Context

A global fintech company had a captive tech centre in India. They were primarily an active product delivery organisation for the global parent company. As the centre began developing its R&D capabilities, the CEO recognized the need to reposition it internally. This transformation required building a culture in the Indian division that would shift from pure execution to innovation-driven thinking. The challenge lay in catalysing a culture that encouraged strategic thinking, market awareness, and ownership of the product vision within the existing team structure.

Approach

TAO approach broadly encompassed catalysing a shift in the organisational identity. The senior leadership identified 30 high-potential people across levels and functions to lead this transition. The intervention journey over one year involved extensive personal alignment and role alignment workshops to discover what it would mean to behaviourally shift from an implementation mindset to a market-focused and innovation mindset. Further it involved developing business alignment to bring together the perspective of the client’s customer keeping in mind the technological possibilities. The idea was to bring to focus the critical needs of the end customer that needed designing new product solutions. Throughout the consulting journey, TAO provided coaching support to help navigate difficult conversations with internal stakeholders—both local and global—as the organisation negotiated this identity shift.

Impact

Within a year, the new division got recognised as the innovation hub with new product development getting anchored in India. Team members gained increased opportunities to directly engage with global clients—a significant shift from previous practices. Internally, the organisation's image transformed from "implementers" to strategic partners.