Growing global focus on digitisation and innovation will further drive interest in India: Dinesh Deo, Marsh McLennan Global Services India

The Indian global capability centre (GCC) sector has matured and experienced rapid growth over the past two decades and what works well is that they are fully integrated with the wider business. This gives global stakeholders a sense of ownership and accountability for India operations,Dinesh Deo, CEO of Marsh McLennan Global Services India, tells ET in an interview. Edited excerpts:

How integral is India to Marsh McLennan's global strategy?
India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and most market studies have projected that India is one of the fastest growing economies. This optimism is justified as it is created on strong foundations through human capital, technology and the overall government and regulatory climate.


Post the pandemic as the economy continues to grow, insurance is one of the fastest-growing sectors. As an organisation, Marsh McLennan already has a strong presence in India, and we are like a microcosm of the enterprise as we have all our four businesses—Marsh, Guy Carpenter, Mercer and Oliver Wyman—here. We also have a global capability centre that supports our Marsh, Guy Carpenter and Mercer businesses.

We have an extremely diverse, talented and agile team determined to be change makers. We believe the growing global focus on digitisation and innovation through adoption of new-age technology, sustainability and resilience will further drive interest in India in the years to come.

What are your India growth plans?
Over the years, we have emerged as a prominent centre for innovation, encompassing both process and technology-driven advancements. Our capabilities span across operations, technology, knowledge services, legal & compliance, finance & accounting, and consulting. In the coming years, we will further strengthen our existing capabilities in India as well as our centres of excellence across other geographies. We continue to improve efficiencies in transactional operations, which will in turn help us leverage our skilled talent better in areas like knowledge services to deliver more value to our global businesses.

Do you have any plan to expand the workforce in India?
Marsh McLennan in India is more than 10,000 colleagues, the third largest globally. We recently onboarded more than 500 colleagues in Pune to focus on building our insurance broking capabilities in the areas of fiduciary, claims and technical servicing, as well as strengthen our management and leadership capabilities. This workforce expansion is in addition to our centres in Mumbai and Norwich, which have been supporting clients of Marsh UK. It is a testament of the organisation’s commitment to investing in India.

Strengthening the team is an ongoing process and we believe in nurturing our talent to take on bigger roles as the organisation grows. It is also important to have fresh perspectives and experiences. So, whether it is engaging with some of our best campuses or leveraging the skills of colleagues from our diverse talent pool, we continue to up the game with a focus on skills like data analytics/visualisation, hi-end technologists, actuarial and analytics, digital marketing, and sales skills, which are high in demand.