCC is one of the cleanest ways to protect margins while continuing to grow, without asking more from the people who actually deliver the service.
1. Stopping Margin Leakage in Finance
Most leadership teams don’t wake up one day and decide to bloat their finance function.
What actually happens is quieter. Each site hires someone “just to keep things moving”. Reporting gets tweaked locally because head office feels too far away. A few controls get duplicated because it feels safer that way.
But step back, and you realise something uncomfortable. The same work is being done multiple times, in slightly different ways, by people who are all trying to do the right thing. This is where EBITDA starts leaking.
In fact, organisations with decentralised finance functions spend up to 40% more time on reconciliations and close activities than those with centralised processes.
When finance work is centralised into a GCC, the real benefit is not lower cost per head. It is clarity. And once that clarity exists, leadership conversations change. You stop debating data and start debating decisions.
What this looks like in practice:
Transaction processing and reconciliations move out of the sites and into a central team that does nothing else
Month end follows one cadence, not a different one for every location
Local leaders stay involved in understanding performance, not producing the numbers
2. When Duplication Hurts Control
I often hear leaders say they keep finance support close to the sites because it gives them comfort. They feel more in control when people sit nearby and can respond quickly.
Benchmark data shows that up to 60% of accounting rework is caused by inconsistent or duplicated processes across teams.
When responsibility is spread across locations, ownership gets diluted. Everyone is responsible for a part of the process, but no one truly owns the outcome. Errors get fixed, but root causes rarely get addressed. Over time, this creates rework, confusion, and quiet frustration.
A GCC changes this dynamic when it is built around ownership rather than tasks. Instead of five people doing twenty percent of a process, one team owns it end to end. They improve quality. They take pride in the output because it is clearly theirs.
This is when duplication disappears naturally, without heavy handed cost cutting.
What this looks like in practice:
Processes are designed once and executed the same way across all sites
Clear ownership sits with the GCC for outcomes, not just activities
Leadership knows exactly where to go when something breaks or needs improving
3. Protecting EBITDA as You Scale
The moment EBITDA comes under pressure, most businesses instinctively look at the frontline. Can we squeeze productivity. Can we do more with fewer people. Can we slow hiring. That is understandable, but it is also risky.
70% of operational leaders say back-office interruptions and admin tasks are one of the biggest drains on frontline performance and morale.
Frontline teams are where value is created. When they are overloaded with reporting, admin, and follow ups, performance drops in ways that do not show up immediately on a P&L.
What I have seen work far better is absorbing complexity away from the frontline.
A well run GCC becomes a shock absorber. It takes on the operational weight that naturally comes with scale so site teams can stay focused on delivery, customers, and growth.
This is how margins improve without morale taking a hit.
What this looks like in practice:
Frontline staff are protected from back-office work that does not require local judgement
The GCC runs as a service engine with clear expectations and response times
Success is measured by reduced distraction at site level, not just cost savings
How Samera Does It
When we build GCCs at Samera, this is the lens we use. Margin protection over cost-reduction and arbitrage.
If your business has grown and EBITDA feels tighter than it should, it is usually a signal that the support structure has not kept pace with complexity.
That is exactly the problem GCCs are meant to solve when they are designed properly.
If this is something you are wrestling with, you can read more about how we approach Global Capability Centres here:
Cheers,
Arun