Read the Conversation
Meeting Highlights:
- Strong Foundation for Long-Term Operations: BCCI’s first year focused on building a strong and sustainable foundation, stabilizing operations, integrating new talent into Biogen’s mission, and establishing a clear goal of value creation across all functions, with ambitious plans to double headcount within the next year.
- Shift from Cost Optimization to Value Creation: BCCI is transforming into a strategic technology delivery engine for Biogen, with a strong emphasis on execution maturity, operational efficiency, and an innovation-driven culture. The center is focused on accelerating digital transformation, leveraging automation, data science, and AI to drive impactful outcomes.
- Attracting Talent: Through strategic partnerships and branding efforts, Biogen is strengthening its presence in India, building trust on the pillars of purpose, growth, and flexibility, while also driving diversity and inclusion through a remote work framework that has helped attract more women to the company.
- India’s Emergence as a Global Capability Center (GCC) Hub: India is becoming the GCC capital of the world, presenting key opportunities in biotech R&D, clinical trials, and commercial applications. India is creating numerous opportunities through government-led healthcare expansion and a growing insurance ecosystem in an untapped market.
- Future Goals: BCCI is looking forward to shifting from supporting Biogen’s global mission to driving it, unlocking India’s innovation potential and skilled workforce to shape the future of neuroscience and biotechnology on a global level.
EF: What attracted you to your current position, and what mission did you set for yourself? Why is India such a strategic place for Biogen?
SB: Biogen’s strong focus on improving patients’ lives through science resonated with me, offering an opportunity to contribute to meaningful healthcare advancements. In my last 10 years with Biogen, I had the opportunity to enable technologies to support patients as they navigated the complexities of the US healthcare system to access their medications. This experience reinforced that as a career evolves, success becomes less about the role itself and more about the impact we make.
Establishing Biogen Capability Center India is an important step in the company’s transformation journey. India’s rich talent pool, coupled with Biogen’s focus on nurturing diverse, skilled teams, presented a compelling platform to build a world-class capability center and inspired me to return to India. As the inaugural head of the BCCI, the opportunity to shape BCCI’s evolution into a strategic technology and innovation hub presented an exciting leadership challenge. I’m excited to drive this transformation, scaling operations, building high-performing teams, and enhancing execution maturity.
In 2023, we laid the foundation and core infrastructure of the organization, and by 2024, we were fully operational with our teams onboarded. My focus has been twofold: ensuring a strong, sustainable foundation for long-term growth and integrating our talented team into Biogen’s culture while building trust with global stakeholders.
Looking ahead to 2025, we plan to scale further by integrating advanced technology capabilities to enhance support across the value chain. While cost efficiency is important, our real goal is to drive strategic value and innovation. We recognize that this evolution takes time—but our global leadership team and I are committed to giving this organization the time to learn, grow, and deliver real impact. We’re on the right path—we just need to stay focused and keep executing.
EF: What is your step plan for tapping into the opportunities that India is giving you? Where do you see growth opportunities, especially regarding data management?
SB: Right now, our GCC is primarily focused on technology. We started with core enterprise capabilities like data analytics, data science, integration, and automation. Now that we've built a strong team and developed our capabilities, we're ready for the next step: focusing on business-facing technologies. We plan to bring core development in-house and fully own our platforms. This transition will span R&D, manufacturing, and commercial applications, with our India center leading the way—building capabilities, managing systems, and driving platform development. Ultimately, this approach will steer us toward real value generation.
Another major focus has been data science. With AI transforming the industry, we set out from day one to build a strong data science team in India. But innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum—it needs a clear purpose. So far, our team has played a key role in executing AI strategies, and I’m now seeing them take the lead on new ideas and drive innovation, which is a promising sign.
The possibilities with AI are endless. It’s reshaping everything from drug discovery and development to accelerating diagnoses, streamlining clinical trials, and improving commercialization. In such a complex healthcare system, understanding patient needs is critical. We’re focused on equipping our customer-facing teams with the right tools and insights to better support patients and stakeholders.
