European CoE Location Strategy: Shifting a Client from Poland to India

Nilam joined a lean three-person team advising a European luxury fashion brand on where to establish its Centre of Excellence. The client's initial hypothesis pointed toward Poland, where they believed talent availability, cost structure, and regulatory conditions were favorable.

Nilam owned two workstreams. She led the talent availability analysis across the candidate European locations, and she ran the stakeholder workshops with local finance teams, accounting teams, and end users across the company's existing European entities.

The talent analysis was structured across three levels. At the ground level, she spoke directly with employees to understand salary structures, benefits, and retention dynamics. At the management level, she gathered perspectives on retention challenges and workforce demands. At the country level, she assessed regulatory frameworks governing employment and workforce flexibility.

She also facilitated workshops with finance and accounting heads across multiple European locations to capture current-state process challenges and future-state requirements, feeding into the broader business case.

The research shifted the recommendation. Despite the client's initial preference for Poland, the analysis showed that India offered a materially better cost-benefit profile, stronger talent availability, and an improving regulatory environment. The client accepted the recommendation and moved forward with an India-based Centre of Excellence.