The first decision is not where to build a centre. It is whether the capability should become an owned part of the company at all.
Ownership is more defensible when the work contains strategic intellectual property, institutional knowledge, sensitive decision rights or a long operating horizon. A vendor model may be more responsible when the work is standardised, temporary or peripheral to the company’s advantage.
This decision needs an honest view of leadership commitment. An owned centre eventually asks the client to govern leaders, controls, performance and talent directly. If that commitment is missing, a transfer date does not fix the underlying problem.
A good mandate can therefore end with a decision not to build. That is not lost work. It is the avoidance of a multi-year operating commitment that the company was not ready to own.