Our India team is already driving these strategies, and as they gain more experience and confidence, they’ll start contributing their own ideas. That’s when we move beyond cost efficiency and into meaningful value creation. It’s a journey, and we’re committed to supporting the team as they grow and evolve.
EF: Can you tell us more about your talent strategy? How do you attract the best and the brightest? What Biogen is looking for in the competitive Indian market?
SB: India is a talent-rich yet highly competitive market, so it’s crucial to understand where we stand. Biogen isn’t an established brand in India. We recognize that achieving our goals requires proactive effort rather than relying on organic brand recognition. Unlike the established GCC and IT service companies in India that can scale rapidly with mature systems and dedicated support teams, our growth trajectory is quite different.
For talent acquisition, we partner with organizations that have a broader reach than we do. We carefully vet these partners to ensure they align with our mission, knowing they can often source talent more effectively than we could alone. Once we bring people on board, our strategy revolves around three key pillars: purpose, growth, and flexibility.
Today’s workforce in India values purpose—they want to know why their work matters. There’s nothing more fulfilling than contributing to something that changes lives, and we emphasize Biogen’s mission to create that connection. Growth isn’t always about climbing the corporate ladder; it’s about expanding skill sets. As we build next-generation capabilities, we provide cross-functional learning opportunities and clear career paths for horizontal and vertical growth. Flexibility is another key priority. We’ve introduced a remote-first model for our India Capability Center, with headquarters in Bangalore but hiring talent from across India. This approach not only gives us access to a diverse talent pool but also helps bring more women into the workforce. Currently, women make up about 32-35% of our workforce, with 33% of leadership roles held by women.
EF: If India were to have a new nickname that goes beyond "Pharmacy of the World," what would it be—one that best reflects the country's direction over the next 5–10 years?
SB: India has earned several prestigious titles, most notably the "Pharmacy of the World," thanks to its leadership in generics and vaccine manufacturing. While this reputation remains strong, the country has rapidly emerged as the global capital for Capability Centers (GCCs). The number of GCCs has surged to around 1,700 and is projected to reach nearly 2,500 within the next five years—a remarkable trajectory. Even companies without a commercial presence in India are establishing centers here, a testament to the country’s immense talent potential.
Biotech is another sector in which India is making significant strides, with strong government support fueling its growth. Through dedicated biotech initiatives and collaboration with educational institutions, authorities are actively preparing the next generation of talent. The conversation is shifting from cost advantages to talent-driven innovation, and as long as India continues to supply skilled professionals, companies will keep investing.
AI is yet another frontier where India is leading, backed by a vast, highly educated workforce. The opportunities in data science and AI are enormous, particularly in biotech. India now has over 5,000 biotech startups—an astonishing number. These startups not only have the potential to scale independently but also to collaborate with global companies like ours.
Beyond startups, India is well-positioned to contribute across the entire biotech value chain. The country offers a unique advantage for clinical trials, making it an attractive destination for research and development.
With its growing GCC presence and biotech advancements, India is poised to become a global hub for innovation. This is an exciting moment, especially as biotech emerges as the next frontier in medicine—India is well-positioned to lead the way.
EF: When you celebrated your first anniversary in India, what were you most proud of achieving?
SB: I take the most pride in the strong foundation we’ve built. From day one, our goal was to create something meaningful and lasting, and we’ve set the stage for Biogen to play a key role in the industry.
A significant milestone has been earning the confidence of our global stakeholders. Initially, there were doubts about whether a team located so far from our core operations could make a meaningful impact. However, within a year, that perception has completely changed—today, stakeholders proactively engage with us, eager to collaborate.
But above all, I’m most proud of our people. We’ve built a motivated and engaged team, and the best validation of that is being named a Great Place to Work within just one year. That recognition isn’t just an award—it reflects the strong culture we’ve created and the energy that drives our success.
EF: What message would you like to share with the industry?
SB: We’re in this for the long run. This isn’t about rapid expansion—it’s about sustainable, organic growth. While we continue to support Biogen’s global needs, our vision is to move beyond technology and contribute across the full value chain. We have the talent and capabilities to do so, and in the next three to five years, our India center will play an even more strategic role in Biogen’s global operations.
